- Joined
- Mar 16, 2012
- Messages
- 939
Hi all,
My wife and I spent Sunday afternoon laying down heavy duty weed block to a large shrub garden in our back yard. We are covering this fabric with crushed red brick, pond pebbles and black mulch...it looks very nice...maybe some pics when finished.
Anyway I had to cut through a lot of this fabric...seems to be fiberglass fabric...and perhaps twenty plastic bags of stone and mulch. I used my trusty ZT566 for this chore...it is a "user" knife and I do use it but not in this manner before. I noticed as I was cutting through perhaps 75 percent of the fabric and most of the bags that the edge was starting to lose its sharpness especially in the center area of the knife edge. I figured it was just the toughness of the fabric and the sand coating parts of the plastic bags.
I tried to strop it back to its' normal shaving edge but no way. The black compound just wouldn't bring it back. I pulled out the Lansky system and went to work starting with the medium, fine diamond hones, black arkansas oil hone and the yellow and sapphire ceramic hones...while doing this I check the progress with the finger nail check and could feel the "bite" from tip to back except in the center section...barely biting the nail. I spent more time starting with the medium, etc. hones again and got a bit of a bite but nowhere near the sharpness of the rest of the blade. It was getting late...spent an hour on this...so I put it away and spent maybe ten minutes with the strop. It is hair shaving sharp except in the center...sharp but not as sharp.
I was really surprised at how much wear these materials caused to the edge. I'm not complaining at all. My wife said "why not use a cheaper knife?" I told her the knife is a user not a pocket queen only used to open mail and I'm glad to have pushed the blade as hard as I did...taught me the limits of the steel and edge on these types of materials.
I repeat, I'm not complaining. I really like this knife and it has been my EDC since I got it six months ago. I use it every day but nowhere near as hard as I used it Sunday.
When I get some more free time I'm going to tackle the edge again until it is shaving sharp along the entire edge as it usually is. I don't mind at all...I find it relaxing and watch TV while doing it.
No pics as there is nothing to see even with the ten power loupe.
That's it...just a long winded story of some hard use and wear.
My wife and I spent Sunday afternoon laying down heavy duty weed block to a large shrub garden in our back yard. We are covering this fabric with crushed red brick, pond pebbles and black mulch...it looks very nice...maybe some pics when finished.
Anyway I had to cut through a lot of this fabric...seems to be fiberglass fabric...and perhaps twenty plastic bags of stone and mulch. I used my trusty ZT566 for this chore...it is a "user" knife and I do use it but not in this manner before. I noticed as I was cutting through perhaps 75 percent of the fabric and most of the bags that the edge was starting to lose its sharpness especially in the center area of the knife edge. I figured it was just the toughness of the fabric and the sand coating parts of the plastic bags.
I tried to strop it back to its' normal shaving edge but no way. The black compound just wouldn't bring it back. I pulled out the Lansky system and went to work starting with the medium, fine diamond hones, black arkansas oil hone and the yellow and sapphire ceramic hones...while doing this I check the progress with the finger nail check and could feel the "bite" from tip to back except in the center section...barely biting the nail. I spent more time starting with the medium, etc. hones again and got a bit of a bite but nowhere near the sharpness of the rest of the blade. It was getting late...spent an hour on this...so I put it away and spent maybe ten minutes with the strop. It is hair shaving sharp except in the center...sharp but not as sharp.
I was really surprised at how much wear these materials caused to the edge. I'm not complaining at all. My wife said "why not use a cheaper knife?" I told her the knife is a user not a pocket queen only used to open mail and I'm glad to have pushed the blade as hard as I did...taught me the limits of the steel and edge on these types of materials.
I repeat, I'm not complaining. I really like this knife and it has been my EDC since I got it six months ago. I use it every day but nowhere near as hard as I used it Sunday.
When I get some more free time I'm going to tackle the edge again until it is shaving sharp along the entire edge as it usually is. I don't mind at all...I find it relaxing and watch TV while doing it.
No pics as there is nothing to see even with the ten power loupe.
That's it...just a long winded story of some hard use and wear.
. But I feel you, I used to like my edge to be as polished as possible too. Now after a lot of experimenting I've learned to love a lower grit edge especially with steels that take to a coarser edge such as Elmax. In realistic cutting I find a lower grit edge (I run 600 on my 801) to just plain cut better, more bite less hair-whittling-ness but I don't whittle hairs on a daily basis.
, is rough! The fabric is tough and there's no telling how much grit you ran into just cutting bags. That's what disposable blade box cutters are perfect for