a buddy gave me a piece of tool steel from his the machine shop he works in. he said he thinks its d2 but not sure. most of the stuff they use in their shop is o1, cpm3v, d2, a2, and some other tool steels. ive read the d2 is really hard and tough to forge. i took this piece and wacked it on the anvil a few times with the hammer and it made a dent. seems rather soft. what do you think?

i know theres no sure fire way to know but it doesnt seem hard at all...and that was cold work.

D2 annealed is soft so it can be machined so this is not a good test to distinguish it from other grades.

Why don't you trust what your supplier told you????

 

Trying to gain points??

Going to be tough to figure out random scrap from *that* stream as much has similar properties hot cold and other!

Yep, unless it is tracked like I do with the steels I work with , it I will be a crap shoot. The tool steels I have are marked several ways to avoid mixing them up.