If you’re a real knife fan, you noticed how the D2 steel knife, took over the knife industry, everyone is talking about the “D2 Low-end end knives”, and how effective they are. It’s known to be one of the longer-lasting edge retention steel out of the non-powder steels, that’s at least what’s generally known for and quite a lot of companies have moved towards it. D2  steel is a s a versatile high-carbon, high-chromium, air-hardening tool steel with high hardness capacity and good war resistance, its composed of:

• 1.5% Carbon
• 12% Chromium
• 0.9% Molybdenium
• 1.10% Vanadium
• 0.45% Manganese
• 0.40% Silicon
• 0.03% Phosphorus
• 0.02% Sulfur

As you notice its a high Chromium steel, which provides hardness and high corrosion resistance, it’s almost a stainless steel in the composition properties. The D2, is a tool Steel that offer a good toughness and great hardness with a right edge retention, it has a Rockwell hardness range of 55-62 HRC.

The presence of D2 continues to grow in the knife industry, especially because of their low budget, a lot of superior low budget knives are building their reputation, thanks to the D2 steel they provide high wear resistance and toughness.The D2 steel can match or surpass the famous M2 steel or the S90V Steel, plus of that, it’s widely available and comes with a lower cost, which gives a great advantage to the D2 steel.

In all, we are likely going to see more and more D2 knives on the market. The D2 steel has a high wear resistance, hardness, and good toughness, which make it an excellent choice for knife makers, and if you do a little search on the market (example: go to bladehq.com) you ‘ll find out how cheap are the knives compared to their high quality, but it doesn’t mean that the D2 is better than the high-end steel knives. In the end, it depends on your usage, so the most crucial factor it’s your need in the knife, its basically what the defines if it’s a good or bad knife.