02-14-2018, 12:26 PM
I don't know of a tungsten steel I don't love. M2 and M4 are amazing. All Hitachi blue steels are outstanding, and ZDP 189 is my favorite stainless.
I never would have guessed AEB-L was that old, but it is way underappreciated, and I have no idea why. By the book, it does look plain, but so does 52100, and the Skandi steels (except 8Cr13MoV). I can only guess that super clean, fine grain is more important than people give credit.
I have always been aware that 52100 can have extremely fine grain, and I pull out all the stops to obtain it. Between that, and the right cryo, I don't have another explanation for the performance of my knives. In the same hands, M2 at 64 is not a lot better. The biggest difference is my knives will not break, and M2 is not very tough, but I would love to try M2 with the way I draw my blades.
I have a nice bar of CPM D2 that I've been wanting to try. I could probably get 4 blades out of it, and send them to Brad at Peter's for HT. I've heard great things, like it's better than regular D2 in every way. Even ease of sharpening, which CPM stuff tends not to be, but I hear a lot of people have trouble sharpening D2.
Mr. Me2, what do you think about forging CPM D2 a little? I could get way more use out of the bar if I could rough shape with distal taper.
I never would have guessed AEB-L was that old, but it is way underappreciated, and I have no idea why. By the book, it does look plain, but so does 52100, and the Skandi steels (except 8Cr13MoV). I can only guess that super clean, fine grain is more important than people give credit.
I have always been aware that 52100 can have extremely fine grain, and I pull out all the stops to obtain it. Between that, and the right cryo, I don't have another explanation for the performance of my knives. In the same hands, M2 at 64 is not a lot better. The biggest difference is my knives will not break, and M2 is not very tough, but I would love to try M2 with the way I draw my blades.
I have a nice bar of CPM D2 that I've been wanting to try. I could probably get 4 blades out of it, and send them to Brad at Peter's for HT. I've heard great things, like it's better than regular D2 in every way. Even ease of sharpening, which CPM stuff tends not to be, but I hear a lot of people have trouble sharpening D2.
Mr. Me2, what do you think about forging CPM D2 a little? I could get way more use out of the bar if I could rough shape with distal taper.