The Other Magic Steel

Aside from the steel in Barr tools, there is only one other steel that I swear makes a difference in my work, and that's the Veritas PM-V11.

I've been using the stuff since 2012, before it was even released to the public. Veritas sent out a bunch of sample blades in different steels to hand-tool users for feedback, including some wild M4 plane blades (my sharpening stones say "no thank you" to that stuff).

You can read all you like about powdered metals on the internet. I've gotten to work with a lot of powdered metals over the years. And I can say – hand on heart – that just because it's a powdered metal does not mean it's awesome.

Like old-fashioned carbon steel, A2 or stainless, everything depends on how the steel is handled and treated, from start to finish. I've used some powdered metals that were on par with pot metal.

Back to PM-V11: I began …