Edge refinement on plain glass?

Rennd

Rennd

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Jan 22, 2014
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Will running my edge on plain glass, in the same method of a stone, will it improve the edge? I feel it should have some level of abraisivity to it. Thanks for your responses in advance, guys!
 
I've tried it, it doesn't cut steel but found that it will remove burrs.

Perhaps a very soft steel will have better results.
 
Plate glass is very smooth. Etched glass might work. I believe you will have better luck using plate glass as a substrate under polishing cloth or paper.
 
Simple glass won't abrade hardened knife steel much, if at all. It can serve to re-align a rolled edge, and perhaps burnish it a little bit. Bits of weakened steel, like burrs, can sometimes be scrubbed off an edge with glass. I wouldn't count on it to 'sharpen' much, as it won't remove any significant amount of steel otherwise, by itself. The gains seen in sharpness of an edge, after using glass, are more due to straightening (aligning) a rolled edge, as opposed to honing it. The relative lack of abrasiveness of glass, versus hardened steel, can be seen by checking for leftover swarf (black residue) on the glass by wiping it with a Windex-moistened paper towel after attempting sharpening on it. You won't likely find much swarf, if any. Compare this to doing the same on a ceramic hone; both seem very 'glass-like', but the ceramic is much harder and will collect visible swarf easily.

All that aside, glass is great as a hard backing for sharpening or stropping, used underneath sandpaper or paper/fabric with compound.


David
 
Last edited:
Rennd said:
Will running my edge on plain glass, in the same method of a stone, will it improve the edge? I feel it should have some level of abraisivity to it. Thanks for your responses in advance, guys!
Click to expand...

Used like a stone results will not be good. Slightly raise the spine and it will work like a 'steel' and, depending on knife steel type, will burnish the edge very effectively using plastic deformation. Helps if the glass is rounded like a cylinder or rod, or the rounded edge of some soda glass bakeware. Have gotten good results up to Sandvik steel, high carbide probably not so good. If you do a search for "Quick and close look at steeling" will lead to a pretty good thread.
 
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