So which knife steel gave you the sharpest edge?

hank_rearden

hank_rearden

Joined
Jun 7, 2002
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leave out straight razors, tailor's round knife, etc. just the knife you can carry around with you. mine is zdp 189, which is thus far the only steel i've brought down below 10 degrees per side. getting it really sharp is easy with a treated strop, since the sharpening bevel is more than 3mm wide, and the stropping angle is more consistent as a result.

and you?
 
So far 1095 with 15° per side. That said, I don't have much experience with higher end steels
 
With my mediocre skills and only a sharp maker with ultra fine stones. I manage to get the softer steels like 154cm, vg-10,h1 etc..... To whittle hair. I'm not a patient with steels like s30v, m390,m4 etc.... I normally don't get a hair whittling edge. That being said. I always tend to carry a s30v military over a blade steel that I can get sharper.
 
I can get VG-10 and 154CM really sharp, probably because I have the most experience with it?
 
I really haven't had a lot of problems getting any of the common steels used today with knives really sharp. Staying sharp with use is another matter..... I seldom try to get a shaving sharp edge on the knives I use. But I do for fun sometimes.

But to answer the OP, my sharpest knives a VG-10, CPM 154, and D-2. A2 isn't bad either.
 
Sharp means a lot of different things to different people.

For edges that surprise me in use, I'll go with CTS-XHP, CPM-M4, and VG-10.
 
My sharpest blade at the moment is my 154CM Griptillian. That may be because I have given more attention to that edge than any of my others, since it is my EDC.
 
The steels I can get consistently get super razor sharp are cpm 154 and 52100 carbon.
 
imbryan715 said:
To whittle hair.
Click to expand...
??? Do you mean to "shave" hair? My thinking of "shaving sharp" is when I can make one pass down arm and 90% of hair is removed, "scraping hair" is when it takes 3 or 4 passes to remove most of hair. Whittle hair? Is that when you hold a strand of hair in one hand and "whittle" sections of hair like whittling a piece of wood? If so - BOY, That's sharp:)

Ken H>
 
I agree with some others that VG-10 seems to get razor sharp quite easily. Personally I would have to say that geometry makes more difference to me in terms of how difficult it is to get a blade sharp. Blades that are thin behind the edge are usually pretty easy to get sharp regardless of the steel, whereas blades with a thick geometry are quite difficult to get razor sharp.

Having said that I don't use or have any experience with "super-steels" with extremely high wear resistance like S90V and such, but I do use S30V and don't find it that different to sharpen than other, less high end steels.

One steel that I have really had difficulty with in terms of getting a decent edge is the 1075 in my Condors. I know a lot of people like them but I find that they almost refuse to get sharp and if you do manage to get a decent edge on them they lose it almost immediately in use. I'm guessing it's a heat treat issue and I've heard similar stories from some others, I think they might run the steel too soft or something.
 
All of them. A good sharpener can get a shaving edge on almost any knife.

My favorite steels are K390, M390. CPM M-4, Elmax and S90V. I can shave with any of them.

Now the amount of work varies. Putting a shaving edge on an out of the box S90V blade requires far more time and effort than doing the same to something buttery soft like AUS-8 or 440A.
 
Nitrobe 77. 5 degrees per side, able to shave, whittle hair and still able to cut irrigation pipe and other edc chores.
 
Ken H> said:
??? Do you mean to "shave" hair? My thinking of "shaving sharp" is when I can make one pass down arm and 90% of hair is removed, "scraping hair" is when it takes 3 or 4 passes to remove most of hair. Whittle hair? Is that when you hold a strand of hair in one hand and "whittle" sections of hair like whittling a piece of wood? If so - BOY, That's sharp:)

Ken H>
Click to expand...

To me, shaving sharp means that I can shave my face with it. :thumbup: With one pass.
 
I make every knife that leaves my shop shaving sharp, one pass and every hair it touched is cut. That is how I sell them. For my use I go a few steps further to what I feel is the ultimate. In this ultimate area the best edges I have are on CPM 3V, CPM S90V, and CPM 10V. Of those three the I feel the S90V was the keenest.
 
Ken H> said:
??? Do you mean to "shave" hair? My thinking of "shaving sharp" is when I can make one pass down arm and 90% of hair is removed, "scraping hair" is when it takes 3 or 4 passes to remove most of hair. Whittle hair? Is that when you hold a strand of hair in one hand and "whittle" sections of hair like whittling a piece of wood? If so - BOY, That's sharp:)

Ken H>
Click to expand...

Hair whittling means when you can take a piece of hair and cut pieces off of it length-wise.

This isn't my video, but it does provide an example:

[video=youtube;GDgyLJY18L4]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GDgyLJY18L4[/video]
 
Besides my folding filet knife with mystery steel, my Busse B10 INFI zero grind or my Large Sebenza 21 S30v.
 
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