24 degrees according to Tim. What I cut up was my recycling bin which is 55 gallon size that was full of cardboard. I just emptied it out on the garage apron and started slicing as it went back into the bin. Prior to starting I had touched up the blade to be shaving sharp full length. When I got done, it would still cut hair, but not as well and not full length. It was still sharper than the knives the people I hunt with bring to deer camp (with one exception), and it would still work as well as when I started cutting cardboard for gutting, skinning and quartering deer.

In order to produce twice as much bevel as it came with on that diamond it took about 4 times the time and effort than my VG-10 blades. I actually spent less time and effort setting back the edge on a 6 1/2 inch VG-10 that I bought with a chip in the middle of it.

From my short experience with this steel I think it is an excellent candidate for those whose sharpening skills are "challenged". Take the knife to a professional to resharpem every couple of years and don't bother learning how to sharpen a knife. It also looks to be a great candidate for those commercial kitchens which regularly take a box full of knives to a sharpener. I would bet from what I have seen the edge will last at least twice as long as VG-10 which itself will outlast most kitchen blades by at least that much. It is for sure hard and it is for sure tough. For me to get a good handle on how much deer cutting and skinning this steel will do compared to VG-10 is going to take a couple-three years since what I found with my VG-10 hunting knife that I used exclusively it took nine deer before I felt like putting it back on a stone.