Would you buy a pocket knife with D2 steel?

D2 is an awesome steel. It mostly depends on how it is made. I have a few, love em. Even tested some other products for review in D2 and all blew me away.
 
I have one knife in CPMD2
It is a great steel, but I am always fighting rust with it.

 
I have one, a Queen Canoe in D2. Used it hard, never any chipping or rust issues, good edge retention. In my limited experience it will pit before it rusts. Reprofiling can be a chore, unless you have diamond but after that, touch ups are not much of a problem on a regular stone or ceramic. All in all, I think D2 is a good choice for a pocket folder.
 
I don't own one, but I'll second that suggestion- hopefully, it will be my next acquisition (were it not for unfortunate circumstances, it might've been already). I was a bit apprehensive about being able to care for tool steel knife, but 710 is too beautiful to have in any other kind of steel (mind you, when I said I've been apprehensive, what I meant is that I've also been attracted to the idea too, a high chromium content* tool steel for dies, wear resistant- and I know bugger all about sharpening, &c)...

* 12% IIRC- sufficiently to give it much corrosion resistance yet still not enough to get into stainless category; 710 is also to the best of my knowledge CPM D2, which would be 'purest' form of D2, coupled with the fact that Benchmade is supposedly doing wonders with this steel :thumbup:
 
cards94 said:
Would you buy a pocket knife with D2 steel?

I'm unfamilar with this kind of steel but keep reading that it's a little harder to sharpen, and what are your general thoughts on this steel?
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Absolutely. I have a number of them. One of my favorite blade alloys, whether in a traditional pocket knife or a modern one-hander.

Holds an edge very well. Exactly how well depends on what hardness it is given during heat treat. Benchmade and Spyderco tend to run theirs about 61. Queen runs theirs at 58.

Officially, D2 is stainless. But, some of the fellas in Traditional treat it to give it a patina. I leave mine shiny and they remain shiny with a modicum of care.

Like any alloy with carbides, it requires either aluminum oxide stones or diamond stones for reasonable sharpening. As long as you are just sharpening, and not changing the edge bevel angle, D2 is not hard to sharpen if you have the right equipment

Queen used to use really oblique grinds, which meant that you had to change the edge bevel to get good cutting performance. I hear the knives made under the new management are better in this regard, but I have no personal experience with them. I find changing the edge angle of a D2 blade to be a time consuming process, diamond stones or not.
 
I like knives with D2: wish there were more of them around. Does Spyderco has any with D2 blade: i have difficulty coming up with any model, I do not think they made a Mule with D2?
 
I have several knives with CPM-D2, and I don't seem to have the same problems with rust as others have mentioned in this thread. The amount of chromium in D2 is very close to that of stainless. I even tried to acid-etch a Kershaw Rake's 14C28N & CPM-D2 composite blade and the D2 cutting edge was unaffected while the 14C28N started pitting. The CPM-D2 edges on my CB Leek & JYD2 have also held up very well. I have a Horton TAC-4 in CPM-D2 that I carry around and use quite a bit for its sheer bad-assedness, and it doesn't need any thing above and beyond the regular maintenance that I do with my other knives.
 
Definitely. Carrying one right now with that steel.
Almost never needs a touch up.
Keep it dry and it will keep you happy.
 
Absolutely, incredible gifted makers such as Bob Dozier uses D2 all the time and I recently bought the Brous Blades Division Flipper and its made of D2 (acid stonewash) and I've been extremely pleased with it. If done right D2 holds an edge very, very well and is certainly tough enough for anything a knife is meant to be used for. Actually, I've noticed that there seems to be more knives being made with D2 and CPM-D2 lately...its good stuff.

I wipe my non-stainless blades down with A.G. Russell's Rust Free (works fantastic)...one drop per side will cover a good sized fixed blade so the small bottle last forever.

Good luck!
 
I want a knife in D2.

None of the knives on my list are D2, but if I found one I liked in D2, I'd snatch it up if I really liked the knife.
 
Why is that a problem, Hwang? I'm relatively new around here, but I think I've seen you in sharpening discussions, so I guess you're probably more than good at it- is it looks of recurves, or something else?
 
knarfeng said:
Officially, D2 is stainless.
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D2 is not stainless, and it was never meant to be. D2's 11-12% chromium content, along with its rather high carbon content (1.5%, give or take a couple points) is mostly tied up in carbides (for wear-resistance). There's some, but relatively little "free" chrome, which is what allows for passivation to occur and therefore, aids corrosion resistance. Depending on whom you ask, hardenable steels require 13-14% chromium by weight to be considered stainless. There may be exceptions to this rule, but D2 is not one of them.

C_Becker said:
...CPM-D2 is great ... Too bad there aren't more knives made of that steel, I heard it is discontinued ?
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My understanding is that Crucible quit producing CPM-D2 simply because there wasn't enough demand for it. No one but knifemakers really wanted it, and for the price there are several other, even better powder/particle steels available. (for instance CPM-3V, which has similar corrosion- and wear-resistance, but much greater toughness, and which they sell for lots of uses other than just knife blades)
 
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D2 is my favorite knife steel for no other reason than my first serious knife was made with that steel. I've never found it difficult to sharpen or felt that it was overly prone to rust. I now own knives made of many different types of steel and D2 is still my favorite. Not all of that love is rational, but I do find it to be a great, all around steel for a knife blade. :)
 
Have two 710's in D2. Sharp & easy to keep sharp; both have the black blade coating and are wiped down whenever used with Tuff Cloth (they are my EDC). No rust problems. If you use the same minimal maintenance you would use on other non-stainless steels I doubt you would have problems. Also have a couple of queens in D2; one seems to develop isolated pepper spots will probably blue or patina it eventually, not a problem for me.

Tom
 
I've had a couple Ontario RAT 3 knives in D2 that performed quite well. It took a bit to reprofile them from the butter-knife edge geometry it came with but once I got diamond stones and some nicer Congress stones it was easy keeping them very sharp. I had some issues with small rust spots if I neglected them, but nothing like some 1095 or O1 I have.
 
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