Sharpness test of old knives rescued

[jobasha11]

There's a name for when a metal improves its performance with age and for the life of me I can't remember the term but it has to do with aging.

Seems to me like the knives I have that are at least 50+ years old trend to take a keener, longer lasting edge. My 100+ year old Union Knifeworks Moose pattern takes a scary sharp edge and seems to outlast most of the modern comparable steels, even my late 1800s J. Szeraki Pearl Lobster is the same I've sharpened it maybe twice and it'll still filet paper.

Could it be that the way they made the steel back then compared to modern metallurgy today? I don't know but I do know older gets sharper easier and stays that way longer.

Work hardening?

 

[T. Erdelyi]

Work hardening?

I get work hardening aka strain hardening, take a paper clip our a wire coat hanger and bend it over and over again till it breaks as a result of work hardening eventually it becomes brittle and breaks but once the blade is heat treated there no work hardening. Hitting a piece of low carbon steel over and over with a hammer same thing essentially your moving material and changing the structure of the metal.

I don't believe that applies here.

 

[sturgeonlove]

There's a name for when a metal improves its performance with age and for the life of me I can't remember the term but it has to do with aging.

Could it be that the way they made the steel back then compared to modern metallurgy today? I don't know but I do know older gets sharper easier and stays that way longer.

Very interesting - kind of like aging wine only with metal, id be very curious to learn more about this if you can remember the word. All i know is that it was heat treated differently, you can really feel it in the steel when you work it