The cutting ability and edge holding performance of Talonite at a coarse finish vs D2 at a fine finish

Introduction

This is a continuation work done comparing the edge retention of Talonite to steel at a high polish [ref] and medium finish [ref]. The same method was used to induce blunting and measure sharpness.

For this comparison, the Talonite blade was left with a very coarse finish, the 100 grit hone from the Edge Pro Apex. The knife was sharpened to 20 degrees per side and then micro-beveled lightly at 25 degrees on the 100 grit waterstone.

The custom D2 blade by Mel Sorg was left at a high polish, the 2000 grit polishing tape on the Edge Pro Apex. The edge is ground at ten degrees per side, the blade is 0.020" thick behind the bevel.

As the Talonite blade did very poorly in comparison to the CPM-10V blade when both were at a high polish [ref] , the Talonite was left coarse here to see if it fared any better.

Results

The cutting was stopped after 2000 cm of cardboard as the Talonite blade was no longer able to cut the cardboard and was just ripping it. The performance on thread :

and on denim :

Discussion

In short, leaving the Talonite at a rough finish didn't help its performance. It was still far outperformed by a quality steel in regards to edge holding, both in keeping a crisp edge and even more so in regards to keeping an aggressive edge. The loss of aggression was very large for the Talonite blade which was assumed to be due to excessive fracture of the micro-teeth. To check, the edge was steeled and the denim cutting repeated. No significant gain in performance was noted. The edge had to be recut using ten strokes on a fine DMT 12" rod, which restored the slicing ability back to near optimal, it now required about two strokes to cut the fabric.

UPDATE : as noted in the comparison vs CPM-10V at a high polish [ref ], methods have been significantly updated in the years in which this review was written.

Overview of Talonite

The work comparing the Talonite to CPM-10V, VG-10 and D2 has been summarized in the review of the Talonite MEUK.

Comments

Comment can be sent to : cliffstamp[REMOVE]@cutleryscience.com and seen in the following ARCHIVED thread on Bladeforums :

• Talonite (rough finish) vs D2 (high polish)