"The martensitic stainless steel alloy used for the cutting blades is optimized for high toughness and corrosion resistance and has a composition of 15% chromium, 0.60% silicon, 0.52% carbon, 0.50% molybdenum, and 0.45% manganese and is designated X55CrMo14 or 1.4110 according to Victorinox. After a hardening process at 1040 °C and annealing at 160 °C the blades achieve an average blade steel hardness of 55-56 HRC. This steel hardness is suitable for practical use and easy resharpening, but less than achieved in stainless steel alloys used for blades optimized for high wear resistance.[5][6][7] According to Victorinox the martensitic stainless steel alloy used for the parts is X39Cr13 or 1.4031 and for the springs X20Cr13 or 1.4021.[8] The steel used for the wood saws, scissors and nail files has a steel hardness of HRC 53, the screwdrivers, tin openers and awls have a hardness of RC 52, and the corkscrew and springs have a hardness of HRC 49. The metal saws and files, in addition to the special case hardening, are also subjected to a hard chromium plating process so that iron and steel can also be filed and cut."


what would the recommenced angle for their boning / skinning knifes be

I have been using 17 deg , tried using 18 deg and it felt blunt as .. went back to 17 and felt good again but no durability of cause

from the knife wiki most Hardness around 56 are around 20 deg with a few listed around what I am using now

ChristopherStaples wrote:


Are you saying that the edge fails at 17 degrees?

My .02... part of the answer depends on what you use the knife for... so what works for one may not necessarily for work for another. But, assuming that you don't like it at 18 deg. but it fails at 17 deg., you can try a couple of things:

Make sure that you're getting a clean edge, and that you don't have a bur or wire edge that is failing. If the edge fails in one or two cuts, this could be the reason (again depending on what you're using it for).

You can actually try an even lower secondary bevel... at 15 or 16 deg., then put on a primary edge at 17-18 deg. Having a lower secondary bevel may improve the overall performance. Do as little as possible to set the primary edge, you don't want it very large at all.

Apologies if I didn't understand your post.

cbw

just thought I would follow up on this

I won 1x knife sharpness test for boning knife


I made my first angle @ 6 deg using edge pro
( knife was pretty rubbish I could see it falling apart at this angle assuming the others lost by having angle to low )

then applied my primary edge using WEPS which was anywhere between 15 ~ 18 deg as different stones / material seemed to touch either the back or front of the edge so I had to keep changing the Angles so the edge was polished
went to 3.5 microns paste on glass with bare leather lightly touching it up before removing from vice

I lost the skinning knife assuming because everyone used extremely low angles as they were all hollow ground apart from mine


I used the same double edge method

@ 6 deg in the edge pro it even held the edge nicely and was extremely hair withering but decided to apply the final edge in the WEPS ( bad decision as the WEPS can only go to 15 deg ) and the comp was for least resistance and not durability


I am still wanting data and pretty annoyed that the skinning knife did not even place in the top 5 with mirror finishes

Thanks for the update.... you were in a sharpening contest? There a link to it?

ChristopherStaples wrote:


Hey Christopher!

I caught this last statement and it really hits home on quite a range of different steel. I have found many times over the years it is the "Application" that you sharpen a knife (or edge) to rather than the pretty picture it provides (mirror edge). The big thing many miss with sharpening edges is the question: What are you going to do with it? The parameters of steel make up, angles, and final edge all play a big part in perceived performance/sharpness of an edge. You can sharpen any good steel to a low angle and have it roll right off (too thin) when used. Just the same you can sharpen a cheap piece of junk sheet metal knife to a high angle and it will never hold an edge (fractures right off as you sharpen).

Of course both of these things can happen to any knife if you try hard enough. Remember the old saying: Right tool for the right job always applys.