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Can daily stropping avoid sharpening?
- Thread starter Boink
- Start date
- Joined
- Oct 9, 2002
- Messages
- 1,419
Some others have answered the question for me, but the issue of stropping creating a convex edge was not about me disliking convexed edges. ALL MY EDGES ARE CONVEXED EDGES. My humble opinion is that a very mild convex edge is a very practical aspect of a working knife. When not using any of those fancy jigs, the natural motions of the human body will "accidentally" create a convexed edge when doing any rehoning on freehand stones or sharpening rods. To do it on fast-running machines etc, you often need to set out specifically to create them.
But ths stropping action, will eventually make the angle of the bevel so obtuse that it would not be useful for cutting. The reason for this is that MOST strops and the way we strop, (because its a lot LESS aggressive than other abrasive methods of sharpening)removes most metal from the smallest area which is around the peak of the edge bevel. Eventually that little area gets "used up."
Cliff Stamp has already written about this - you can use any grit you like. Stropping is actually a method of sharpening, just that the base material (softer) and the cutting material (polishing / abrasive compound) is different from say, a Soft Arkansas stone. The way in which the cutting material is presented to the edge bevel determines how it is going to cut.
It sounds simple enough, to me. But its a concept. Just like when refinishing a hand-rubbed satin finish on a blade, its always best to use a hard, firm backing for your sandpaper. A soft backing gives a "different" effect. These ideas apply across the board and the maker can pick and choose which effect he wants depending on the experience he has with each one. Same applies to stropping.
Steeling is an interesting action. I use it to actually sharpen slightly since the only steels I have are the cheaper ones with relatively large grooves down its length. These actually cut the blade steel (a bit) as you run them up and down the edge. I use a polished smooth steel rod also to burnish the edge, after a basic sharpening on a soft arkansas stone. This helps polish the edge and smooth out any large irregularities.
BUT if I'm going to refine the edge to a razor sharp edge, I use the highest grit belts to cut an edge and hone with ultra fine ceramic rods and strop rather than use a steel. A steel I use to "align" the edge after initial sharpening, if I want that wire edge to be straight. This is mainly useful for me in the kitchen with cheaper, softer kitchen knives where the wire edge is more useful in the short term. But thats just my technique. Others will differ.
I hope this rambling is somehow helpful to someone. Cheers. Jason.
But ths stropping action, will eventually make the angle of the bevel so obtuse that it would not be useful for cutting. The reason for this is that MOST strops and the way we strop, (because its a lot LESS aggressive than other abrasive methods of sharpening)removes most metal from the smallest area which is around the peak of the edge bevel. Eventually that little area gets "used up."
Cliff Stamp has already written about this - you can use any grit you like. Stropping is actually a method of sharpening, just that the base material (softer) and the cutting material (polishing / abrasive compound) is different from say, a Soft Arkansas stone. The way in which the cutting material is presented to the edge bevel determines how it is going to cut.
It sounds simple enough, to me. But its a concept. Just like when refinishing a hand-rubbed satin finish on a blade, its always best to use a hard, firm backing for your sandpaper. A soft backing gives a "different" effect. These ideas apply across the board and the maker can pick and choose which effect he wants depending on the experience he has with each one. Same applies to stropping.
Steeling is an interesting action. I use it to actually sharpen slightly since the only steels I have are the cheaper ones with relatively large grooves down its length. These actually cut the blade steel (a bit) as you run them up and down the edge. I use a polished smooth steel rod also to burnish the edge, after a basic sharpening on a soft arkansas stone. This helps polish the edge and smooth out any large irregularities.
BUT if I'm going to refine the edge to a razor sharp edge, I use the highest grit belts to cut an edge and hone with ultra fine ceramic rods and strop rather than use a steel. A steel I use to "align" the edge after initial sharpening, if I want that wire edge to be straight. This is mainly useful for me in the kitchen with cheaper, softer kitchen knives where the wire edge is more useful in the short term. But thats just my technique. Others will differ.
I hope this rambling is somehow helpful to someone. Cheers. Jason.
- Joined
- Mar 13, 2001
- Messages
- 1,157
Matthew, you are correct about me not double beveling convex edges. I only do this on flat and hollow ground blades. I guess I caused a lot of comments about the stropping with green compound. I do not do this repeatedly on a blade. I will sharpen, use the blade until I notice that it has started to loose a little edge push cutting and then I will strop with the compound. On the 52100, D2, and 440V(S60V) blades that I use, this brings the edge back enough for me. I will only do this twice and then I will resharpen. I have a S30V blade that I will use occasionally for whittle/carving and this also works on it. I will sometimes spend numerous hours whittling without doing anything to the blades.