Benefiting from 0 2 percent vanadium content w 2 holds an edge well and is reasonably tough.
A2 tool steel knife.
Because a2 is a tool steel it is used for many applications in addition to knife blades.
A2 is a mid range air hardening tool steel it s known for its good toughness its tougher than d2 steel or m2 steel and it has a wear resistance in between o1 steel and d2 it s used for punches and dies chuck jaws cutting tools for woodworking tooling for plastic injection dowel pins hammers industrial knives and gage.
Bark river knives.
This is one of those most ubiquitous steels in knives.
But if my a2 knife has been used at all a quick strop is all it ever needs to maintain a wicked edge.
It has wear resistance intermediate between the oil hardening tool steels o1 and the high carbon chromium tool steels d2.
Good edge retention toughness and sharpenability d2 has been a popular knife tool steel dating back to wwii and for good reason.
With slightly decreased.
Keep your blade oiled as d2 is prone to rusting and corrosion.
Because it offers a combination of good toughness along with moderate wear resistance it has been widely used for many years in variety of cold work applications which require fairly.
O1 is a small step below a2 in terms of blade steel performance.
I have sharpening ocd though and i maintain knife edges.
Often used for combat knives.
A2 has been used in knives for many years because of its ubiquity as a tool steel.
Tougher than d2 but less wear resistant.
It also has decent toughness for a tool steel.
When it comes to steel choices we are fortunate to have a lot of options be it stainless good old tool steels or the new breed of super steels.
I found claims that harry morseth began using a2 in the 1930 s 9 10 but i found this somewhat questionable because a2 would have either been brand new or non existent at that time.
This is one of the most wear resistant tool steels.
Cpm 10v steel cpm stands for crucible particle metallurgy which is a brand name.
This grade can be treated cryogenically to improve edge retention.
A2 is an air hardening medium alloy tool steel which is heat treatable to hrc 60 62.
That means a2 is common easy to get and affordable.