It's The Steel

After grinding my blade for quite some hours, I was puzzled as to exactly why it refused to take on a durable razor edge. As far as I could tell, I was maintaining the correct angles and taking my time with the grind so I was unlikely to be botching the edge. It was then that I figured that perhaps the problem was not with the technique so much as it was with the steel itself. Simply put, the 440 I was working was probably didn't have the world's best temper and might not even be 440 to begin with. Hmm.

So what happened...I looked to my shelf and noticed some old knife blades I had lying about and not worked for some years. In fact, the blades had a touch of rust on them, so clearly they're not the best sort of stainless steel. They might even be some sort of carbon steel. Intriguing.

After spending 20 minutes completely reworking the edge to the angle I wanted, the blade seemed to be quite happy to maintain the edge. In fact, the edge was a lot more "bitey" than I got from doing the exact same thing to my 440 pocket knife. I kept at it till the edge felt good, then I tried the paper test. It melted through the paper this time. Hmm!

So, it does seem that the steel does make a big difference in the kind of edge the blade can take. Undoubtedly, my 440 knife could take a workable edge and if properly resharpened every time, it probably could be quite serviceable. However, when trying to get a true razor edge that lasts for some time, the blade falls flat. It's the steel!