Suggested Bevel for SR101?

[JBoone]

Just wanted to get some general Ideas/suggestions. My buddy has been using his SYKCO 511 for skinning elk and shipped to me in the mail to sharpen on my wicked edge. He is no beginner regarding knives/shrpening, etc, and complains that it will not hold an edge through one elk, but his buddies knives of Alaska in D2 does much better.

He says he has had a hard time keeping it sharp and wanted me to put an edge on it with my WE. I received the knife. He has thinned the steel behind the edge ceating a fairly large bevel. I am trying to come up with ideas as to what general micro bevel I should aim for.
He had previously done this with a Lansky system but was not hap

Any suggestions as to a rough angle to shoot for? Do you think that this steel will hold an edge for skinning? Corse or refined?
No experience with this steel but my understanding is this steel is more about toughness than edge retention?

Going to do my best to return it with a great edge and want to have durability as well.

May not be enough information but I thought that I would throw this out there.

 

[tinfoil hat timmy]

sr101 can go pretty thin geometry wise iirc

swamprat and busse both have forums here that you'd get more responses I thi k. maybe try there too

 

[TheOne45]

No experience with this steel but my understanding is this steel is more about toughness than edge retention?

It sure looks like. A knife made to be used for prying?
Is this the only company using this steel? I couldn't find any other company and there is not much on the net about this steel.
It would be interesting to know, why they used this steel in the flood of all those other options you can get on the market.

I found a thread on this forum about SR101 steel from 2022. They stopped using it.
https://www.bladeforums.com/threads/we-bid-farewell-to-sr-101-steel.1895216/
Perhaps the starter of this thread could give you more information about the steel and what edge would be the best.

 

[AbuAyesha]

It sure looks like. A knife made to be used for prying?
Is this the only company using this steel? I couldn't find any other company and there is not much on the net about this steel.
It would be interesting to know, why they used this steel in the flood of all those other options you can get on the market.

I found a thread on this forum about SR101 steel from 2022. They stopped using it.
https://www.bladeforums.com/threads/we-bid-farewell-to-sr-101-steel.1895216/
Perhaps the starter of this thread could give you more information about the steel and what edge would be the best.

My best understanding is SR101 is the designation given by the Busse group for 52100 steel with their proprietary heat treat.

 

[TheOne45]

My best understanding is SR101 is the designation given by the Busse group for 52100 steel with their proprietary heat treat.

52100 .... old bearing steel.
So; we could say SR101 is 52100 with special heat treatment and 52100 is somehow 1095 steel with small addition of chromium to lower the quenching speed.
So the edge retention should be somehow higher as 1095 steel but still much lower as D2 steel.

and complains that it will not hold an edge through one elk, but his buddies knives of Alaska in D2 does much better.

I would say; no matter how good you sharpen this knife it won't reach D2 steel edge retention.
I'm sure there are hunters in this thread who could share some experiences about skinning, steel and edge retention.

 

[sodak]

[...]
I would say; no matter how good you sharpen this knife it won't reach D2 steel edge retention.
[...]

This right here. D2 will just be better overall for skinning with it's edge retention. There are other steels, of course, that will do better than D2 for that application.

Having said that, SR101/52100 is one of my favorite all around steels for a lot of outdoor tasks. It is very well balanced and for me, easy to sharpen. I think I thinned my Bandicoot out to about 12 deg per side with a slight microbevel, and it's one of my favorite knives.

 

[TheOne45]

I would say each steel has it's soul, from plain construction steel to Bohler and Uddeholm high-tech steel.

I suppose we all have some preferences when buying a knife.... the look, steel, price, company, where was made,.....
Easy to sharpen is not something I'm concerned about because I sharpen on diamonds. I just made myself a nice scraper for my fire stick out of carbide hardness and had no problem making a nice sharp edge on my diamond plates.

I have no problem with carbon steel. One of my Opinels is made of carbon steel and I like it. I just find Inox steel more practical for kitchen or outdoor work.

I could say I don't have problems with any steel. I believe each steel (more or less) has it's place... but, some steels should not be used for certain applications.
For example, 420 and 420j2 steel would be good for some shelf holders or similar. I would not call this steel a crap. I would call a crap the person who decided to use it for knives.

Otherwise, for example those people up on the north could survive and managed to do all tasks using those plain carbon Puukko knives.