I started using belt sander to sharpen my knives and have no problem getting a highly polished push cutting razor edge on my knives.Heres the catch.Highly polished edge is not biting into soft materials ...How do I get the edge that bites into soft materials and meat.Tried using low grit belts but still not getting results i want.What I would like to have is the edge that can bite into meat etc and still be durable! Any advice wecome!
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Help with belt sander....
- Thread starter boki_zca
- Start date
if you are removing the burr or do not have any, go to a coarser grit belt. i never go over 400 grit and i remove the burr with my slotted paper wheel. it gives me a shaving sharp edge that will cut meat or anything else. i have even put shaving sharp edges on knives with an 80 grit belt.
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- Feb 13, 2009
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you're doing something wrong obviously but what .... i don't know
a highly polished edge should "bite" in anything. i'm a pro chef, i take all my kitchen knives to at least 5-6k JIS plus strop with CrO or 10K plus strop. a 10k edge can cut meat, tomatoes or whatever food i throw under my blade like it's not there.
i use stones but and edge is a given finish should behave the same no matter how you put it ...
a highly polished edge should "bite" in anything. i'm a pro chef, i take all my kitchen knives to at least 5-6k JIS plus strop with CrO or 10K plus strop. a 10k edge can cut meat, tomatoes or whatever food i throw under my blade like it's not there.
i use stones but and edge is a given finish should behave the same no matter how you put it ...
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- Jul 15, 2009
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What progression of belts are you using?
I am getting the edge that shaves hair cleanly but is sliding off tomatoes -meat etc.I finish by stropping on leather belt loaded with green compound.Maybe Im stropping too much or smtg.....because its splitting hair easily I just want it to bite little better!I have couple bark river knives and they bite deep....with polished edge no problem.I had problem with some cheaper kitchen knives and some cold steel cheapos ....not the more expensive steels!
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I also use a leather belt loaded with green compound, but once I get the edge sharp enough to shave hair cleanly it then easily cuts tomatoes, onions, potatoes, steak, etc.
I have some Victorinox paring & utility knives that I have sharpened on my strop and nothing else - they cut my steak & tomatoes quite well.
My experience has been the same as pwet's - if the blade is sharp then it (easily) cuts any food I want it to.
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- Feb 13, 2009
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the bolded parts completely puzzles me. what do you mean by splitting hair ? it passes the HHT* but can't cut a tomato ? i've never seen that. any knife i've succesfully tested this way will cut a tomato all the way down with just the weight of the blade and a very short slicing motion.
*Hanging Hair Test, used for straight razors you hold the blade upside down and take a hair to the edge, it must be cut cleanly as it touches the edge
I have had a similar problem when I first started learning to strop, I was holding the knife at a bad angle and rounding the edge some, but it was still sharp enough to shave, it was just pretty much over-smoothed and over-stropped at the wrong angle. However mine would still cut food, just not as well as they do now that I have learned more. Nowadays I have the same experience as pwet also.
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Sounds to me like a wire edge issue. If the wire edge 'leans' to one side or the other, it can still shave hair (if it 'leans' into the skin). Flip the blade over (so the wire edge is angled parallel to, or away from, the skin), and shaving will be difficult, if not impossible.
When cutting something with a wider contact area (like a tomato), that wire edge will offer more resistance, which will make cutting more difficult.
As for cutting paper, how effectively does it slice the paper (not push-cutting)? Try a nice, smooth draw cut into the paper, starting at the ricasso and progressing all the way to the tip, while slicing. If there's a wire edge or burrs, the slicing will be interrupted when the paper contacts those areas. This will also reveal sections of the edge that might not be completely apexed to a clean, sharp 'V'. If so, the edge will likely slide over the paper without cutting it.
For me, a slice cut through paper, from the ricasso all the way to the tip, will tell me a lot more about the quality of the whole edge. Shaving hair will only reveal what's going on in a very small section or point, which only needs to be wide enough to cut a single hair at a time.
When cutting something with a wider contact area (like a tomato), that wire edge will offer more resistance, which will make cutting more difficult.
As for cutting paper, how effectively does it slice the paper (not push-cutting)? Try a nice, smooth draw cut into the paper, starting at the ricasso and progressing all the way to the tip, while slicing. If there's a wire edge or burrs, the slicing will be interrupted when the paper contacts those areas. This will also reveal sections of the edge that might not be completely apexed to a clean, sharp 'V'. If so, the edge will likely slide over the paper without cutting it.
For me, a slice cut through paper, from the ricasso all the way to the tip, will tell me a lot more about the quality of the whole edge. Shaving hair will only reveal what's going on in a very small section or point, which only needs to be wide enough to cut a single hair at a time.