curious newbie

Alex:
There are some good commercial web sites such as
The A to Z of Materials,
Key to Metals (other than steels), (See articles)
Key to Steel, (See articles)
There also are noncommercial sites such as
Materials Science and Technology Online, Matter,
Exploring Materials Engineering,
Discovering Materials Science and Engineering, Pittsburgh Pete ----------------- DISCLAIMER
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Excellent, thanks! I will check these sites and do some reading. I got into buying woodworking handtools such as chisels and handplanes. depending upon the content of the steel blade is how long it will hold an edge, and as well, how easy or hard it is to sharpen. Example, Sweden is famous for it's tool steel, Austria is not. So, I have one Sandvick chisel and a set of Stubai chisels. The Sandvick (Sweden) is very hard to sharpen and leaves gummy black streaks in the abrasive paper (glued to glass, using a honing guide), the Stubai's (Austria) are super easy to sharpen and leave a lighter color of gray dust, supposedly this is much better and it's the type off steel that will hold an edge longer, as in Japanese handmade, laminated chisels and plane blades.
Alex

Have fun John