Tough steel that will cut nails in half?

As Nathan says about D2, I have made knives out of D2 and I have taken a couple that are shaving sharp and cut 16 penny nails with them. Laid the nail on a piece of aluminum plate, held the knife on the nail and gave it a couple wacks with a hammer. 1 had no visible damage, one had a tiny chip. I was just checking things out and do not believe this is in anyway necessary. Interesting test but, very abusive. I would never warranty this.
 
hey... maybe we should come up with a term " necrosteels " for those fancypants overhyped overpriced steels that come and go ....


:D;)

sorry, couldn't help it
 
ib2v4u said:
As Nathan says about D2, I have made knives out of D2 and I have taken a couple that are shaving sharp and cut 16 penny nails with them. Laid the nail on a piece of aluminum plate, held the knife on the nail and gave it a couple wacks with a hammer. 1 had no visible damage, one had a tiny chip.
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I like the idea of suggesting small wire cutter the best. After all, as their name suggests, they are wire cutters.

I have a larger knife in D2, and with all the controversy, I just had to try it out. I chopped through a seasoned, white oak 2X4, then a group of old hardwood firewood branches about 2 inches in diameter, and then as my last non scientific effort, dropped the blade point first into a piece of soft wood from about 5 ft several times.

NO damage whatsoever to the edge, or the point. Even looked at it under a magnifying glass. Nothing. It wasn't as sharp as when I started, but you could easily get by with general camp work/chores just fine with the remaining edge. I thought for sure the hard oak would chip it as you get not only tough wood to cut, but the impact of that really dense, dry wood. I know it sure tears up my wood chisels!

I was really happy with the D2 performance. So happy, I bought another one to put aside for a rainy day.

Robert
 
Im a firm believer in you get what you pay for. Go get some scrap from the scrap yard what ever spend 6 hours making the knife 3 hours on the handle buff it sharpen and then look under the 10x magnifyer to see hair line cracks everywhere from previous stress from what ever the steel had been doing. JMHO Kellyw
 
hellgap said:
Im a firm believer in you get what you pay for. Go get some scrap from the scrap yard what ever spend 6 hours making the knife 3 hours on the handle buff it sharpen and then look under the 10x magnifyer to see hair line cracks everywhere from previous stress from what ever the steel had been doing. JMHO Kellyw
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The cheaper steels don't always perform worse. 1084 and 5160 are both cheap, and they don't come all cracked up.
 
That isnt what I said if you go back and re read my thread . I completely agree there are cheaper good steel s . STAY OUT OF THE SCRAP YARDS , unless you want to forge . Then thats a different thing again.
 
if you can find l6 its some of the toughest out there and holds a wicked edge,
here is a vid of a 1/16in thick scandi knife made of L6 cutting a nail
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RZP0j7HuK1M


cpm 3v is also a good choice my favorite steel for fixed blades atm
s7 is tough but doesnt hold that great of an edge
i hear good things about m4 but dont have any experiance with it
 
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dustfurn said:
What is the "embrittlement region" of 1084?

Thanks,
Dustin
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Fig102_1.gif


Starts at around 480°F (250°C). Most people temper lower so it's not an issue, but sometimes people underharden their blades for extra toughness, and they get the opposite result if they happen to hit an embrittlement region. A lot of steels are actually toughest close to 60 rc.
 
I've cut nails much thicker than 1/8, but using a sledge to drive the blade. I cut lots of 1/4" steel all thread using the same technique, 5160 rc58, A8 mod Rc 56-57, D2 RC 60 plus, also some power hacksaw blade, all with "durable" edge geometry. Chopping is another matter and the way I chop (got vid on youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fcNwCpA6uCU) the A8 mod suffers the least, the 5160 rolls hard and, well D2 is stiff and strong but hard to grind out all those chips, a lot depends on impact angles, impact speed, diameter of target (small diameter wires can do more damage as they are sharp...one day when I was chopping tires with a sword I found out about the hardened wires in the bead)
 
D2 is some tough shit. If you're looking for cheap and indestructible, that'd be my choice. 5160 is a great steel, especially for the cost, but there are several other options I'd look at first. CPM M4 is just about perfect for what you're asking, but a bit out of your price range. S90v might do well as well.

What I'd most likely do however is a hidden tang chopper with one handle from a set of wire cutters welded to the blade as the tang. Just leave the pivot hanging out a few inches past whatever handle material you use and route a slot in the blade side of the handle so the cutters can close and their handles are concealed. A simple leather wrap around it or such will keep them closed until needed.
 
cotdt said:
Fig102_1.gif


Starts at around 480°F (250°C). Most people temper lower so it's not an issue, but sometimes people underharden their blades for extra toughness, and they get the opposite result if they happen to hit an embrittlement region. A lot of steels are actually toughest close to 60 rc.
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Is this a chart specific to 1084 or a general chart showing the embrittlement range of many steels? There are two embrittlement phenomenons that crops up in tempering and there is often much confusion between them. There is TE- “tempering embrittlement” which occurs in richer alloys due to secondary carbide precipitation at temperatures much higher than most of us would ever temper our blades of simpler steels. Then there is TME- “tempered martensite embrittlement”, which occurs in the range indicated on this chart in a range of degrees depending on the alloying. Some steels (such as L6 with moly) have a dip in the curve here due to these effects while many steels merely have a plateau (such as O1) if any change at all. 10XX series steels would be simple enough to not have much concern at all for this tempering range, and 1084 would be simple enough even in carbon content not to cause too much concern.

TME is present in most steels but its effects can be so negligible in many of the steels we work with that there is much worry that may be unnecessary. Each steel chemistry needs to be examined individually for this effect to determine if we need to make appropriate allowances. Yet another reason those of us keen on exact knowledge of chemistries adhere to that position.
 
It's a nail.... made from butter like steel..... Now everyone try and cut a 35 year old rusty nail and come back with your results. :)

5160 that still cuts paper well should do a new clean nail easy.
 
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