[Bill Harsey]

The type of edge that comes off the Norton Fine India stone (as previously described by me in this thread) has been proven, in both field and bench testing to last the longest in hard knife work. Let me explain why I say this:

This is not just my opinion but the result of extensive field testing by some very experienced hunters using knives in Africa, Australia and all over North America who then bring their observations back to us in our "group".

This "group" I work with for knife testing consists of two American Master Blade smiths, a senior scientist/knifemaker from Lawrence Livermore National Laboratories and one of those hunters described above plus Chris Reeve and myself. We also have a couple of those Crucible Steel metallurgists around in case we have a question. This is far from a mutual admiration society.

This "group" meets once a year for a formal presentation and works together year around on heat treating, edge geometry and sharpening. We have done so for over a decade now.

If we can't get the sharpening right, there is no way to test and compare different alloys of steel and focus on the optimum heat treat. We have learned there is a direct relation to the sharpness of cut, grain size and type of the grit in the sharpening stone that makes a knife cut aggressively and hold it's edge as long as possible.

The Norton Fine India is the standard we use for all field and bench testing work because the edge that results from correctly using this stone is the best we've found.