Cardboard...

R

RedLynx

Joined
Aug 5, 2011
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...really cleans all the scuff marks from my mirror polished blades for some reason. ;)

I know this is a dumb post but I don't usually have cause to cut a bunch of cardboard and today I had to get rid of a few pizza boxes (they piled up, they're not all from one order I swear) and I cut them down with the Utilitac II. Somehow all the scuffs it had from previous jobs pretty much went away. It was cool.
 
lol, I thought I was the only one who did that... Tape residue, glue, food gunk, dirt, etc all come off nicely after a few stabs into damp cardboard followed by dry cardboard. It's not too kind for the edge, but... Well, sharpening is fun. :D
 
Grease said:
lol, I thought I was the only one who did that... Tape residue, glue, food gunk, dirt, etc all come off nicely after a few stabs into damp cardboard followed by dry cardboard. It's not too kind for the edge, but... Well, sharpening is fun. :D
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Sharpening is fun, I agree. Relaxing, too.
 
The reason? Cardboard is NASTY for knives. It is full of pieces of metal, dirt, miscellaneous grit, and everything but the kitchen sink (probably bits of that in there too). That is why cardboard is so damaging to a knife edge. It "polishing" your blade is extremely odd, but it is definitely capable of rubbing grit on and effectively refinishing your blade, especially when the steel in question is softer.
 
The "Poppin' fresh Quick Cardboard Sharpening Strop Trick" is also a fun demo for non-knife-knuts.
 
I remember using cardboard as a strop when I had to cut up a very large recycling bins worth of the stuff, quite a bit of it had to be shredded into little pieces. It definitely kept that little opinel I was using going a lot longer than it should have.
 
dkb45 said:
The reason? Cardboard is NASTY for knives. It is full of pieces of metal, dirt, miscellaneous grit, and everything but the kitchen sink (probably bits of that in there too). That is why cardboard is so damaging to a knife edge. It "polishing" your blade is extremely odd, but it is definitely capable of rubbing grit on and effectively refinishing your blade, especially when the steel in question is softer.
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Yeah I know it really sucks, I SHOULD be using a plain old utility knife for cardboard cutting, if anything.
 
RedLynx said:
Yeah I know it really sucks, I SHOULD be using a plain old utility knife for cardboard cutting, if anything.
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Hell nah! Use what you like, Lynxy! I've gone through plenty of cardboard with my Utilitac. No regrets!
 
Kinda off topic: I use paper for polishing metal and washers and such. Slap some flitz on there and polish away, works wonders. If I need to polish some washers I use a notebook; just open up a fresh page, and rub the washers on there with flitz.

I read somewhere that you can even strop with newspaper.
 
Blues Bender said:
Kinda off topic: I use paper for polishing metal and washers and such. Slap some flitz on there and polish away, works wonders. If I need to polish some washers I use a notebook; just open up a fresh page, and rub the washers on there with flitz.

I read somewhere that you can even strop with newspaper.
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You sure can strop with newspaper. Phone book paper too. You could raid a recycling bin and get a full assortment of strops, if you wanted. That's the beauty of knives, you can pay for stuff like a kangaroo strop and an edge pro, or you can simply find a few smooth rocks in a river, finish on a coffee cup, and strop on your notebook. Knife sharpening is an insanely wide field for tools.
 
dkb45 said:
You sure can strop with newspaper. Phone book paper too. You could raid a recycling bin and get a full assortment of strops, if you wanted. That's the beauty of knives, you can pay for stuff like a kangaroo strop and an edge pro, or you can simply find a few smooth rocks in a river, finish on a coffee cup, and strop on your notebook. Knife sharpening is an insanely wide field for tools.
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Some interesting points being brought up here.

I have always wondered about using just your average river rocks... but I always figured you can't just find a rock and use it to sharpen, no? I used to collect rocks as a kid, was quite the amateur geologist, but I figure the stones we use for sharpening, with all their grits, are special, no? It would be cool if I could just find rocks that could do the job, if I had to in a pinch, though.
 
RedLynx said:
Some interesting points being brought up here.

I have always wondered about using just your average river rocks... but I always figured you can't just find a rock and use it to sharpen, no? I used to collect rocks as a kid, was quite the amateur geologist, but I figure the stones we use for sharpening, with all their grits, are special, no? It would be cool if I could just find rocks that could do the job, if I had to in a pinch, though.
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A rock will do the job. Did the job for centuries. All those people managed to survive without jigs or caring about the micron size of grit. :D
 
marcinek said:
A rock will do the job. Did the job for centuries. All those people managed to survive without jigs or caring about the micron size of grit. :D
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Good point, old friend. ;)

So question for you or anyone, I mean, would you feel comfortable using a regular rock to sharpen one of your knives? This might be a stupid question (my geological experience was not super in depth) but there would be no reason to worry about damage to the blade in some way?
 
RedLynx said:
Good point, old friend. ;)

So question for you or anyone, I mean, would you feel comfortable using a regular rock to sharpen one of your knives? This might be a stupid question (my geological experience was not super in depth) but there would be no reason to worry about damage to the blade in some way?
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If the rock was flat, I'd go for it. It can be hard finding a nice, truly flat rock laying around though.
 
stabman said:
If the rock was flat, I'd go for it. It can be hard finding a nice, truly flat rock laying around though.
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Very interesting. I don't live near the Mississippi but I frequent places that are, maybe I can find some nice river rocks sometime.

My parents have a small creek out back of their place, a few acres down from the farmhouse. Used to go digging for quartz there.
 
RedLynx said:
Very interesting. I don't live near the Mississippi but I frequent places that are, maybe I can find some nice river rocks sometime.

My parents have a small creek out back of their place, a few acres down from the farmhouse. Used to go digging for quartz there.
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Make sure to post some pics of the rock and the result. :)
 
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