# General > General Knives & Blades >  Heat Treating D2 Steel

## crashdive123

I started using D2 steel recently.  While it costs a bit more, I really like the end product.  D2 is air quenched when hardening as opposed to liquid quenched.  Here's the steps that I take to harden and temper D2 steel.

Take your knife that has been shaped and ground.

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D2 and other air quenched steels must be heated void of oxygen to prevent decarborization.  There are a few ways to accomplish this.  For now (since I have it) I am using stainless steel foil.  The knife is placed in the foil and the ends are folded and peened to create an envelope.  I fold the edges three times.  Some will add either a small piece of cedar or spread a light coat of oil on the inside of the foil to burn off any oxygen.  I do neither.  At 1875 degrees I don't think too much oxygen is remaining.  

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The way I accomplish the quench part (rapid cooling) is to place the heated blades while still in their stainless steel envelopes immediately between two heavy pieces of aluminum angle and clamp them tight.  The aluminum acts as a heat sink to remove the heat from the steel, and by clamping them tight any warping in prevented.

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I then temper them at 500 degrees for two hours (X2).

Here is the batch I did yesterday and last night.  

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## Winter

Looking good Crash. I'm really liking that stick tang Persian bowie looking blade. All good designs to me.

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## crashdive123

Playing around with different blade shapes.  I prefer not to become too predictable.

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## randyt

Awesome, thanks for the info. I've wondered the steps for this type of steel.

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## COWBOYSURVIVAL

Nice to see the process! Are you able to measure hardness?

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## crashdive123

> Nice to see the process! Are you able to measure hardness?


I am not.  I have a chart from one of the manufacturers  -  basically if you harden at x and temper at y you will end up with z.  An 1875 hardening and a temper at 500 should yield an Rockwell hardness of 58 - 61.

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## COWBOYSURVIVAL

> I am not.  I have a chart from one of the manufacturers  -  basically if you harden at x and temper at y you will end up with z.  An 1875 hardening and a temper at 500 should yield an Rockwell hardness of 58 - 61.


Makes sense! Thanks for the explanation.

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## Skinner

All Looking Good ,I'm The Same Way Don't Want to Stick to 1 Type of Blade Like to Make All Types But Add My Touches also

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