what steels and why

[Vman]

My bad, I was enjoying this steel thing so much it got me thinking. Onward and upward
Vman

[mpukas]

A little late to the party...

Devin - thanks for such an amazing thread! And thanks to Larrin for all of the great info as well. I'm learning so much here. As a blooming knife and sharpening knut, I'm trying to take in and learn as much as I can, and this thread has shed a lot of light on many aspects of steel that I have been pondering.

This thread also touches on many other aspects of knives and sharpening, and I don't want to de-rail this thread (too much), but this quote in particular was great for me;

Lastly, the keener the edge the faster a knife will become dull. The coarser the stone used in sharpening, the longer it will hold that edge. I think that in general most knife nuts over sharpen.

Hoss

I tried to have this discussion on another forum, and I'm not gonna throw anyone under the bus, but I basically got the opposite answer from a couple of diferent sources. It's been my assumpiton that the keener the edge, the more quickly it will dull since the material at the edge is finer. Not that I want to be right or wrong, I just want to understand what's going on. Thanks for this clarification.

I'm gonna copy-paste some of your key posts into a cheat sheet for myself - there's a lot here to digest. I love it! Thanks again for being so open to sharing this info! mpp

[DevinT]

MPP,

This applies to slice cutting and not to push cutting. Serrations always cut longer than a smooth edge, even on a micro scale.

Serrations cut longer because there is simply more edge, the small radiused scallops measured out, are longer than a straight edge.

The other thing that it does is prevent the whole edge from touching the board for example.

Hoss

[eshua]

So the downside of an extreme high grit sharpening style is NOT similar to the downsides you see from sharpening too acutely? eg stability?

Lets put it this way... If you have a few prep items that benefit from a really fine edge: getting the thinnest possible scallions basil ect, And later rough up your edge on a ceramic honing rod when you need to bite into tomatoes or grilled meats. Does this work well for you guys or do you end up with an edge just asking to fail when you polish it out too far?

Trying to work though my bad habits one by one so I'm curious to think of the science of it.

[DevinT]

It is important to match the steel with the heat treatment, sharpening style, cutting habits/preference etc. No one steel or knife can do it all, all the time.

Good edge stability allows for a knife to be sharpened to an acute angle and to a high polish and hold up well. Of course it must have the correct heat treatment also.

Hoss