I made my first 20 or so knives out of D2 because my friend who started me knife making recommended it. I have been going 5 years now and have done D2, A2, and 440C. I am waiting on CPM D2, CPM 154, W2 and 1095 from the Aldo Bruno the Steel Baron of New Jersey. I got my 5 gallons of Parks 50 quenching oil and the fun is about to begin!
My friend Dean's Grandfather was a blacksmith. His Father was a PHD metallurgist, and he grew up in his Grandfather's shop. He always used D2 so he sold it to me on the merits that it is a high carbon steel that is almost (almost) stainless. It takes a good edge - not great, but holds it forever. It is very rust resistant for a high carbon steel, and you can beat on it.
I made skinning knives for my friends. My best friend has skinned out a couple dozen deer with his and hasn't sharpened it yet. I use a Benchmade mini Griptillian in 440C. I sharpen it every time I use it. It's fairly obvious the difference is profound.
I tossed a 2nd from my little shop in my tackle bag 5 years ago. It's been in a wet bag in the back of my truck for all these Summers and there are rust spots on it. I think a 1095 knife, by comparison, would be dust by now. The knife has never been sharpened and it has gutted a lot of fish and scales dull knives.
You've got to like the fact that they make commercial cutting tools out of it. It's tried and true.
The Blanchard ground stuff from the supplier has rust spots on it. After it is polished, I've yet to see more than little specks on it, and they clean off with steel wool pretty quick.
A 36 grit belt. This will turn something most people think of as "steel" such as a lawn mower blade to a pile of dust in a very short time. It might take 20 passes to take a 5/32" blank down to a 20/1000th edge for heat treating. It's annealed, but it's still hard!
This is an 80 grit and it will take a while to remove the scratches from the 36 grit. It might be hard to see, but leaving a little beef at the edge and making a secondary bevel is a sturdy way to make a knife someone might need to beat on in an emergency situation.
I made this knife for a kid in my club who does the mountain man reenactments. If he doesn't lose it, it will last him the rest of his life. I made this one 3 years ago, I think, and I haven't gotten it back to sharpen yet!