AEB-L at 63 for Kitchen Knife?

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DrHenley

Joined
May 31, 2019
Messages
277
Honestly, I had never even heard of AEB-L until a few weeks ago. And it seems most AEB-L knives are around 58-60 HRC and people complain about them not holding an edge. Inexpensive, good corrosion resistance, very tough, easy to sharpen, but doesn't hold an edge that well.

I have read that at 62-63 HRC it really starts to shine, but haven't found many people doing that. It is supposed to be still very tough at 63 HRC, or so the charts I have seen say so. Seems to me that at 62-63 this steel should be ideal.

Anyhow, I decided to try it for myself. I made a chef's knife out of AEB-L and sent it to Peters with instructions to make it 63 HRC. Still waiting to get it back. I made another one but I'm waiting to have it heat treated until I get the first one back and run it through some torture tests (like making tabouleh, LOL)
 
I’ve had my AEB-L Culinary Knives THed by BOS for around 3 years with a target of 60-61 RC and now Nitro-V & have had no complaints or issues from customers from Pro-Chefs to Household cooks. ——————I’ve seen a few here claim it has to be 63 or they won’t hold an edge, that hasn’t been my experience making thin edged Japanese style Santuko etc Knives . Reach you own conclusions.
 
I hope you enjoy trying it out!
 
Robert Erickson said:
There are many factors that affect edge retention: Edge angle, hardness, edge thickness etc. Here's a great article by Larrin Larrin discussing these factors in detail.
https://knifesteelnerds.com/2018/06/18/maximizing-edge-retention/
Click to expand...
Maybe I'm not your average newbie. BEFORE joining this site I spent weeks studying everything I could find on the subjects of edge geometry, edge stability, edge retention, carbon vs chromium content, K1 vs K2 chromium carbides, proper heat treating, cryo treating and AEB-L carefully. Including that page. Great resource BTW...

I exhausted Google, and then and only then did I come here hoping for answers beyond Google. Namely personal experiences of real people.
 
For my first AEB-L Chef's knife I had Peters do the heat treat since they are the most reputable, and requested a 63 hardness. They tested it at 62. It has a full flat grind of approximately 2.5 DPS, with 0.02 BTE and 0.08 at the spine at the top of the plunge line with a flat distal taper. It's too light for a general chef's knife, but good for making tabouleh, so I'm calling it my "tabouleh knife" :)

And BTW, kudos to Peters - they sent it back as straight as an arrow, even with that very thin blade already ground. It wasn't quite that straight when I sent it to them!
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I find that making tabouleh is the most demanding thing I do with a kitchen knife. Finely cubing tomatoes and cucumbers requires low friction high sharpness slicing ability. And there is lots and lots of chopping involved with the garlic, mint, and parsley. I found that at 10 DPS I had a good bit of edge rolling, especially in the middle of the belly which got quite dull. I'm using an edge grain Bamboo cutting board which generally does not damage knives much. I need to play around with the bevels, and will probably keep a 10 DPS secondary bevel to enable easy slicing of tomatoes and cucumbers, but go to a much more obtuse micro bevel, possibly up to 20 DPS, to strengthen the edge.
 
Thanks for the update! Please keep us posted on the results of your efforts to find an optimal edge.
 
Since this was a prototype for knives I will by making for my three sisters, I decided to use a pull through sharpener this time since I'm pretty sure that's what they will use. I got a four stage sharpener that has a side for Asian knives and a side for Western knives. I profiled the edge using the Asian side, then switched over to the Western side and lightly ran it through the fine stones to apex it. I'm not sure what the exact angle is, I will try to determine that.

If this works, I'll give each of them a four stage pull through and instruct them on how to use it.

Theirs will be pretty much identical except convex ground instead of full flat ground to give the blade a little more heft.
 
Here is the final shape. Very close to the Tabouleh Knife, just a tad longer. The plunge line is 8" from the tip with a 1/3" recessed heel, which comes back past the end of the rounded end of the handle (which you can see in the picture of the "Tabouleh Knife"). The rounded end of the scale is to allow you to comfortably curl your index finger around it for a pinch grip.

It has a gradual distal taper out to an inch back from the tip (spine tapers from 0.12" at the plunge line to 0.07" at 1" from the tip) and then the distal taper increases from there to the tip. This has sufficient heft for more heavy duty chopping than the prototype.
kU5FzOk.png


Credit to youtuber Ekim Knives for his video on blending convex bevels on a chef's knife. His method worked wonderfully on AEB-L. I was able to smooth out all the irregularities and deep sanding scratches and got it to what I consider a professional level finish. A first for me!
 
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