To me there is a world between 150 BESS and 100 BESS, and another one (maybe two) between 100 BESS and 50 BESS. I have never gotten to 50 BESS, but the standard SG/PA-70-on-leather setup gives me consistently 90-110 BESS with 15 dps, and 85-100 BESS with 12.5 dps.
150 BESS happens in a few situations that I can think of :
- Knives made out of junk (soft) steel. They can't be sharpened at an acute angle and an obtuse angle yields poor results anyway.
- Partially honed knives. There is a burr or some plastified metal left, so they have to be honed some more.
- Medium quality steel finished with chromium oxide or diamond spray on felt wheel. I could never figure for the life of me why it would degrade BESS readings, but it does, probably because of poor technique. The readings get back to 100ish if I hone them again on the leather wheel. This phenomenon doesn't happen on 63+ HRC steel.
So I wouldn't loose courage if I were you, I would try to hone a bit more than you usually do, and remember Vadim's results that low initial BESS is not a significant factor in edge retention. Steel quality and edge angle are, though. I also find that SG edges tend to retain their cutting ability longer than SJ edges.
150 BESS happens in a few situations that I can think of :
- Knives made out of junk (soft) steel. They can't be sharpened at an acute angle and an obtuse angle yields poor results anyway.
- Partially honed knives. There is a burr or some plastified metal left, so they have to be honed some more.
- Medium quality steel finished with chromium oxide or diamond spray on felt wheel. I could never figure for the life of me why it would degrade BESS readings, but it does, probably because of poor technique. The readings get back to 100ish if I hone them again on the leather wheel. This phenomenon doesn't happen on 63+ HRC steel.
So I wouldn't loose courage if I were you, I would try to hone a bit more than you usually do, and remember Vadim's results that low initial BESS is not a significant factor in edge retention. Steel quality and edge angle are, though. I also find that SG edges tend to retain their cutting ability longer than SJ edges.