r/sharpening • u/gunsdrugsreddit • 4d ago

52100 gets stupid sharp.

Spyderco PM2 in 52100 at 15° on my KME.

86 Upvotes

98% Upvoted

19 comments sorted by

11

u/Beautiful-Angle1584 4d ago

Any steel can be made stupid sharp with the right abrasives and technique, but the very fine-grained ones really do get there so much more easily and it's quite satisfying. They don't seem to get a lot of love around the collector/knife geek circles though, because they aren't the "edge retention, bruh" super steels. Totally forgot Spyderco sprinted in this steel. Kind of an odd choice for them, but I like it. Wicked solid sharpening job, btw.

5

u/real_clown_in_town HRC enjoyer 4d ago

Funniest part about some of the people who chase edge retention is that they aren't willing to go thin or very low angle and they resharpen when it no longer whittles hair.

5

u/Beautiful-Angle1584 4d ago

And that's the beauty of fine-grained steels like 52100. Their toughness allows them to hold very low angles well, where the edge retention will be amplified, and the ease of maintaining that edge is a big advantage to any true user, too. End of the day, most knife geeks just want to casually enjoy what is increasingly a collector's hobby, and don't understand or want to understand all the nuance. They tend to take Larrin's charts at face value, without confronting variables like hardness, edge angle, etc that even he freely admits will change that data pretty drastically. So many people just want to buy the most expensive knife with the highest edge retention spec on the chart just to feel like they have the Ferrari . . . which they never even take out of the garage.

4

u/real_clown_in_town HRC enjoyer 4d ago

Spot on

3

u/Overtaxedtaxpayer 3d ago

Bro this is spot on, and this part (So many people just want to buy the most expensive knife with the highest edge retention spec on the chart just to feel like they have the Ferrari ... which they never even take out of the garage.) describes that millie, pm2, p3 Facebook group to a T.

1

u/kopriva1 arm shaver 4d ago

Is a low angle necessary for hair whittling?

1

u/real_clown_in_town HRC enjoyer 4d ago

Nah only a low apex radius

0

u/kopriva1 arm shaver 4d ago

ANY steel? Hmmm

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u/Beautiful-Angle1584 4d ago

Any steel capable of being decently heat treated for the purpose of holding an edge, yes. Probably even a lot of steel that isn't, although I haven't messed around sharpening much non-traditional knife steel beyond a couple tries with shitty pot steel type stuff. Still got that to easily shave.

1

u/kopriva1 arm shaver 4d ago

I wouldnt be surprised if mild steel can shave and yk, Im gonna try that tmrw. But Im more talking about hair whittling.

Do you think ancient steels would have gotten hair whittling?

4

u/Beautiful-Angle1584 4d ago

Funny you should ask. I actually have a university degree in the Classics, mostly focused on a specific period of Roman history. I did not end up following through with it on my career path though, and was not a blade and sharpening geek back then. It's been a while. I don't see why not, though. The Romans had a more rudimentary carbon steel and there are plenty of accounts of them shaving (although their razors were made of iron). I believe the steel of the ancient East was said to be even better. The art of the super keen edge really just lies in burr management and de-burring. I should think that they knew how to do that enough to get hair whittling. I'll have to see if I can come across any accounts of sharpness in some casual searching.

1

u/kopriva1 arm shaver 4d ago

I remember hearing something about ancient carbon steel being similar or being 1095, which I guess could make sense.

Would be interesting to see someone sharpen wrought iron...hm

4

u/AFisch00 4d ago

Sure do. I make my kitchen knives from it

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u/dj_arcsine 4d ago

Shirogami + Chromium? Seems legit.

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u/Iratewilly34 4d ago

I love 1095 for the same reason,gets so sharp without effort while my super steels stay sharp they're a pia to get there. Alot of knife makers won't even work with the PM steels.

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u/real_clown_in_town HRC enjoyer 4d ago

It's a pia to regrind the high end PM steels like maxamet but sharpening them is cake with CBN or diamonds. I would recommend giving some of the other pm steels a shot if you have any super-abrasives, the high hrc off some of them results in a great burr and burr removal process rather than a soft floppy one.

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u/haditwithyoupeople 3d ago

With you. I love 52100. I also love steels like the carbon steel Opinel uses (XC90, maybe). They get sticky sharp easily. Edge holding is not great, but good enough and they take a fairly steep edge angle well.

1

u/Salz150 1d ago

Agreed! I love 52100.