I just reconfirmed the test results last weekend. First for the most part
they use Norton Crystalon comination stones, is that proper? The knives
are a Bob Engnath Kitchen #2 ATS-34 heat treated and cold treated by Paul
Bos, is that poor quality? I hollow ground it thin -without- drawing any
of it's temper... it never turned -any- colors not even straw. I used a
dry grinder to take most of the metal off then switched to a wet grinder.
One thing about stainless is it "hogs" off easy!
Yep, even Paul Bos'
ATS-34! No kidding about that. Check out Bob's catalog and see what he
says about ginding O1 after grinding ATS-34 or 440-C.
The other two knives they were compared to was, one an old butcher knife
made by "Lakeside Chicago" which isn't near as hard as it could be but
much harder than any factory butcher knife I've ever seen. I hollow
ground it for the cowboy too. The other knife was just a buffalo skinner
blade with no handle and nothing special about so I couldn't identify the
maker other than it's a cheap factory made, 1095 steel knife. The full
tang, slab handle was not tapered and I didn't bother to taper it either.
All I did was reheat treat it (drawn at 325F for one hour after a cold
treatment for a few hours at -5F that leaves it about 65-67RHC which is
a -full-file-hard
. The sorry ol' stainless couldn't keep up worth
anything although the consenses is that it's the best stainless knife
they ever used it still wasn't what they would call good. (whoops as an
after thought it dawned on me the other knives they are comparing to are
HSS power hacksaw bladed knives made from the -all- hard ones not the
"un-breakable" ones)