D2 Blades heat treated and cryo'd

rlowery

Active Member
i recently got back 4 D2 blades from heat treating and cryo, 3 were fine. One blade looked like you tried to cut a live 120 volt wire with it. It had a burned out spot about 1/16 x 1/16 in it. I know they had problems with their ovens because they said all of them went out so they had to order parts. This is why it took over 2 weeks to get them back. Does anybody have any ideas or thoughts on what could have happened? I have gotten the burnt spot out but have lots of spots in the finish now. These spots are not the normal D2 orange peels. i have been using the same company to do my heat treating for years and have been using D2 for years all blades had about the same edge thickness and same hollow grind.
I am in the process of building an oven and try it myself any suggestions on a PID would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks,
Rickey
 
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I don't know what might have happened, but I wouldn't sell the one that had the burn in it. Chalk it up to "stuff happens".
 
Is it just a discoloration or is it really a notch burned into the blade? Blue, gray, and rainbow discolorations are pretty normal and can result from air pockets and inconsistent contact in the foil pouch. I wonder if there was a hole in the pouch.

--Nathan
 
Good question, Nathan. Air-hardening steels do indeed have funky oxide colors on them when they come back from HT. In my limited experience, they sand right off.

Does the "burn" go below the surface of the steel? You said the one blade had spots that didn't sand off, that raises big red flags in my mind. I can't really say why that might happen, but it sounds like something less-than-optimal.

It is really a notch burned in the blade. I have never seen this happen before.

OK, you answered my question. No way in heck would I sell that blade. I would beat the livin' snot out of it and see what happens. The HT ppl had an "oops", it happens. Frankly, if I was in a bitchy mood I'd ask the HT firm to get their stuff together and give me credit for future HT. There's a fair chance they'll say, "Sorry, we had a technical difficulty, we fixed it, please keep working with us."
 
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I bet it was a hole in the pouch. I had a hole near the handle end of a d2 blade i did today, got pretty bad decarb near the hole. I bet it would eat the edge up good.
 
Also when two different steels or steel & graphite contact each other at high heat(1500F or higher) they can create what is called a eutectic, superheating & melting/burning both surfaces. I've seen it happen on a BAD day.

Brad
 
Brad I will be sending you my blades from now on. Should have some ready in a month or so, trying to finish new shop. I want to try some cpm-3v. I have been using d2 and ats34 for quite a while, how does the 3v compare as far as edge holding on hunters.
Thanks,
Rickey
 
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