Glass rods for steeling?

S

Steelwolf

Joined
Jul 19, 1999
Messages
443
Just wondering. The accepted opinion seems to be that you need a very hard, smooth rod to steel your knife. Would it be possible to use glass, either in cut strip or glass rod form as a steel?
 
As bizarre as it sounds, I saw a friend of my dad's during the 1950's roll a window of a car half way down and run the bevel across the lip of the glass. He claimed it worked.--OKG
 
It might work if the glass was not polished clear. Running the blade over a car window feels similar to running the edge over fine white ceramic. And the top of the window is not polished (on my car at least).
 
just make sure that the rod doesn't have any chips, otherwise it'll abraid the edge
Aaron

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aaronm@cs.brandeis.edu
My sheep has seven gall-bladders, that makes me King of the Universe!
 
Gee... It seems that the only person who seems to know what I'm talking about is Amacks.

I just thought I'd point out this website. Also, a couple of lines from John Juranitch's book "The Razor Edge Book of Sharpening" point out that the steel should be harder than the knife and smooth.

Using the bottom of a ceramic plate (espcially if it's good quality china) would be equivalent to grinding on a medium Arkansas stone or a hone rated as fine.

I'm not sure about rubbing the blade across the edge of the car window. That seems to me like the equivalent of using one of the typical steels you see in most shops where the surface either has scores along its length, or is "roughened" up, either with diamonds (like the DMT steels), or just plain roughed up.

Anyways, no one has tried using a smooth glass rod as a steel before?
 
:
Not glass,but I have a piece of 5/16" solid carbide about 6" long for making steel cutting tools mounted in a brass handle. It works quite well and is very smooth.
It's not quite as breakable as glass, but if dropped on a hard surface just right it will break.


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>>>>---¥vsa---->®

Each person's work is always a portrait of himself.

---- Samuel Butler.

Khukuri FAQ
Himalayan Imports Website
 
A carbide rod? Now where in the world did you get one of those? The biggest pieces of carbide I've ever seen were the cutter tip pieces on a CNC milling machine. Those were only about 1cm across.
 
:
Steelwolf you can get almost any size carbide rods you want at any good machine shop supply house that sells cutting tool blanks.
We used this particular size for making recess chamfer tools for use on machining stainless
steels.
Wholesale Tool, a large supply house in several cities and states ie.,Michigan, Indiana, Massachusetts, N. Carolina, Oklahoma, Florida, and Texas has the carbide rod in sizes 12" long from 3/64" dia.to 1" dia. It is rather expensive as a rod the size of mine, that was partially used, 12" X 5/16" costs $60.55, however an overstocked rod of 19/64" is only $17.50 while their supply lasts/lasted. Oh, and it is C-2 grade as if that mattered.
smile.gif

They have several e-mail addies, but I'm not seeing a website.

Mine was partially used and has a flaw on one side making it unsuitable for its intended use, but did make a wonderful "steel."
I do have to keep a mark on that area so I remember not to run the blade down the rough spot, ruining what I am trying to accomplish.

PS All of their e-mail addies are AOL.COM if you want to try a search online for them. I can provide the e-addies and 800 P#'s for all their cities listed in my catolog for anyone interested. E-mail me for them and I will try to get back to you soonest.
smile.gif


------------------
>>>>---¥vsa---->®

Each person's work is always a portrait of himself.

---- Samuel Butler.

Khukuri FAQ
Himalayan Imports Website

[This message has been edited by Yvsa (edited 11-16-2000).]
 
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