Which steel takes the keenest edge? Finest grain structure?

[elkins45]

I was thinking Beretta (specifically the Loveless) when I made that comment about AUS8 earlier. Hell of a knife.

I was thinking of the Loveless as well. As you may remember, I'm a big fan. The zytel Loveless was the first knife I ever owned that came terriflying hair popping sharp out of the box. The hollow grind really maximizes the inherent properties of the steel.

 

[Samael]

Oh, I remember. I may be an old fart, but the mind's still sharp.

 

[boki_zca]

I like carbon steels the best(1075,1085,and l6) because theyre easiest to sharpen ,get the sharpest edge possible ,and are pretty tough .Of stainless steels I like vg10 and 154cm.Its just that carbon steels take scary edge without me even trying LOL. and even if its polished edge it bites like crazy..my douk douk, bark river bowie in 1085 and some opinels take scary edge and keep cutting.Cant believe how good is bark river 1085 heat treatment(the balance of edge holding,toughness and easiness to get sharp is amazing...literally it gets straight razor sharp without really trying and gets back to that edge after few passes on strop.Havent tried japanese white and blue steels....

 

[JTR357]

I have gotten the sharpest edges with AUS-8,CPM-M4,& 14C28N steels.

 

[me2]

From the ones I've tried, 12c27 and M2. The differences are very small between them and the others (154CM, 1095, 440X) but there is still a noticable difference.

 

[Ankerson]

I believe the answer likely has more to do with perception, guess work and the individuals sharpening ability as most of the steels mentioned will take a much keener edge than most people would have the talent to produce and telling the difference would be all but impossible.

The more normal steels are much easier to sharpen to a very high level of refinement than the high alloy steels, but using the proper equipment to handle the high alloy steels with their very hard carbides a very high level of refinement can be had.

That said I wouldn't want a razor made out of something like S90V because the high level of carbides makes for an extremely aggressive cutting ability so the refinement will be there, but it will cut so aggressively that it wouldn't be the best choice for a razor.

It's not that the steel would be any less sharp than a lower alloy steel would be, the problem would be the carbides would be a lot more aggressive than one would want for shaving.

 

[rengewwj]

Re: Lagrangian's comment about LiquidMetal

I spoke to them a few years ago about getting some stock for blades and testing. They were pretty evasive but indicated that there were already a few people who had tried it and they (LiquidMetal) were not going to support the efforts any further because the reactions from the testers had been that the material was ridiculously hard to work with. And, since Apple Computer signed their agreement with them, it seems the LM folks have dropped out of sight.