I'm a big fan of the mule project and thank Spyderco for bothering to do it.
I recently found a 52100 mule, leaving only the CPM M4 on my grail list. I was expecting to like the steel as I'm not fussy about patination/carbon steels and I like steels that take a fine edge.
When it arrived, I set about putting my standard mule edge on it (initially 40 degree microbevel, 30 deg back bevel on the sharpmaker.) My other mules have had no problem with this edge geometry and after a long enough period of assessment has occured, I like to play around with other edge angles.
While putting on the 40 deg micro bevel edge, I noticed what appearred to be a pronounced "wire" or "burr" developing:
I thought nothing of it as I still had the fine/extra-fine and stropping to go. However, the resulting edge was poor compared to my other mules (in more "difficult" steel) and looked very uneven and craggy (I didn't remember to take a photo at this stage.)
I took the knife back to freehand stones and put an entirely new bevel on, followed by careful use of the SM to do a 40 degree microbevel.
The edge is better in terms of hair-shaving (it will just manage it), but still nowhere near as good my other mules with the same sharpening regime. The edge still looks slightly uneven, despite fastidious stropping:
What is going on here?
I never have problems sharpening PE/SE, convex, scandi etc. I would have thought 52100 would have been a doddle to get sharp.
I recently found a 52100 mule, leaving only the CPM M4 on my grail list. I was expecting to like the steel as I'm not fussy about patination/carbon steels and I like steels that take a fine edge.
When it arrived, I set about putting my standard mule edge on it (initially 40 degree microbevel, 30 deg back bevel on the sharpmaker.) My other mules have had no problem with this edge geometry and after a long enough period of assessment has occured, I like to play around with other edge angles.
While putting on the 40 deg micro bevel edge, I noticed what appearred to be a pronounced "wire" or "burr" developing:
I thought nothing of it as I still had the fine/extra-fine and stropping to go. However, the resulting edge was poor compared to my other mules (in more "difficult" steel) and looked very uneven and craggy (I didn't remember to take a photo at this stage.)
I took the knife back to freehand stones and put an entirely new bevel on, followed by careful use of the SM to do a 40 degree microbevel.
The edge is better in terms of hair-shaving (it will just manage it), but still nowhere near as good my other mules with the same sharpening regime. The edge still looks slightly uneven, despite fastidious stropping:
What is going on here?
I never have problems sharpening PE/SE, convex, scandi etc. I would have thought 52100 would have been a doddle to get sharp.
