Anyone have any experience w/ Becker BK2 and rough vs. polished edge?

REK Knives

REK Knives

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Knifemaker / Craftsman / Service Provider
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was reading another post the other day and saw that, apparently some carbon steels need to be sharpened w/ a rougher grit, thereby creating a toothier edge. i wanted to see for myself how a toothy edge vs a polished edge would perform, so i did both (EP up to 6000 grit and then to a strop w/ .25 micron paste), vs a 240 grit on my belt sander finished on a plain leather belt. what did i find? I could NOT get the edge to push cut through newspaper! i have never had a knife I couldn't get this to happen before... and it's not the thickness of the knife because a couple of my other survival knives w/ just as thick of a blade can do it w/out problems.

so here's my question: has anyone else had any experiences/problems w/ putting a high polished edge on the BK2? are the molecules in the 1095 cro-van more "toothy" or rougher? I looked it up on youtube, and can't find any videos of anyone push cutting through paper w/ the BK2. Thoughts?
 
Not the Becker, but I have an ESEE that is somewhat similar to the BK2 and it has a polished edge that works very well and is holding up better that the toothy edge it came with (at least for what I do with it).

I have experienced nothing to suggest that a polished edge won't offer the same advantages/disadvantages on 1095 that it offers on other common
steels.
 
1095 Crovan should take any type of edge you care to put on it, and take it well. My BK11 holds a coarse edge or a relatively fine edge quite well, and will push cut newsprint as well as any other steel at a given grit. I don't have the specs for the BK2 in front of me, but if it has real thick spine/ blade stock it may not cut newsprint tremendously well at any level of refinement.
 
ok thanks guys... guess i'll have to play around w/ it more.
 
Here's a quick update. Nice coincidence that this thread landed within a day of reprofiling my BK11. It's been collecting dust in the bottom of my gear bag waiting for a sheath that won't dull up the blade. Just rec'd a very nice Kydex sheath from Marion Poff - this exact one:

http://i496.photobucket.com/albums/rr327/mdpoff/sheath-1p-necker_eskabar-od.jpg

Perfect fit and very good price. More pics to follow on the Becker forum as time allows.

Anyway, this is presumably the same steel as the BK2 - 1095 Crovan. Ground it on a Smith's coarse diamond stone, stropped on 220 grit SiC powder and finished with a dozen swipes on some green CrO. Not only push cuts newspaper, but managed to (with a bit of tugging) dry shave two day's worth of whiskers from my cheek. While this steel (and regular 1095) does work very well as a coarse edge, my ongoing experience continues to suggest it doesn't have a real preference and should take a screaming fine edge. Best of luck with your project and let us know what you find out. This is my only knife in 1095 Crovan, but the edge I usually go with on my other 1095 knives is fairly coarse and stropped on black compound. Holds that edge very well. Too coarse or too fine (below 200 grit or higher than 2000) and they don't hold up as well but that could be said for many steels and might just be me...

HH
 
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