Hair Whittling Sharpness after Cheap Stone and Steel?

M

Mephtyrm

Joined
Jan 23, 2011
Messages
245
Hi guys I consider myself fairly proficient at sharpening; I use diamonds mostly but have recently been looking at non-diamond stones
So here is this cheap sharpening stone I got from Island Pacific(Filipino marketplace) and a smoothed out with coarse diamond kitchen steel and a polished with up to 2500 grit sic sandpaper ceramicDexter Russell 3 Way Sharpener I got from Goodwill for 1.99.

What really surprised me is that after going on the fine side of that stone, I deburred the knife with the very fine white ceramic rod with only one pass on each side(30 dps, 40 dps microbevel).
For some reason I decided to try steeling the edge to see what would happen using the non grooved edges of the steel with 4 passes on each side of the edge.
The edge whittled hair in a way I had never ever been able to get even with 1200 mesh diamond>8000 mesh diamond> ultra fine ceramic!
Could anyone explain how I did this? I've gotten edges stropped after that ultra fine ceramic with white compound then bare leather with the lightest of pressure that couldn't whittle hair as well as this edge!
 
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A smooth steel applied to a medium finish makes a crazy sharp edge. Burnishing of this sort is a very effective shortcut for a lot of lower RC steel and even some higher RC stuff. It will even pass HHT in some cases.

It will work well until the steel along the edge gets drawn out into a wire, or you contact the edge at a larger angle. The smooth steel isn't removing metal so it cannot really repair damage.

I like it and us the principle on low RC steel or if sharpening with whatever is available. Otherwise I found it tough to keep the angle clean after multiple uses and tough to predict when it would begin to fail. I tend to think of it as a microbevel with alternative means.

http://www.bladeforums.com/forums/s...eeling?highlight=quick+close+look+at+steeling

Edit to add:
if reconditioning the steel, make sure to keep the finish scratches lengthwise and not lateral - it can make a big difference.
 
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