Knife Material and Blade Sharpening

Mine looks far cheaper and only costed €1......but works great..

Gentlemen and ladies, too much bickering amongst the countries of the world on this particular thread. Started out good, but seems like it dived off. Everybody "chill out"!!! Dave. the cryo guy. dkimmel@300below.com

Be that as it may, what's the point in having a blade, if it's not as sharp as possible ?

The yellow object above, was the instrument used to initiate the trajectory of the planes which slammed into the twin-towers - remember ?

Sharpness isn't everything. A tool needs to be designed for the job in paw.

Del (zzzzzzzzzzzzzzz)

If you are talking of steel, absolutely incorrect. Hardness depends only on Carbon content and nothing else no matter what someone tells you.

Higher the carbon higher the hardness. As Carbon content rises the brittleness increases, ductility and elasticity decreases. The edge will powder off.

The way to high sharpness to to alloy high Carbon Steel 0.6-0.8% (there are alloys which are>1% C) with high Chromium content. If you can afford it further alloying with Molybdenum and Vanadium will greatly enhance the properties.

If you use 1.1% plain Carbon steel and get an edge (Need not be very sharp) on it that edge will last a long time but good only to cut soft vegetables (not on meat for it could snap) but my mother (a vegan) swore by it and never used the 440 stainless knives, which have to be sharpened. Other applications are garden shears and scissors. The problem is that, this steel will rust fast and has to greased when not in use hence the widespread use of stainless steel

To get very high sharpness the material has to ductile like 4340 and harden and temper to ~ 50-55 Rc. Sharpness is not an important criteria in cutting and it is always the edge geometry that is important in an application