I sharpened my buck 102 with a gatco set-up. The edge looked good but would not shave arm hair. I ran it over my Chicago Cutlery butchers steel and it shaves real good. I used the courser stones and finshed with the medium. The butchers steel worked good on some other knive too. Have I been missing something by not using the steel before?
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butchers steel
- Thread starter randy
- Start date
Cliff Stamp
BANNED
- Joined
- Oct 5, 1998
- Messages
- 17,562
Steeling can improve the edge on a blade even after finishing on very fine stones. However what it is doing besides alignment which is good, is "hauling" the steel out to a finer edge. A few strokes doesn't do much of this, but excessive steeling can really weaken an edge.
-Cliff
-Cliff
- Joined
- Oct 9, 1998
- Messages
- 1,767
You probably had a small burr that needed to be straightened out. The reason it shaves so well is that it is probably now a wire edge which is real thin. It will dull quicker than a normal edge if this is the case. After finishing with the medium stone, I would probably go lightly over each side and then again using the weight of the stone only. It will remove those miniature burrs and wire edges better. If you are already doing that before steeling, then you are probably fine. The steel generally will straighten things out and align them properly.
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Chang and the Rebels of the East
(Southern Taiwan Shall Rise Again!)
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Chang and the Rebels of the East
(Southern Taiwan Shall Rise Again!)