Jason B.
Knifemaker / Craftsman / Service Provider
- Joined
- Jun 13, 2007
- Messages
- 11,196
Elmax update 
This steel is very impressive, my brother works in the garden a lot and uses his 350 for anything and everything you can think of. The edge holds it's "razor sharpness" for a long time unlike S30V that likes to get coarse with wear. Edge deformations like those seen from cutting something with dirt on it or from cutting cardboard are very minimal and the edge seems to wear in a uniform way or in other words a steady decline of sharpness.
These results may change as there has so far been no need to do any complete sharpenings and it still retains most of its factory bevel. I also did add a micro bevel from the start so the increased edge angle could be making up for some of the increased performance.
I did do a recent sharpening but yet still no reprofile, the steel felt like it was at a good hardness 60 maybe? It sharpened as you would expect for this grade of steel except it was very clean to finish and very little burr formation during. I used ceramics to finish the edge but I'm not sure if I'll do that again because of the rather large burnishing effect it had, it seemed to push the metal and this is where a large folded burr formed. It easily was reduced and removed further into the sharpening but still not something I'm fond of seeing. Most likely caused by the high Rc steel contacting the extremely hard and dense ceramic.
That was a week ago when I last sharpened it and it has not even needed a touch-up, still shaves and is still very sharp to the touch.
Its basically the steel everyone looks for, has good wear resistance but keeps that razor sharp edge.
This steel is very impressive, my brother works in the garden a lot and uses his 350 for anything and everything you can think of. The edge holds it's "razor sharpness" for a long time unlike S30V that likes to get coarse with wear. Edge deformations like those seen from cutting something with dirt on it or from cutting cardboard are very minimal and the edge seems to wear in a uniform way or in other words a steady decline of sharpness.
These results may change as there has so far been no need to do any complete sharpenings and it still retains most of its factory bevel. I also did add a micro bevel from the start so the increased edge angle could be making up for some of the increased performance.
I did do a recent sharpening but yet still no reprofile, the steel felt like it was at a good hardness 60 maybe? It sharpened as you would expect for this grade of steel except it was very clean to finish and very little burr formation during. I used ceramics to finish the edge but I'm not sure if I'll do that again because of the rather large burnishing effect it had, it seemed to push the metal and this is where a large folded burr formed. It easily was reduced and removed further into the sharpening but still not something I'm fond of seeing. Most likely caused by the high Rc steel contacting the extremely hard and dense ceramic.
That was a week ago when I last sharpened it and it has not even needed a touch-up, still shaves and is still very sharp to the touch.
Its basically the steel everyone looks for, has good wear resistance but keeps that razor sharp edge.
