It's been a while, haven't done much knife things lately and haven't been to the forum for eons, I hope II am excused that I jump right in?
So, I bought a chisel knife for woodworking. It is around 60HRC and the steel is stainless, don't know much more than that, they write it's a "specialized tool steel". It can get really sharp, but it also tends to chip when I sharpen with too much force or speed, so I took it to the microscope and saw these specks on the polished edge.
Not the best pic, I know, best I can do right now. It's around 100x and the specs are around 0,1mm in diameter (about a human hair wide), so much too big for carbides, right? I haven't done etching or anything, only up to 3000 grit in diamond stones and then polished the edge with a 2,5µm diamond stropping compound. I know that the edge likes to break along these lines. Gotta be honest I used a belt sander at first to reshape the edge and it chipped like crazy, now using stones it is quite sharp and holds up better while wood carving than the Mora or Hultafors chisel knives I have, so it isn't that brittle, just doesn't take well to the belt. I haven't seen such big grain in any blade I ever put under the microscope, what could they be (they also have a weird iridescence to them)?
So, I bought a chisel knife for woodworking. It is around 60HRC and the steel is stainless, don't know much more than that, they write it's a "specialized tool steel". It can get really sharp, but it also tends to chip when I sharpen with too much force or speed, so I took it to the microscope and saw these specks on the polished edge.
Not the best pic, I know, best I can do right now. It's around 100x and the specs are around 0,1mm in diameter (about a human hair wide), so much too big for carbides, right? I haven't done etching or anything, only up to 3000 grit in diamond stones and then polished the edge with a 2,5µm diamond stropping compound. I know that the edge likes to break along these lines. Gotta be honest I used a belt sander at first to reshape the edge and it chipped like crazy, now using stones it is quite sharp and holds up better while wood carving than the Mora or Hultafors chisel knives I have, so it isn't that brittle, just doesn't take well to the belt. I haven't seen such big grain in any blade I ever put under the microscope, what could they be (they also have a weird iridescence to them)?
