A while back I tried to get a Pacific Salt’s H1 steel to rust, and couldn’t do it with things like salt water, lemon juice, mustard, iodine and even a mixture of bleach and sea water!
http://www.bladeforums.com/forums/showthread.php?t=344293
The next question was how well dose H1 hold an edge?
I wanted to see if Sal’s comments on serrated H1 holding an edge much better than plain edged H1 would hold true:
"Edge retention on plain edge is about AUS-6 (less than ATS-55 by 25%). Serrated edge edge retention is very good, up there with the exotics, (better than ATS-55).”
http://www.bladeforums.com/forums/showthread.php?t=328349
My first attempt to find out failed because I quickly ran out of cardboard and I also felt that I would need near identical knives to tell the difference between VG10 and H1, at least with the serrated edges.
After scrounging what I thought would be more than enough (which tuned out to be only barely enough) corrugated cardboard boxes and 4 comparable knives, I was ready to find out how well H1’s edge holding compared to VG10.
Knives:
The 4 Spyderco knives consisted of serrated and plain edged 93mm Rescues in VG10 and serrated and plain edged Atlantic Salts in H1. The VG10 Rescues and the H1 Atlantic Salts share virtually identical handles and similar blade profiles. All 4 knives are passaround veterans and were sharpened using a SharpMaker using the 40 degree angles (20 degrees per side in the plain edges and 20 degrees inclusive for the serrated) on the SharpMaker’s Fine (white) stones.
Cardboard:
These were from identical corrugated cardboard boxes that measured 6’ long when unfolded. There was no marking on the boxes to indicate the test weight of the cardboard, but I would describe it as about medium to lightweight for corrugated boxes. Each sheet of cardboard would be clamped to a make shift wooden frame and cut into thin strips roughly 1” wide and 6’ long. I made an effort to concentrate the cutting on the first 1” or so of edge at the base of the blade.
…Let the tests begin!
At first I thought I would check the edges after every 10 - 6 foot cuts and see if the edges would still shave…the problem was that after the first 10 strips cut, with the first knife (which happened to be the plain edged Salt), it had already lost its shaving edge and was beginning to tear telephone book paper instead of cutting it cleanly. I checked the plain edged VG10 Rescue and found that it was losing its ability to shave cleanly after only 3 – 6’ cuts, and would only scrape an occasional hair after 10 cuts. Since both knives were still cutting the cardboard very easily, I decided that I would keep going with each knife to the point that I would stop and sharpen them based on their ability to cut the boxes.
To make a long story short, the plain edged Atlantic Salt ran out of steam after 34 cuts (204 feet), certainly a good amount of cardboard and more than I was expecting…but this was overshadowed by the Plain edged VG10 Rescue which ate through 95 cuts (570 feet) before stalling.
The serrated edges were neck and neck in edge holding, so close in fact that I would call it a tie, particularly since the exact point that I called it quits with each knife was somewhat subjective (especially with the serrated edges). Anyway, the VG10 Rescue made it though some 146 cuts (876 feet!) and the Serrated Atlantic Salt registered 143 cuts (858 feet).
It would probably take repeating these test several times to be sure of the results, but after cutting a total of nearly a half mile of cardboard, I don’t think it will be something that I will want to do any time soon!
It is worth mentioning that while the serrated edges stayed sharp longer, they tended to snag more often in the card board and occasionally some card board would build up on the first serration, which was kind of annoying.
Lessons learned:
A scary sharp edge is not needed for cutting card board! Normally I like to keep a shaving sharp edge on all of my knives at all times, but these fine edges are not always needed for real life applications, such as cutting cardboard.
Also I was amazed at the amount of cardboard that each knife went through before losing its edge.
Most importantly, Sal was right about serrated H1 blades holding their edges much better than the plain edged H1 blades.
Personally, for a serrated blade, I would choose H1 over VG10 any day….the edge holding seems to be close to the same and H1 has the advantage of being virtually rust proof.
In plain edges I would stick with VG10…unless of course I needed a rust proof knife, than I would have no qualms about going with a plain edged Salt.
For cardboard cutting in general, I think that I would choose a plain edged knife in a premium steel such as VG10. Even though serrated edges hold an edge significantly longer, they also take longer to sharpen and they do snag more frequently on cardboard.
