which steel gets sharpest

[johnlucas]

I'm new to this group and new to using the BESS sharpness tester but it really helped out when writing this article for More Woodturning Magazine.  The steels I used were common steels found in the Woodturning groups.   Hope you all enjoy reading it and look forward to the input. 
https://www.morewoodturningmagazine.com/...7d78763e40

[grepper]

Welcome to the forum!
 
Very cool, excellently presented and informative article Mr. Lucas.  Thank you for your work and for sharing it with us.
 
I especially enjoyed the microscopy in coordination with edge sharpness testing; “The high carbon steel and the particle metal steel tested virtually identical. The HSS tested less sharp, which was surprising after seeing the scanned images.”  Just looking at how smooth the HSS edge is it would be easy to assume it was sharper.  It’s interesting that the HSS seemed to sharpen to a less “toothy” edge, however considering that those images were taken @ 5000X, the “toothy” difference is by definition microscopic.

Please keep us informed if you do any more testing!
 
Too bad you had to end up with a bunch of stubby little tools.

[EOU]

Thank you for the article John and thank you for joining us here on the BESS Exchange. Your article is extremely well written and documented. While we believe your primary interest lies with woodworking tools your study encompasses all sharpening disciplines and is very much appreciated. Please say hello to your friend and our friend and customer John J. when given the opportunity. You have our permission to twist his arm a bit if that is what it takes for him to join us here on the BESS Exchange.

Thanks much again.

[DaveSmith]

I'm new to this group and new to using the BESS sharpness tester but it really helped out when writing this article for More Woodturning Magazine.  The steels I used were common steels found in the Woodturning groups.   Hope you all enjoy reading it and look forward to the input. 
https://www.morewoodturningmagazine.com/...7d78763e40

John,
Thank you for the excellent article.  It definitely makes it sound like sharpness is not based on type of steel but perhaps (you didn't test this) ability to hold the edge sharpness may depend on it.  You also made a reference to "quality steel" at the end.  When you say "If you buy quality steel from the beginning you won’t have that problem", what do you mean by "quality steel"?  What is poor quality steel?
Dave Smith

[me2]

This is an often debated topic, and usually eventually falls to the question of what steel gets sharpest easiest. I have relatively simple steels that get tree topping sharp with minimal effort, while my S110V blade takes a pretty dedicated procedure and is fairly intolerant of any shortcuts or grit skipping that would work on simpler steels.

[johnlucas]

Thanks guys.  Dave   what I meant by quality steel is some steels that I have sharpened over the years the burr simply won't fall off.  It tends to just roll over and never leaves a truly sharp edge.  I've  also seen edges chip when removing the burr.   I think it has to do with several factors, hardening, tempering, make up of the steel, and probably how the particles are aligned.   Probably a lot more.   Good steel from reputable companies has never had this problem.  I'm talking mostly about imported steel, usually HighSpeedSteel since that's what I tend to use a lot.  
     Me2   I did find that the carbon steel took the least effort and the PM11 took the most but there wasn't enough difference to really worry about it.  To be consistent when sharpening I took the same number of strokes on each grit once I established how many it took to raise a burr on the PM11.   On the sanding grits it was pretty close with each steel.  When stropping it took considerably longer to achieve the fine edge with the Lee Valley Green honing compound.  I found the gold bars that carvers use honed the edge much faster on the PM11.   Again to be as consistent as possible I honed all of them on the Green bar for the final testing.

[me2]

Do you know the composition of the PM11?

[Mark Reich]

It doesn't come up on the sight I use most. I believe it's a Veritas exclusive. Kind of like Busse's "Infi". Just a proprietary name for some sort of CPM type steel.

I got one of their PM11 chisels and a blade for their low angle block plane (nearly forgot) several years ago when it first came out. I was less than impressed, TBH.

It's really difficult to beat properly heat treated high carbon tool steel for sharpness with ease.

IMHO, fine grain might be the most important ingredient for keen edges.

[me2]

Can you expand on the relationship between grain size and keen edges? I have explored it in the past and was not able to make what I would call a reliable connection.

[johnlucas]

PM 11 is a metal from Crucible steel I believe.  It means it is powdered metal an has 10% Vanadium in the steel.  If you not familiar with particle metal or powdered metal it is sort of roughly a mixture of metal particles in  sort of a powder format.  You can mix much more of other materials than you can with molten steel.   PM V15 for example is 15% Vanadium.  You can only get 4% in melted steel.   The Vanadium adds toughness which makes an edge hold up longer.  Veritas is using V11 in some of their plane blades.  The reason a lot of tool companies aren't using V15 is simply cost.  It is about 4 times the cost of V11.  It does increase edge holding about 2 to 4 times over V11.   I have a skew that is V15. Doug Thompson of Thompson tools tried to sell some tools made out of V15 but they were simply too expensive so he quit.  fortunately I got one of them.   
       Can't tell you much about how grain size affects edge quality other than with carbides.   The new carbide cutting tools have smaller carbide particles.  what they are calling Nano carbide but that's just salesman talk for smaller.  The smaller particles let you get an edge that is vastly superior to older carbide cutting tools.   The old router bits, Saw blades and metal cutting tools simply would not get very sharp at all.    The Hunter tool that I tested in my article was amazingly sharp straight out of the box, which is good because i tried everything to sharpen one of those cutters and nothing worked.  Everything I tried simply chipped the edge.