Can I strop 1520T?

C

commandlinekid

Joined
Jan 11, 2019
Messages
6
Hello

I have a new (yea I know, the steel used to be better)... Schrade Sharpfinger I use for skinning. It's only a few weeks old but I've hit enough bone to dull it.

Question: Can I stop this with the chinese green paste? Or do I have to sharpen.

Reason: This sabre grind is hard to sharpen. So I would prefer to strop if it would work.

https://www.amazon.com/Old-Timer-152OT-Sharpfinger-Stainless/dp/B000IE3ZKA

Meaning: Am I wasting my time or will it strop?
Thank you for your help.
 
It should strop up fine, as long as you do so regularly. Stropping only helps restore an edge that is slightly used - once it's outright dull, you'll need to sharpen.
 
If it is very dull I'd sharpen it and finish with the strop. Just work at it a bit and then strop it. It would take considerable effort to sharpen a dull blade by stropping.

Even if you screw it up on a stone, it is not an expensive knife to replace if necessary.
 
Stropping on compound will not sharpen it. Stropping doesn't sharpen, it only enhances whatever edge is there. It might feel a bit fresh at first but it won't last long at all.

Sharpen it.
 
Considering the aforementioned (no knicks, 1550T steel, sabre grind), can anyone tell me how low I should go in grit on my waterstones?

Thought: No matter which knife, I would like to know if possible... the grit to use "for this situation" which would be: A new knife that I only use for skinning so likely no knicks going forward unless I drop it.
 
Buy yourself a spyderco sharp maker. Best single purchase I've made for skinning / boning. Blows any single knife out of the water in terms of food processing usefulness!
 
The steel is good old 1095 so just about any hone would work: Arkansas, carborundum, or diamond. Medium grit would be fine unless it's really dull. Then a coarse hone would cut a new edge faster. Good knife; a taxidermist I knew swore by his.
 
Alberta Ed said:
The steel is good old 1095 so just about any hone would work: Arkansas, carborundum, or diamond. Medium grit would be fine unless it's really dull. Then a coarse hone would cut a new edge faster. Good knife; a taxidermist I knew swore by his.
Click to expand...
It's actually 7cr17mov
 
commandlinekid said:
Here's what I'm doing: Turning it into a flat grind.

Is this a bad idea? Well I'm doing it. :)
Click to expand...

The best thing you can do is to focus on keeping the cutting geometry relatively thin at the edge and just behind it. That can be done by just lowering the sharpening angle a bit. Images of the knife online seem to show it's a hollow grind from the factory. If so, the thickness immediately behind the edge is the important thing, and not so much the profile of the whole primary grind (hollow or flat, whichever). Grinding the entire blade to a flat profile probably isn't necessary, so long as the steel behind the edge isn't too thick itself.

With a hollow grind, the somewhat thicker spine above the hollow will give the blade strength, while the hollow itself keeps the steel doing the cutting nicely thin behind the edge. For the most part, changing it all to a flat grind will just grind away the strength of the 'backbone' of the blade (the spine), while not necessarily improving cutting much, as compared to the hollow profile.
 
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These Chinese sharpfingers are not bad at all and almost as good as Usa made ones ,for price are excellent.Give it few swipes on dmt diamond stone or sil carbide,and with that toothy edge you can skin no problem.Id reprofile this knife on stone first when new out of box,lowering angle little.
 
1520, or 1550 don't appear to be steels, according to googles. 1520 did turn up that chinese Sharpfingers are made of 440c, which is a common steel in junkshit knives. You can strop anything, whether it will refine the edge or not is another ? As others above had said, if you have hit bone, stropping wont fix that. Need to sharpen first.
 
The new sharpfingers are 7CR if i recall. I have one, you couldn't ask for an easier knife to sharpen.

Its also not 1520T its 152 OT
 
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