Are there any steels that can withstand cardboard?

So here's the thing about people who notice a chip in their supersteel blades after cutting up a bunch of cardboard: They don't actually remember slamming their blade into a staple.

And in most cases I bet they didn't. What happens is that these supersteels suffer microscopic fractures. Normally these fractures would get sharpened out, but as so many people with these steels strop rather than take the knives to a stone these fractures propagate deeply into the blade. Then it only takes one fiber of the cardboard to work its way into the fracture and tear out a nice big chip.

So if you think you are saving metal by stropping instead of sharpening you are probably doing exactly the opposite.

/r/knives Thread Parent