Quote Originally Posted by unit View Post
I have surmised that (at least with some of the high carbide particle metallurgy steels in the knife world) that there is a point where the steel stops behaving as a homogeneous entity and starts to show its heterogeneity (based on the scale of abrasives used).

I concur. I believe one significant reason the powdered steels are advancing the art is they are more homogeneous and Hitachi's White steel can be taken to an incredibly fine hard edge which doesn't normally appear to have grain.