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Perhaps some of the other wood workers would comment on this: I have a
number of very old and fine cutting tools: made well before hardness tests
were widely available.
These steels are brittle and rust easily, but they sure hold an edge, even
when cutting teak. But you have to still hone and strop them to keep a fine
edge.
Today we have the ceramics, with guides, which will allow anyone to keep a
fine edge (although not as good as a strop). I have several SS diving
knives, and used them for diving, but they do not hold an edge (which I
equate with hardness--although technically there is some difference) as well
as other knives I mentioned in my previous post.
Last week I purchased a exact copy of a very expensive folding knife at a
road side seller for the princely sum of $2.00--SS, one hand open, lock back,
beautiful construction made in China--blade back half is serrated. I put it
in my van along side with my Swiss Army knief--cut seat belts etc. I
sharpened it and then did some comparisons with cutting on wood, rope and
letting the blade ride lightly against steel. I was amazed how well it did,
but not as well as the more expensive knife. On the other hand, I resharpened
it very quickly, and it is ready for the emergency one time use--or opening
the new CD to play on the way home.
A lot of the value of the knife is keeping it sharp, even the serrated
blades. I cut lines off of props (especially poly prop that had fused) that
required a hack saw. The hack saw cuts better than a good serrated knife.
When I was off shore racing sailboats the challange was finding a good
knife that I could wear at all times and NOT effect the compass, since when
driving sail boats, you are often only inches from the compass. I finally
found a "Buck" sailing knife that held an edge, had a fid and did not
influence the compass. I tried the "West Marine" (this was a number of years
ago) SS sailing knife--the problem was the spring steel was highly magnetic
and the SS blade would not hold an edge. Different alloys of Stainless are
better than holding an edge than others.
Bob Austin
Symbol 42
Pensacola, FL
