AEB-L news.

One of the great things about selling an AEB-L knife to someone is that when they ask "what is AEB-L?" all you have to say is "did you shave this morning?" Pretty easy for someone to figure out that if it will handle the foliage on their face, stinky pits, legs or, ummmmm, other places, a tomato or a dry stick shouldn't be much of a problem. ;)
 
Would be a great knife in 0.157" - .170" +. I have 3 small fixed blades, 0.128" (3.2mm) in chisel grinds and they slice, cut & notch with the best of them...! I have been very impressed with the performance...(GOLDMAN with Peters HT as well). I have only cut about 60"-70" of double walled card board (C48cartons). And they show some signs of wear but still can cut paper .. not slice finely but still cut it. I would definitely be interested in a simple patch knife or drop point. 4"-5", with a curly or birds eye maple (hope Nathan &/or Daniel are reading this lol)
 
Nathan the Machinist said:
It has good toughness and edge stability at higher hardness compared to most stainless, but not so great abrasive wear. I wouldn't want it in a skinner, but it's great in something you want to use rough in thin geometry (such as a thin kitchen knife clacking against a cutting board all day). Elmax outperforms it significantly in most ways except ease of sharpening.


It's a great bargain stainless that works well at hardness's over 60, gets very sharp and doesn't have the issues with a crumbly edge like a lot of the super steels.

I've chopped through a 2X4 with an AEB-L kitchen knife thin enough to flex on your thumb nail. Don't try that with S30V...
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I agree with most of Nathan's comments except I have made a few of what I call a Trail/Skinner out of .130 AEB-L RC 61-62 by Paul Bos, its a 5' FFG meant for light camping day trail, processing smaller game and have had excellent reports from the owners along with a five lbs package of Canadian Bacon from a 190lbs lactating sow that this hunter harvested in Paseo Robles Ca. Its became prime hog hunting farm land.
Yum! BLT's till it was all gone!:)

I asked how much he used my knife in processing and he replied all of the hide and guts. :) Then took it to the Butcher.

jdm61 said:
One of the great things about selling an AEB-L knife to someone is that when they ask "what is AEB-L?" all you have to say is "did you shave this morning?" Pretty easy for someone to figure out that if it will handle the foliage on their face, stinky pits, legs or, ummmmm, other places, a tomato or a dry stick shouldn't be much of a problem. ;)
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Or most any other Culinary delight! I love how my culinary knives preform with AEB-L
 
Perception is reality. Sometimes, even moreso than facts...

jdm61 said:
One of the great things about selling an AEB-L knife to someone is that when they ask "what is AEB-L?" all you have to say is "did you shave this morning?" Pretty easy for someone to figure out that if it will handle the foliage on their face, stinky pits, legs or, ummmmm, other places, a tomato or a dry stick shouldn't be much of a problem. ;)
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I hope you're kidding.

I disagree... although your facts are technically true. Perception? Do you really want to bring up scraping stinky armpits and "umm other places" when trying to sell a fine handcrafted kitchen knife or bushcrafter? :barf:

Not only would I not buy that knife from you, I would never come near you again for any reason. Because... all I'm gonna remember is you talking about armpits and stink and " ummm... other places". GROSS!

Regardless of being completely turned-off by the thought of someone shaving their stinky pits and nether regions, "knife snobs" and "hipsters" and "wealthy suburban houswives" might very well say, "Well, if it's used in lowly, cheap, disposable razor blades, how good could it possibly be?"

*turns up nose*. No Sale.

I have run this experiment before... call AEB-L "inexpensive, moderate-carbon, stainless steel" ( which is TRUE)... and ya can't hardly give it away.

Call AEB-L "fine-grained Swedish razor steel that takes a remarkably fine edge" (which is ALSO true) ... and it sells.
 
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Huh?

I have sold many blades of AEB-L and the clients are always thrilled to relate to having personally used the steel in their everyday lives.

I tell them it is razor blade steel and they immediately understand
 
"So if I save all my old razors, can you melt them together and burn off the soap scum, pubic hair, and dried blood, and make a kitchen knife out of them?"
 
Joke, except for the part about "you shaved with it this morning." I would leave the rest out of the sales pitch, hence no quotes around that part. Saying that is a fine grained Swedish razor steel that takes an extremely fine edge might arouse some interest. Personalizing it by saying that you have likely been using your entire adult life gets them thinking about what a good buying decision they are making because they already have extensive experience with the stuff. As for lowly, cheap razor blades, have you priced some of the Gillette stuff lately?
james terrio said:
Perception is reality. Sometimes, even moreso than facts...



I hope you're kidding.

I disagree... although your facts are technically true. Perception? Do you really want to bring up scraping stinky armpits and "umm other places" when trying to sell a fine handcrafted kitchen knife or bushcrafter? :barf:

Not only would I not buy that knife from you, I would never come near you again for any reason. Because... all I'm gonna remember is you talking about armpits and stink and " ummm... other places". GROSS!

