Henry Rifle Forums

I agree clovishound. I am starting to appreciate some of the high carbon steel blades as good workers. They need different care, but are nice.

In the woodworking world the big two steels are O1 ie normal high carbon steel, and A2 a special alloy that is often cyrogenically treated. The consensus is that the A2 holds an edge longer, the O1 is easier to sharpen, doesn't hold an edge as long, but can be sharpened to a sharper edge. Neither are corrosion resistant.

Unless things have changed, most, or all, stainless steel alloys are harder to sharpen, will not hold an edge as long, and cannot be sharpened as sharp as high carbon steel. The only upside is corrosion resistance. This seems to be enough to ensnare the vast majority of consumers. It makes more sense to me in kitchen knives, which are exposed to various liquids and acids, although I understand many high end chef's knives are HCS. Of course, a chef will likely take better care of his/her knives that the average user. They also expect better performance.

I'll have to ask my brother about his knives next time we chat. He is a professional chef, and currently teaches at a culinary institute in the Chicago area. I've seen him at work when carving meats with his knives or prepping veggies, but never noticed what he uses or asked him anything about them. Of course, my interest in knives has only recently come about, so this will be a fun chat to have with him.

Thanks for the interesting info and discussion you and Dave have going!

clovishound wrote:In the woodworking world the big two steels are O1 ie normal high carbon steel, and A2 a special alloy that is often cyrogenically treated. The consensus is that the A2 holds an edge longer, the O1 is easier to sharpen, doesn't hold an edge as long, but can be sharpened to a sharper edge. Neither are corrosion resistant.

Unless things have changed, most, or all, stainless steel alloys are harder to sharpen, will not hold an edge as long, and cannot be sharpened as sharp as high carbon steel. The only upside is corrosion resistance. This seems to be enough to ensnare the vast majority of consumers. It makes more sense to me in kitchen knives, which are exposed to various liquids and acids, although I understand many high end chef's knives are HCS. Of course, a chef will likely take better care of his/her knives that the average user. They also expect better performance.

when we packed for out winter trip to Texas, I forgot to pack my knife sharpening gear .... needing to sharpen some of Maureen's kitchen knives but not wanting to spend much money on sharpeners, I checked Amazon .... while several different types caught my eye, I ended up ordering their SunrisePro Knife Sharpener ===> https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0...?ie=UTF8&psc=1 <=== my decision was guided in part by price $19.97 and that with Prime it qualified for free shipping .... the biggest factor was a 5 Star rating based on 3,633 customer reviews .... to me that was impressive .... it arrived today and I used it to sharpen the 3 knives .... I wouldn't use it to sharpen my good knives but for working blades it does OK .... it did put a solid working edge with minimal effort but I wasn't impressed with the way it looked .... for what I wanted it to do, it should be fine

I read about it just now. It will do the trick, but I agree not using it for the "good" stuff.

the Old Timer shown above had very dull blades .... it only took a few passes through the SunrisePro to get an edge that would cut paper .... not sharp enough shave .... the sides of the edge are a bit rougher than I'm used to .... a smooth stone would probably take them out .... to take a work knife from dull to pretty dang sharp it serves well

Learn to sharpen by hand. My method: I use an Atoma 140 diamond stone to set the bevels or reshape a blade and then progress through Shapton Glass Stones to get a shaving sharp edge. I also use several strops to get then screaming sharp. Most of my fixed blade knives are O1 or A2 but I also have some really nice fixed blades from a gent in Croatia who makes knives from the steel ball bearings out of the turrets of the Hellcat Tanks.

I use a diamond plate and a steel for the maintenance of my kitchen knives. I don't bother to work up to very high grits for a kitchen knife. I can take a dull blade to sharp enough to race through a ripe tomato in just a minute or so. Not good enough for woodworking, but fine for the kitchen.

I use other more coarse abrasives for either establishing a bevel or repairing a damaged neglected edge. I have even broken my "no dry grinding on HCS" rule for a badly damaged knife. Neighbor gave me a decent Buck knife he found in a car he purchased. It had a broken tip. It was SS, and free, so I decided it wasn't worth the trouble of hand shaping a new tip. I went slow, quenched often and managed to reform it without overheating the edge. I reformed to a blunt edge and finished intersecting the bevel by hand. It sharpened up good enough to stow in my hunting backpack as a backup blade.

I'm glad to hear your sharpener was a good buy. You could clean up the edge on the bottom of a ceramic mug perhaps.

My brother is an amazing freehand sharpener and all I've ever been able to accomplish freehand is making butter knives. Then I picked up an Edge Pro and a good strop, Now all my knives are sharp. I did get an Atoma 140 for repairs and establishing angles, and a set of Shapton glass and high grit Choseras for the final edge.