CV steel, and what am I doing wrong?

[recon1s14]

So I've been spending a little quality time with my Case 6375CV lately, whittling, cardboard boxes, the usual, and it has inevitably become a smidgen dull, I like to keep my knives razor sharp so I decided to touch up this bad boy, but I've been having a problem getting her razor sharp,

I use a three stage method on my knives, first a stone, fine side for touchups, then a rough strop, and finally a polish strop, I used the same method of leading edge on the stone that I use for all my blades then worked it backwords on the strops, but shes not gettin as sharp as I've heard CV gets, she barely even shaves hair, quite a pain imo,

Is the steel just too hard to use on plain leather strops? I have never used rouge before but I would try it out if that is the problem.

And One more question, as I sharpened the sheepsfoot on the stone I kept hearing a paperlike sound as the edge ran across the stone, I immediately identified it as a wire edge and began to reprofile it, but it's been a huge pain to get that wire edge to break off, this is only my second CV steel knife so I'm pinning it on inexperience and the unexpected hardness of the steel, but I'd like your guys' impute on this.

Thanks much,

Zach

 

[richstag]

Too soft actually. With steel that is too soft it can be a huge challenge to remove the burr.

 

[recon1s14]

Too soft actually. With steel that is too soft it can be a huge challenge to remove the burr.

Haha thanks, I actually discovered that a few minutes after posting this thread, they're razor now and I've fixed the ole problem, but I think I'll leave this thread up for anyone who needs future reference.

 

[jacktrades_nbk]

so raising the angle with lower pressure to the stone fixed this ?

 

[pinnah]

I use a three stage method on my knives, first a stone, fine side for touchups, then a rough strop, and finally a polish strop, I used the same method of leading edge on the stone that I use for all my blades then worked it backwords on the strops, but shes not gettin as sharp as I've heard CV gets, she barely even shaves hair, quite a pain imo,

Is the steel just too hard to use on plain leather strops? I have never used rouge before but I would try it out if that is the problem.

And One more question, as I sharpened the sheepsfoot on the stone I kept hearing a paperlike sound as the edge ran across the stone, I immediately identified it as a wire edge and began to reprofile it, but it's been a huge pain to get that wire edge to break off, this is only my second CV steel knife so I'm pinning it on inexperience and the unexpected hardness of the steel, but I'd like your guys' impute on this.

I wonder if your sharpening style has been influenced by sharpening harder stainless steels? If so, it may be the case that you're using too much pressure on the stone and then re-creating a new burr with each pass.

I think of carbon as being malleable, like clay to some degree (which is why it's so tough and chip resistant). I'll take my carbon blades to a full burr edge with my stones when they are truly dull but on successive passes with the medium stone and then with the fine stone, I'll use less and less pressure. What I'm thinking about when I do this is to try to knock off the burr without causing a new one.

I don't own CV which may be a tick different from standard 1095 but I don't find 1095 has holding onto a wire edge as much as, say, Victorinox's Inox. Inox is the worst I've sharpened in that regard. 440C and 420HC are somewhere in between. I do use the trick of increasing the sharpening angle on knives what won't let the wire edge go, but I don't have to do that with any of my 1095 knives. A decrease in pressure on successive passes is enough.

I think of stropping as a) polishing the edge and b) the final shaping of the edge. But, the shaping isn't from material removal or re-burring. It's smooshing the malleable cutting edge into alignment. At least that's how I understand it and think about it. So, that's the judgment call. Has the edge been bent over from light use or has it been abraded down so much that it's rounded? The first can be stropped out (most often for my EDC use) and the second requires some touch up with a stone.

 

[recon1s14]

Actually that is how I fixed it, I experimented with the steel a bit more after posting this thread and found out it was in fact very soft, not hard as I previously thought, you would be correct in assuming I'm used to stainless But after decreasing the pressure I'm used to using on a stone the burrs went away and I was able to put an edge on and strop to my liking, I'm going to be experimenting more with this steel until I get it "lazer sharp" as some good folks have described it

Thanks for the clarifying tips, That will help me learn more about this steel, I really do enjoy it very much in use, and I think I will stick to carbon steels from now on