I have stumbled across Royal Custom Knifes a month ago,,,,, these are well made with a near 1/4 thick blade and micarta handles ,,,,,, and the blade is D2 Tool Steel
tell me what you are using it for that would snap the blade in half,,,, at 65 yrs old the worse I have ever done was snap off a couple tips and you can do that with almost any knifeNice looking blades.
I have made three knives from D2. While it holds an edge well it's not very tough (which is why you need a 1/4" thick blade to keep from snapping it in two under heavy use) and is a bear to put a fine edge on.
I have 2 I bought on Ebay,and 1 on Amazon,,, I think they are a good value and it was mentioned they are hard to sharpen,,,, I no longer worry about that,, I picked up a belt sander sharpening rig I now can put an edge on any knife,,,,,,,,You can find those knives on Etsy for around $50-65 dollar range, seems that they are custom made in Plainsville N.Y. and sold exclusively on Etsy. They sell several different skinning knives it seems.
this is what I find on the D2,,,,yes it is not easy to sharpen and you can't toss it in salt water and come back in a year and expect it not to be a little rusty,,,but it shines when it comes to toughness and edge retention and it's HRC is very good,,,, take care of it and it will take care of youThere are much better knife steels than D2 now. This is a recent development because in the last few years there have been a lot of new knife steels developed. Previously knives were made of steel designed for something else (like tool steel or ball bearing steel) but now we have steels designed specifically for knives.
The reason why knife makers like to use D2 is that it is less subject to warpage when heat treated than most other steels, and the dimensions don't change much. But other than that it's not a particularly good knife steel. The only chart where it places in the top half of steels is edge retention. In corrosion resistance and toughness is it down in the bottom half of the charts. Another chart where it would be in the bottom half would be sharpenability.
Three knife steel toughness charts with D2 on each for comparison., one for high carbon low alloy steel, one for high alloy non-stainless steel and one for stainless steel. D2 is at the bottom of all three charts.
I have seen carbon blades turn completely black in a few days simply because they were not wiped clean or left in a sheath that had gotten wet ,,,,, just like anything else if you want it to last you must take care of itCompared to stainless steels (but not carbon steels) that were commonly used just a few years ago for knife making, like 440C, D2 does have decent toughness and excellent edge retention. But that's old information. You hardly ever see knives made from 440C anymore. D2 has better toughness and edge retention than 440C, but worse corrosion resistance. It's corrosion resistance is actually not that bad compared to something like O1, which is what I used back in the 70s for making knives. If you leave some blood on an O1 blade overnight it will pit. Ask me how I know...
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