Science of Sharp Carbides in S110V

[Josh Crutchley]

Just noticed these articles today and thought I would share. Might help explain why so many struggle sharpening S110V.
https://scienceofsharp.com/2022/01/20/c ... -part-1-3/
https://scienceofsharp.com/2022/11/17/c ... -part-2-3/

[Guts]

Super interesting. The blurple S110V PM2 was my sole carry for around 6 years. Over the years as it lost the factory edge, I'd been maintaining it on the sharpmaker but could never get it quite as sharp as factory and it always chipped super easily. Recently I've been learning about carbides and proper abrasives so I invested in diamond stones/plates, diamond strops, and made a concerted effort to working on my technique.

Now I can get the old blurple PM2 way sharper than any factory edge, but on the initial sharpening with the full diamond progression, I was still noticing micro chipping along the edge when I checked with a microscope. I wonder if that was a result of the sub-surface cracking of the carbides that the article mentions due to my using the wrong abrasives for the steel up to that point. Maybe some damaged steel below the apex remained. That or my technique was still terrible at the time .

Hope they post part 3 soon.

[GarageBoy]

So I shouldn't grind until I get a fat burr on one side and alternate more frequently? How do I know when I'm apexed?

Interesting that it deforms above the edge. I wonder if steels with a harder matrix behave similarly

[sup3rnaut]

Honestly, I don't see the point of S110V, (as a knife blade). S90V cuts almost as well, and it's tougher.

[GarageBoy]

S110v is a lot more corrosion resistant