Thread: Best way to sharpen Mercator Stainless?

Originally Posted by Cordite

90% of times you need to sharpen it it just needs its edge straightened, does not need a stone that removes metal.

Just use a smooth steel nail as a sharpening steel. It does not need to take anything off the blade, all it does is straighten the microscopic bends of the edge / ridge.

Stainless blades have the general advantage that they get work-hardened by the strokes, which helps retain the edge. Not sure if carbon steel work-hardens much, someone please chip in.

Manganese is typically the element responsible for work hardening tendencies in carbon steels, the percentage of manganese in steel is sometimes increased in the manufacturing process for such things as cutting teeth or blades on earthmoving equipment, with a knife its not really desirable to have the blade work harden as it will become increasingly difficult to sharpen and increase in brittleness with a tendency for breakage as usage occurs, so the manganese content is moderated to produce the desirable hardness qualities (Rockwell Hardness) obtained by hardening and tempering but limit the tendency for work hardening. @Von Gruff Knives on here could probably write you a thesis on this subject, I'm 40 years out of engineering but this is how I recall it.