Equipment & Gear: Knife and Sharpening Steel Hardness

This is an interesting article for a couple of reasons. First off the steels are not the same so the results of the hardness tests are likewise different. Carbon steels, stainless steels and forged steels all have different properties and different grain structures and as a result, different capabilities.

In addition, the types of knives tested are themselves different. The cleaver would be softer as it is intended to crack bones and separate sections of an animal carcass. Chef knives are mostly intended to slice or chop vegetables quickly into sizes for cooking. Carbon steel knives are softer to allow rapid re-sharpening with a steel. Stainless steel is used in knives mostly for cosmetics as they do not corrode and become dark like carbon steel, but are noted for being difficult to re-sharpen and they do not take as keen an edge as carbon steel.

Many of the differences in the study can be explained either by the nature of the material used or by the use of the tool in question. Thanks for an interesting article.