Glossary of steel and sharpening
What the words on an instrument actually mean: the steel, the forging, the edge and the tests it passes before it leaves Solingen.
The final edge put on at a wheel by a person who watches how the two blades meet. On curved instruments no machine has replaced this step.
The heat treatment that sets an instrument’s final hardness. Under-hardened steel goes blunt in months; over-hardened steel chips at the tip.