- Frank
http://www.bladeforums.com/forums/showthread.php?t=344293
The next question was how well dose H1 hold an edge?
I wanted to see if Sal’s comments on serrated H1 holding an edge much better than plain edged H1 would hold true:
"Edge retention on plain edge is about AUS-6 (less than ATS-55 by 25%). Serrated edge edge retention is very good, up there with the exotics, (better than ATS-55).”
http://www.bladeforums.com/forums/showthread.php?t=328349
My first attempt to find out failed because I quickly ran out of cardboard and I also felt that I would need near identical knives to tell the difference between VG10 and H1, at least with the serrated edges.
After scrounging what I thought would be more than enough (which tuned out to be only barely enough) corrugated cardboard boxes and 4 comparable knives, I was ready to find out how well H1’s edge holding compared to VG10.
Knives:
The 4 Spyderco knives consisted of serrated and plain edged 93mm Rescues in VG10 and serrated and plain edged Atlantic Salts in H1. The VG10 Rescues and the H1 Atlantic Salts share virtually identical handles and similar blade profiles. All 4 knives are passaround veterans and were sharpened using a SharpMaker using the 40 degree angles (20 degrees per side in the plain edges and 20 degrees inclusive for the serrated) on the SharpMaker’s Fine (white) stones.
Cardboard:
These were from identical corrugated cardboard boxes that measured 6’ long when unfolded. There was no marking on the boxes to indicate the test weight of the cardboard, but I would describe it as about medium to lightweight for corrugated boxes. Each sheet of cardboard would be clamped to a make shift wooden frame and cut into thin strips roughly 1” wide and 6’ long. I made an effort to concentrate the cutting on the first 1” or so of edge at the base of the blade.
…Let the tests begin!
At first I thought I would check the edges after every 10 - 6 foot cuts and see if the edges would still shave…the problem was that after the first 10 strips cut, with the first knife (which happened to be the plain edged Salt), it had already lost its shaving edge and was beginning to tear telephone book paper instead of cutting it cleanly. I checked the plain edged VG10 Rescue and found that it was losing its ability to shave cleanly after only 3 – 6’ cuts, and would only scrape an occasional hair after 10 cuts. Since both knives were still cutting the cardboard very easily, I decided that I would keep going with each knife to the point that I would stop and sharpen them based on their ability to cut the boxes.
To make a long story short, the plain edged Atlantic Salt ran out of steam after 34 cuts (204 feet), certainly a good amount of cardboard and more than I was expecting…but this was overshadowed by the Plain edged VG10 Rescue which ate through 95 cuts (570 feet) before stalling.
The serrated edges were neck and neck in edge holding, so close in fact that I would call it a tie, particularly since the exact point that I called it quits with each knife was somewhat subjective (especially with the serrated edges). Anyway, the VG10 Rescue made it though some 146 cuts (876 feet!) and the Serrated Atlantic Salt registered 143 cuts (858 feet).
It would probably take repeating these test several times to be sure of the results, but after cutting a total of nearly a half mile of cardboard, I don’t think it will be something that I will want to do any time soon!
It is worth mentioning that while the serrated edges stayed sharp longer, they tended to snag more often in the card board and occasionally some card board would build up on the first serration, which was kind of annoying.
Lessons learned:
A scary sharp edge is not needed for cutting card board! Normally I like to keep a shaving sharp edge on all of my knives at all times, but these fine edges are not always needed for real life applications, such as cutting cardboard.
Also I was amazed at the amount of cardboard that each knife went through before losing its edge.
Most importantly, Sal was right about serrated H1 blades holding their edges much better than the plain edged H1 blades.
Personally, for a serrated blade, I would choose H1 over VG10 any day….the edge holding seems to be close to the same and H1 has the advantage of being virtually rust proof.
In plain edges I would stick with VG10…unless of course I needed a rust proof knife, than I would have no qualms about going with a plain edged Salt.
For cardboard cutting in general, I think that I would choose a plain edged knife in a premium steel such as VG10. Even though serrated edges hold an edge significantly longer, they also take longer to sharpen and they do snag more frequently on cardboard.
- Frank
