Do away with the steel after convexing?

D

DainBramage

Joined
Nov 13, 2007
Messages
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I'm brand new to this forum, so apologies if this has been asked/answered before. If you put a convex edge on a knife, you'll maintain it with a strop, right? If that's true, does that mean that you never use a steel on a convex edge?

Also, I've heard it said that you should steel a knife (kitchen) before each use. Would that be true for stropping?

Finally, if you strop regularly, would you only use the sandpaper/mouse method if the blade gets nicked or really dulled?

Thanks in advance!!
 
You're doing really well so far with your 'guesses'.
Yes, maintain with a strop. Never use a steel, use a strop instead--and before each use will keep your kitchen knives sharp.
And yes, when the strop doesn't work any more, go back to the sandpaper and mousepad and put a new edge on.
Repeat as needed.
Greg
 
I think you can still roll a convex edge in which case a smooth steel may help you realign it.
 
mikeymoto said:
I think you can still roll a convex edge in which case a smooth steel may help you realign it.
Click to expand...

My experience is that a strop will do a much better job at this, especially a power strop, like a leather belt on HF's sander.

I did some studies under a 10-40x stereo microscope on convex edges straightened with a carefully hand-polished Forschner smooth steel, versus a Surgi-Sharp 1x30 leather charged with half micron chromium oxide. My Forschner steel now sits in a box alongside my junk knives. No contest.
 
LedSled said:
My experience is that a strop will do a much better job at this, especially a power strop, like a leather belt on HF's sander.

I did some studies under a 10-40x stereo microscope on convex edges straightened with a carefully hand-polished Forschner smooth steel, versus a Surgi-Sharp 1x30 leather charged with half micron chromium oxide. My Forschner steel now sits in a box alongside my junk knives. No contest.
Click to expand...

Now that sounds like a very interesting study!

Is it available anywhere?
 
Sorry, no. I had read that the meat packing industry favored using smooth steels to postpone rehoning their knives. Also, of course, lots has been written about straight razor maintenance ... allowing the steel to relax, then stropping prior to use.

I used a 10/20/40x stereo AO stereo microscope bought from an IC chip maker's factory surplus sale for $5, along with a bright, collimated light source. I just did under magnification what experienced knife sharpeners have done for centuries: look for the glint off the edge while slowly turning the edge into the light. My results:
1) The steel gave the edge a bright irregular scalloped glint. On cutting tests, the edge never was really razor sharp, but acted like it had a bit of tooth and did well on slicing cuts.
2) On bent and very slightly worn edges, the strop restored a very fine line of glint whose width depended on the blade's steel. Fine-grained carbon steel blades showed the finest and dimmest gleam. Every type of blade steel easily chopped the ends off of short hanging hairs.
3) Harder steels' edges didn't bend, they broke or crumbled. Neither the steel or strop was much use, except where the Chromium Oxide could in effect rehone the edge.
4) Edges with more wear could be restored with a preliminary strop charged with a coarser grit.

That's it in a nutshell, Grampa.
 
That's a nice piece of work, LedSled.
I've thought for a while that any sort of steel puts a LOT of lateral pressure on a edge, and that the pressure is probably uneven as well. This is what your investigation seems to confirm.
Verhoeven's Experiments in Sharpening also seem to confirm this.
Greg
 
Thanks for the replies... here's an add-on question... when you are stropping a blade that is longer than your strop (like a chef's knife), do you strop the blade in sections? Do you always keep the edge section that you are working perpendicular to the direction you are stropping?
 
On longer knives, just overlap the strokes on one side to get full coverage, then flip the knife over. All you're doing is straightening and polishing. The critical thing is to watch the combo of angle and pressure. Leather has "give", and you don't want to bend the edge out of alignment.

As for perpendicular, the only time I find it critical is to keep a sharp tip from gouging the leather.
 
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