Regardless of being completely turned-off by the thought of someone shaving their stinky pits and nether regions, "knife snobs" and "hipsters" and "wealthy suburban houswives" might very well say, "Well, if it's used in lowly, cheap, disposable razor blades, how good could it possibly be?"

*turns up nose*. No Sale.

I have run this experiment before... call AEB-L "inexpensive, moderate-carbon, stainless steel" ( which is TRUE)... and ya can't hardly give it away.

Call AEB-L "fine-grained Swedish razor steel that takes a remarkably fine edge" (which is ALSO true) ... and it sells.
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James T, hopefully I am missing your humor, but if you are truly grossed out by the idea of Joe Mandt mentioning shaving with a custom knife -- to the point where you would never come near him for any reason -- I would advise that you don't ask what my knife was just used for if I ever happen to offer you a slice of apple. :D

Also, regarding your AEB-L sales experiment, what else can you share here?

Thanks much.
 
jdm61 said:
Joke, except for the part about "you shaved with it this morning." I would leave the rest out of the sales pitch, hence no quotes around that part. Saying that is a fine grained Swedish razor steel that takes an extremely fine edge might arouse some interest. Personalizing it by saying that you have likely been using your entire adult life gets them thinking about what a good buying decision they are making because they already have extensive experience with the stuff. As for lowly, cheap razor blades, have you priced some of the Gillette stuff lately?
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The price of cartridge blades is one of the reasons I have been on old school wet shaver for years. I use mostly Merkur German made DE razors and Derby and Feather blades. Most of the "innovations" in cartridge design that have added more and more blades are, in my opinion, pretty much a gimmick. Any many of them clog far too easily and frequently. Give me a nice badger hair brush, some quality shaving soap and a quality DE razor with a sharp blade over any of them, every day.

If someone really likes Gillette I would suggest one of their vintage DE razors that can be found in pretty amazing condition for a good price.
 
The costs of developing and MARKETING those newfangled cartridge blades are enough to give you an aneurysm!!!!! The Mach III cost like $750 million to get to market back in 1998 and the number that I heard for the Fusion project was over $1 BILLION!!!!! (Cue Dr. Evil)
drysideshooter said:
The price of cartridge blades is one of the reasons I have been on old school wet shaver for years. I use mostly Merkur German made DE razors and Derby and Feather blades. Most of the "innovations" in cartridge design that have added more and more blades are, in my opinion, pretty much a gimmick. Any many of them clog far too easily and frequently. Give me a nice badger hair brush, some quality shaving soap and a quality DE razor with a sharp blade over any of them, every day.

If someone really likes Gillette I would suggest one of their vintage DE razors that can be found in pretty amazing condition for a good price.
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I personally know a chemical engineer that used to work for Gillette. He invented the lubricating strip on disposable razors. He said that AEB-L/13C26 are used for several reasons but the cost wasn't a factor. The cost comes from so much of it being used. There is only a small amount of steel in a disposable razor but when you consider how many of them are thrown in the trash on a daily basis it adds up pretty fast. If the same amount of CPM steels were buried in landfills on a daily basis they would be much cheaper too.
 
And we benefit from those economies of scale for sure. :thumb: What is nice is that we are still getting good price on sizes that are not typically used in those huge industrial quantities, although it would appear that the usage in commercial kitchen cutlery is rising even in places like Japan.
Darrin Sanders said:
I personally know a chemical engineer that used to work for Gillette. He invented the lubricating strip on disposable razors. He said that AEB-L/13C26 are used for several reasons but the cost wasn't a factor. The cost comes from so much of it being used. There is only a small amount of steel in a disposable razor but when you consider how many of them are thrown in the trash on a daily basis it adds up pretty fast. If the same amount of CPM steels were buried in landfills on a daily basis they would be much cheaper too.
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Andy Lewis said:
James T, hopefully I am missing your humor...
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;) I'm the guy who loves to brag about being smooth as a dolphin from the neck down... among knife people. It always gets a laugh! I've told the same "joke" around "normal" people and... not so much. :( My sales experiments have been exactly as I described earlier.

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AVigil said:
Huh? I have sold many blades of AEB-L and the clients are always thrilled to relate to having personally used the steel in their everyday lives.
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I've been wrong before, and I'm sure I will soon be wrong again. I just don't choose to bring up the sweaty nastier bits of human anatomy when trying to actually sell knives... :p
 
So we should stick with the face and legs for the sales pitch. :D
 
This is great news. I was thinking of experimenting with kamisoris and straight razors and a thicker aeb-l would fit the bill nicely.
 
The only downside will be that we are kind of limited to 6/8 width razors unless you want to hone with 4 layers of tape on the spine. :D .200 is a thick as they can go. With that said, it will sure be nice to have access to "purpose built" stainless razor steel, even for narrower blades.
S.Alexander said:
This is great news. I was thinking of experimenting with kamisoris and straight razors and a thicker aeb-l would fit the bill nicely.
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AKS just got some of the thicker stuff in. I think it's .196"

I am going to get a couple of aluminum plates to try heat treating some.
 
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