What steels take and keep a polished hair popping edge the longest?

Chris "Anagarika";14946088 said:
I shave with my Byrd Cara Cara. In between, it takes light duty such as cutting pizza, some packages (instant tea, coffee, etc). Touch up needed after 2-3 days, Spyderco UF, 1u strop or green on paper over Washboard.

I think I belong to your club too :)
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Oh, most definitely Chris. :D
 
Question to me is this.
1 Do you want a knife that will dull quickly yet can strop back to a shaving sharp edge with a few dozen strokes
2 Do you want a knife that will not dull quickly yet needs some work to get back an edge
3 Both...Can u find both?
 
Most of us don't need a steel that will hold an edge forever, but M4 comes as close as I have seen. When I moved from IL to NC a couple of years ago, I had to pack up my sharpening gear. I kept,a pocket knife with an M4 blade handy for cutting cord, opening boxes, etc. the blade stayed sharp for more,than a month and just required a touch up with a strop afterwards. I must confess that I always use a box cutter when I I can, but that knife gots lots of use.
I can't be sure that ZDP 189 wouldn't have done as well. I rarely am in a position like this.
 
thatsaknife said:
Question to me is this.
1 Do you want a knife that will dull quickly yet can strop back to a shaving sharp edge with a few dozen strokes
2 Do you want a knife that will not dull quickly yet needs some work to get back an edge
3 Both...Can u find both?
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Haven't seen a steel yet that I can't bring back to screaming sharp in a few passes on ceramic, that's like 10 seconds or so.
 
thatsaknife said:
Question to me is this.
1 Do you want a knife that will dull quickly yet can strop back to a shaving sharp edge with a few dozen strokes
2 Do you want a knife that will not dull quickly yet needs some work to get back an edge
3 Both...Can u find both?
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Edge maintenance is not hard. I can restore the pop to my M4/M390/etc blades in a few seconds
 
Sunyata said:
Edge maintenance is not hard. I can restore the pop to my M4/M390/etc blades in a few seconds
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How true. :)

The Sebenza 25 I was carrying at Blade is my EDC, I stropped it like 3 times each side on my SIC loaded strop about 3 or 4 days before the show.

For the ones who saw it they couldn't believe how sharp it was, just my basic 400 grit SIC 15 DPS edge that was touched up, nothing more than that.
 
thatsaknife said:
So there is no connection between edge holding ability and ability to sharpen?
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Not if a person knows how to sharpen a knife and has the proper equipment there isn't.

Now yeah, if they aren't that good at sharpening and or they don't have the proper equipment then they might run into some problems.

A lot of people tend to overthink the process and over complicate it.

And no it doesn't take extremely expensive equipment to do it either, but they have to make the right choices when they do buy it.

Ceramics are great for any steel, so are Silicon Carbide Stones.
 
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I have found that since I made a strop and keep it loaded with green compound that I sharpen quite a bit less
 
Some older steels like what Buck used in it's 80's BOS heat treated knives were very hard and had carbides so big the only edge you could achieve was a toothy edge. Not my favorite steel from those days.
 
So far Vanadis 4E for me, much more so than other steels that lose hair popping sharpness quickly due to actual dulling or rolling or microchipping.

I slowly chopped a 10 inch diameter tree down (took a little while of constant hacking and twisting the edge out of the wood, then made about 300 cuts through some douboe walled cardboard and then made purposefully stupid and over exaggerated twisting chops/cuts into more wood for five minutes straight. Still shaved arm hair. No way the S110V/S30V/enter a number of other steels here I've experienced could have done that and still be at least solidly arm hair shaving sharp. I sharpened it up to 14k grit mirror polish and could split hairs and cleanly draw cut toilet paper prior to the small test I did just because everyone says that higher grit edges degrade faster.

Most of the other steels rolls easier, chip easier, or just plain wear down faster. V4E was extremely impressive in its resistance to rolling, chipping, or wearing. It's tough, hard, and wear resistant, a very good combination for high sharpness retention. Too bad the knife is as heavy as crap for its size. I wouldn't mind seeing it thinned down to see what it could really do.
 
For what's it's worth I am actually doing a test right now.

Between S110V and Super Blue, both Spyderco Mule Teams.

Tested for sharpness on my Sharpness tester and will be testing as it goes on in increments.

Both knives started out within 1 gram of each other as measured on the BESS Scale.

Test meda will be cardboard.

Will be testing for high sharpness only.
 
bodog said:
So far Vanadis 4E for me, much more so than other steels that lose hair popping sharpness quickly due to actual dulling or rolling or microchipping.

I slowly chopped a 10 inch diameter tree down (took a little while of constant hacking and twisting the edge out of the wood, then made about 300 cuts through some douboe walled cardboard and then made purposefully stupid and over exaggerated twisting chops/cuts into more wood for five minutes straight. Still shaved arm hair. No way the S110V/S30V/enter a number of other steels here I've experienced could have done that and still be at least solidly arm hair shaving sharp. I sharpened it up to 14k grit mirror polish and could split hairs and cleanly draw cut toilet paper prior to the small test I did just because everyone says that higher grit edges degrade faster.

Most of the other steels rolls easier, chip easier, or just plain wear down faster. V4E was extremely impressive in its resistance to rolling, chipping, or wearing. It's tough, hard, and wear resistant, a very good combination for high sharpness retention. Too bad the knife is as heavy as crap for its size. I wouldn't mind seeing it thinned down to see what it could really do.
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Thanks for the info bodog...impressive results. What angle was your edge bevel? Any microbevel?
 
I have been collecting way too long. And i have had extremely sharp knives. But i have yet to see in person a truly hair popping edge. As in an edge that can cut a standing hair. Either that or i have very very healthy hair. Either way of the steel i have had the stuff i am most impressed with is m390 and 204p. But admittedly i dont get into steel type much.
 
PURPLEDC said:
I have been collecting way too long. And i have had extremely sharp knives. But i have yet to see in person a truly hair popping edge. As in an edge that can cut a standing hair. Either that or i have very very healthy hair. Either way of the steel i have had the stuff i am most impressed with is m390 and 204p. But admittedly i dont get into steel type much.
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1. You can youtube and see at least some wicked edge videos where the lay a knife on its spine and run a hair over its edge and the hair pops.
2. I've gotten knives sharp enough to cut hairs off my arm without touching skin. It doesn't require a lot of skill, just patience and willingness to work the apex until it's that sharp. I don't normally have the patience for it but I can do it with my sharpening equipment if I feel the need to for whatever reason.
 
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