Tom, there is one thing I don’t understand. What do you measn by the critical thickness/thinness, and why should you either increase the angle or stop abrading in order to avoid carbide popout? I’d think that the smaller the abrasive material is, the less chance there is you get a carbide popout. (But maybe I don’t understand Verhoeven well enough.)
Therein lies what interests me, as we sharpen thru the progressions we first raise a burr and then continue a scratch removal course of action. The burr raising is done at the coarser grits which is the unavoidable opposite of the apex minimum force goal. While carbides usually don’t pop out during sharpening (except maybe microscopically), we do get microchipping during use, is it at random locations or “weak energy bonding” locations driven by our cutting and chopping in the kitchen.
Hmm, I wonder what the SEM images of steel with no/minimum carbides show. I will look them up for later.
I do not profess that I know what is going on and maybe we are just dealing with the nature of the beast. I will leave for now with the following question: Is it possible to have a steel with ZERO primary carbides and LOTS of secondary carbides.