Home Forums Gear Knives and Blades Opinion of A2?

I haven’t been very active here but looking for opinions from users as opposed to the makers from other groups I belong to. My older brother is a pretty active member around the Campfire and has been beating me up about making knives from stainless. Over my ten plus years of making I’ve made all of my knives from high carbon steels (primarily 1095 and W2). Now that I’ve started making more EDC/Pocket Utility/Pocket Hunter blades, I’ve more interesting in a more stain resistant steel. It just so happens, I have quite a few plates of A2 that I’ve had in inventory for quite a while and I’m thinking of sending them out to waterjet.

What is you guys (end user’s) opinion of properly heat treated A2 blades? If I push forward with these, I’ll be sending them out to either Peter’s or Bos for heat treat.

I have a goodly number of knives that are of A2 steel and would not hesitate to own another. I particularly like etched A2, as when a patina is in evidence, it is not quite as pronounced.

I don't think you could go wrong as you've already paid for the cost of the material.

You could start with a limited run, offer them for sale, and decide from the response whether to continue using the A2 for your knives.

Ya!

GWB

A2 Tool Steel is a great steel for knives but stainless it is not. Ron Lake, George Herron, and Phill Hartsfield used it extensively. Phill mastered differential heat treating to almost perfection. I have a bunch of A2 blades and use them often. Coat with chapstick and the steel is well protected.

As an amateur knifemaker and a Journeyman Tool & Die Maker I have used lots of A-2 both in knives and on the job for all manner of production tooling and stamping dies. It was our go to material, D-2 was used where more toughness was required. I have knives made from both material, they hold and edge well and are not difficult to sharpen.

Understand it’s not “stainless”, but much more stain resistant than my normal steels. The only stainless steels I have on hand are AEB-L (which I’m not interested in using) and a small amount of CTS-XHP which I do not have in a large enough quantity to validate attempting to build a batch of knives.

A2 just seems to be a good middle ground steel. Of course, it doesn’t hurt that I have nine plates of 1/8”x7”x36” of precision ground A2.

Yes it is a much better steel then "your normal steels" all around.

FWIW
I made a couple dozen or so 10" tactical knives for service members back when the sand pit
was going hot and heavy. I used A2 and a kydex sheath. Nothing but good responses from
users, some very heavy users.

Rocky is building me a lil dumplin outta A2 right, sent a pic the other day, RC 63.5. Curious to see how she does

A2 is one of my absolute favorite blade steels. I can't find a single mean thing to say about it. That, D2 and O1 would take care of everything I need.

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I’ve only worked with A2 once. A group of us on the Knife Dogs forum did a military build years ago and Aldo sent us a few plates of A2 to make them from. I shipped all of the knives to a group with the 45th Infantry in Afghanistan. Sadly, I never received any reviews after their deployment.

My main point of this post was to honestly get opinions from those who have carried and used A2 blades. Most of the blades I’ve made and commissioned from others over the years have been carbon steels. I guess I need to build one, beat the hell out of it and see what happens.

"I guess I need to build one, beat the hell out of it and see what happens"

You will like it.

"My main point of this post was to honestly get opinions from those who have carried and used A2 blades"

Makers are carry and users too.
And they have valuable customer feed back also.
You have enough input here to just go forward,

And let us know how it goes.

Great carbon steel hones nice cuts great

Ah, the joys of being a casual user/collector. You makers have to do all the hard work.

Lazy-azz guys with limited talent like Moi' get to simply enjoy them.

Luv me some etched A2






















and the knife that got me started on my A2 quest!



ya!

GWB

Cool stuff Gee!!

One of the unique attributes of A2 is that it's optimal edge holding ability and toughness are attained at roughly the same HRC of 60 so you get a 2'fer without compromising one for the other (no need for differential heat treat in an attempt to create a long wearing edge with a softer spine for toughness).

A2 is only slightly more rust resistant than O1 but has a tendency to pit where as O1 will stain across the surface when neglected. By comparison, A2 has about half the chromium of D2. As Geedub mentioned, etching/patina/bluing etc will help with potential rust issues.


Here is some industry data on A2 compared to other steels. For clarification "AIRKOOL" is the a trade name for A2 tool steel.
https://www.hudsontoolsteel.com/technical-data/steelA2Knife

Mechanical Properties

Heat Treatment Austenitizing

Temp. HRC Impact Toughness ft.-lb. (J) Wear Resistance Adhensive


AIRKOOL 1750°F(955C) 60 40 (53) 2-3

S7 1750°F(955C) 57 125 (165) 1

D2 1850°F(1065C) 60 21 (28) 3-4

Cru-Wear 1950°F(1065C) 62 30 (40) 5-6

3V 1950°F(1065C) 60 70 (95) 7

M2 2050°F(1120C) 62 20 (27) 8-10

M4 2050°F(1120C) 62 32 (43) 20-25

10V 2150°F(1175C) 63 14 (19) 90