Which steel at what HRC holds the longest razor fine edge?

[Sonnydaze]

I measured every 12 inches of cardboard cut and each string cutting was the average of 5 cuts. The edges were all at 15° with ZDP189 at 12.5°.

I was surprised to see in your first graph, on Relative Edge Retention, that LC200N seems to be so much better than ZDP....and that ZDP was just clustered in with the other steels...

My "favorite" sharp blade is a Bradford G3 in Vanadis 4 Extra Clean.
It came scary sharp, and still is...The hardness is 61-62 HRC, IIRC.
It will rust if not wiped clean, but is a gorgeous, exceptional knife.

 

[spoonrobot]

I was surprised to see in your first graph, on Relative Edge Retention, that LC200N seems to be so much better than ZDP....and that ZDP was just clustered in with the other steels...

I was too. It's most likely inconsistency/consistency in my own sharpening vs. the factory edge. Potential for an abnormal performing run is there as well. Or a base asumption that an edge that starts out less sharp lasts longer, IIRC the LC200N edge was "half" as sharp as the ZDP edge. It could just be my testing method cannot discriminate at the resolution required to see a difference in a meaningful way. I need to do more trials and take an average or something. It's a fun, knotty thing to thing about and work on.