I have an idea Bruce. Get a rope!

just about anything dulls knives, corigated cardbaord, all kinds of tuff, just get a bunch of wahtever material you choose, get an sr77 knife an sr101 knife and cut away.
<img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/laugh.gif" alt="" />
you don't have any rats bld522?

I have cut a lot of stuff. I did a test on my SS4 when I first got it and cut cardboard for a long time without it getting dull.

Hammered it through hard dry maple.

and even did food prep.

But nothing dulled an edge liking cutting that dried stingray. I only cut out enough for 2 sides of one small(Mule)knife and I dulled both the Swarden and the Mule. Other than my SS4 which was not handy I did not have any Scrapyards sharp enough. Now I have the YKCG so it MIGHT be sharp enough if I thin it out a bit.

Actually I can tell how good edge retention is on a knife by how long it takes to sharpen. My buddy gave me a old stainless chefs knife to sharpen and it was really dull and by the time I finally got it sharp I wanted to buy it off him.
Even though all the labels were worn off I could tell by how hard it was to sharpen that it was a great knife. 52100 is the same way, it is not as hard as S30V but harder than S7.

I think you are right, Usub. Before I got the belt sander, I used to hate it when my friends would give me old German Pumas or new ATS-34 knives to sharpen.It took a long time to sharpen a really dull one. SR101 is a little harder to sharpen than SR77, so I'm guessing it is a little more wear resistant. SR77 is as easy to sharpen as 1095. It sharpens easily and holds an edge pretty well. Of course, I have wasted hours trying to sharpen cheap 420 knives for folks. Unless the heat treat is right, 420 just won't take a good edge.

Actually, INFI sharpens fairly easily. I don't know if it is any harder than SR101. None of the Busse steels are as hard to sharpen as ATS-34.

No. I don't know for sure that INFI holds an edge that much better than SR101. It may be tougher and more corrosion resistant. I'm glad Busse doesn't made thier blades too hard. No matter how hard you make them, eventually ALL will dull. Edge retention is important, but I think some manufacturers go overboard with it. I like all the Busse steels better than some of the super hard stainless steels I've used. Besides, all three of the Busse steels are tough, not just hard. If Busse ever does decide to replace SR101 with another steel, it would be because they developed a better one.

From the Big Dog

INFI is the exception as far as sharpening because it gets it's edge retention from having a bunch of very expensive alloys like vanadium rather than greater amounts of carbon. Steel is chemistry where things interact with each other making it hard to make simple definitive statements of fact.

Another example of how steel works is if you take some 1060 it does not get hard enough to provide good edge holding. One way of getting that edge better would be to add more carbon like 1095 but after a certain point more carbon makes the steel brittle and reduces toughness(about70)so instead of adding carbon you could add a pinch of chromium not nearly enough to make it stainless but which gives it a hardness kick. That steel is 5160 ,the 51 is the chromium and the 60 indicates the
carbon.

Even if 2 blades are identical ,sharpened to the same geometry they can cut completely differently if they are sharpened with different grits. Just because a very fine grit is better for pushcutting wood does not mean it is the best for everything. There was just an interesting article in one of the knife mags about how dock workers in alaska who cut fish all day use a very coarse diamond hone that would normally only be used to set a bevel in order to give their blades a toothy almost miniserrated edge.

It sure would be silly to drop SR101 now that even other companies are starting to realize it's value. Spyderco recently released their Mule knife in 52100 in order to test the abilities of the steel. I compared mine to the very similar Strider ED in S30V and the 52100 took a sharper edge that cut better but did not hold it quite as long. Thye Mule is a fantastic knife though ,one of my favourites ever.