How do I maintain "microserrations"?

L

lerner

Joined
Sep 1, 2008
Messages
125
I'd like the blade's edge to have 2 portions:
I can make the tip-half polished shiny for pushcutting, and maintain it with occasional stropping.
I can stop grinding the handle-half after the coarsest stone, leaving micro-teeth.

But how do I touch up the teeth? It seems using the coarse stone each touch-up would remove to much stock. Will stropping re-align the microteeth?

As you know, plain edges are easier to maintain than serrated edges; does the same go for microserrations?
 
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I like to do my whole blade as you suggest for the bottom half. I maintain it/them on a 10K strop, and find that most blades pop back quite well a good number of times before losing the "micro-serrated" quality.
 
There is no reason to do that, sharpen the whole blade properly it will sharper that way. If you want a coarser edge stop sharpening a 1000 and strop lightly.
 
No reason to do what? I missed your meaning.

I figured 400-grit serrations (for example) would be more "serratishy" than 1000-grit serrations.
But they would still benifit from polishing. (If you imagine 400-grit teeth, each finished to 8000-grit smoothness.)

Problem is, what do I do when the teeth start to get "crooked". It seems a kitchen steel would re-align them smoothly for shaving/chopping, not their original alignment of sticking out perpendiculary for micro-sawing tomatoes, meat, etc...
 
Get one of the folding DMT diamond sharpeners - my preference is 600 grit for a slicing edge (fine).
 
Mircoserrations are going to "chip" off, resulting in a dull knife. Were as a polished edge has nothing to break off, which will stay sharper longer.
 
I thought "micro serrations" were a popular compromise between full serrations and a plain edge. Tomatoes & rope are frequently cited as applications.

As I've posted, my intent was to stop at a coarse grit, then maybe strop to polish the teeth.

Is the value of "toothiness" for some jobs just a myth? I'd love to get some corroberation from the forum's heavy-hitters on this (special thanks to knifenut1013 already).
 
Kim Lau said:
Mircoserrations are going to "chip" off, resulting in a dull knife. Were as a polished edge has nothing to break off, which will stay sharper longer.
Click to expand...

It is not quite that simple - there are other wear modes that contribute to dulling - general frictional (or abrasive) wear, and edge deformation dulling among them. And none of us know what percentage any of the wear modes contribute to the overall loss in cutting ability. I suspect it changes greatly with different steels, with varying edge geometry, with what you are cutting, and with edge finish. For some cutting equations one mode will be dominant, and for other cutting equations a different wear mode would be dominant.

And while a microtooth may easily break off - it could leave a "micro missing tooth", or "valley", and actually increase cutting ability for a bit.

Most stuff I've seen has speculated that most dulling comes from edge deformation - the very edge getting deformed and wearing as opposed to just a microtooth getting deformed and then wearing off. Think of the immense pressure exerted on the edge of a knife during a cut, and I think it will help illustrate. How many psi is exerted on a 1 micron edge with a 20 pound cut through 5/8 manilla rope? It is a crapload of pressure.

Now you could test the same edge at varying finishes, and use that to determine which edge finish has the best edge retention for a given steel at a given edge geometry, using a given cutting motion (slice, push, ?) cutting a given material. Alas no one has done this kind of testing that I'm aware of.

I tend to agree that the sharpest polished edge generally cuts the best, and generally keeps its edge the longest, cutting many commonly cut materials, but there are too many variables involved to make a blanket statement, IMO.

For me, the answer lies in trying out different finishes with a given knife cutting the materials I cut most - for most cutting I prefer the polished edge, but for some cutting I prefer the 600 grit DMT edge. And it is no trouble to me if the 600 grit edge may wear a bit faster - with two or four swipes on a 600 grit DMT rod it's just like new and ready to slice some more. Whereas getting that telephone book paper-tube cutting edge back takes more work.

gotta work now - sorry for the long winded tech rant.
 
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