I am currently designing a knife, what is the most convenient steel for military use? Is D2 a good option?

Tamahagane steel. Folded 7 times. You’ll thank me later.

some are springy
some hold edge
some get sharpest and are easy to sharpen
some are stiff
some are tempered
some rust

you can't have everything
if you're going to beat on it, choose a stainless used to make kitchen knives
if you're really going to beat on it, choose spring steel
if you're going to use it to open boxes get a tool steel
if you're going for sharpest to show off, it won't be tool or stainless

>very hard to beat a boxcutter
>hard to beat 10xx
>hard to beat regular stainless
>i carry a "kershaw concierge," fatback or crkt m21 larger version

D2 is fine steel if it's properly tempered. It strikes a good balance between corrosion resistance, edge sharpness, toughness and edge retention. It's hard to sharpen but holds it's edge well. At 11-12% Cr content it just misses the cut-off for stainless but its high carbon content mutes the corrosion resistance properties. As long as you oil it or don't put it away wet, you won't have any problems with rust. People complain that it chips easily but proper heat treated D2 will be at 57-59 HRC so chipping won't be an issue.

CPM-3V, ELMAX, or CTS-XHP are tough and well rounded steels.

I quite like D2 and D6, it makes for some super edge retention with enough hardness to keep it for a while, in terms of toughness its ok, but not something real special.
If someone threw a military contract for a tough as balls knife with good edge retention with a price is 'high', I'd use A2 at around 60-62HRC and give it a DLC coating to keep the rust away.

Winner, the Only steel I would add, is if cost matters, A2, is still very good. Far better than D2 or or any of the other old shitty steels like 1095.
If stainless is required and cost is an issue CPM154.

Don’t listen to any of these retards except the other guy that said 3V. Use 3V or 10V.

D2 holds and edge but it's hard to sharpen and isn't very tough, especially in a bigger knife.
Depends on the intended use, for the military probably 1095 or another type of spring steel or 3v if you want Gucci shit.

What kind of knife?
Every use stabby thing that attaches to end of shooty thing and can be used for wire cutting and beating logs etc?
Look at the most basic sissi puukko.
Why must almost every bayonet be over designed, over priced and useless piece of shit as knife?

What is the purpose of a knife you design?
>D2
It's alright.
Dutch Bushcraft guys prefer CPM 3V
That's why most of military knives are bad at cutting.

FAMAS steel

Attached: aa54165bc9900c74cceb509c54dd272c.jpg (1000x1000, 267K)

Be a real man. Make a knife out of depleted uranium.

>it's hard to sharpen
Because it's hard in general, its focus is hardness and while that does impart relative brittleness that's not going to come into play in anything of a size that a soldier might realistically carry. It's also semi-stainless which is nice for a carbon steel but I still say some flavor of stainless is the safest bet for what's likely going to be a ~5" utility knife that won't get much TLC.

I don't do a lot of D2 any more, still have a fair amount of demand for D6 as it creates a truly crazy amount of carbides in the structure that just keep cutting forever. Basically 'hard to sharpen' is not really much of a factor since the invention of diamond hones and mechanical spinny sharpeners can get it to razor sharp. I've got a couple as kitchen knives that I just kept around the house to beat on as test/quality rejects and they never go much below shaving sharp even after months of daily use.
D-series gets used in metal shears and chipper blades, so its not a little bitch steel

Bigger picture in a production environment is that D-series tool steels are fairly involved in terms of heat treat, you need a kiln capable of hitting 1000C with a +/- accuracy of about 20C, the blades have to go into either foil or an anti-scale compound (or they decarb to shit) and the tempering cycles are 3 x 2hr, which is an all day job. So its not a case of hot coal forge and a blacksmiths blowtorch temper, its part of the industrial process with additional production costs. All the stainless steels are much the same, but usually most have a 2 x 2hr tempering, mostly with a nitrogen cryo cycle in there somewhere and that's another not inconsiderate cost (About 50-60% of my production is stainless)

Super steels can be good, but they are a fairly expensive item from a materials perspective, more suited to custom knives for discerning customers- basically for Soldiers who will end up mistreating, prying, beating and abusing knives, they're going to need tough more than anything else. Leave a soldier, farmer or miner in a room with an anvil, come back in 2 hours the anvil will be broken
Mass produced + tough, go with something 80CRV2 or A2, add some DLC to stop rust and its 99% idiot proof for a fraction of the price and production costs
They will break it eventually, but its some effort!

The brittleness and difficulty of sharpening are issue for a field knife.

>The relative brittleness and relative difficulty of sharpening are issues for plebs
Yeah I don't particularly disagree which is why I didn't even recommend D2. Sweet damn.

Adamantium

>not making a large bowie knife out of pure iron
>not wearing it on your hip
BIG IRON BIG IRON