How do you like your edge????

Snakebreaker

Snakebreaker

Joined
Feb 7, 2013
Messages
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So how do you all like the edge on your Hogs, Rats and Dogs.........polished or a little "toothy"?

I love both.......but I gotta go with a tad on the toothy side.

What say you....
 
I like a little toothiness but still sharp enough to shave some hairs. It's the perfect edge IMO
 
I don't have the patience for a mirror polished edge but I do my best to keep blades hair popping sharp. I love working my knives and keeping them pristine isn't a hobby. Use, sharpen, repeat.
 
I'm with nemesis. Makes for an easy to maintain field edge for me at least. Nothing wrong with a scary sharp polished edge, I'm just not personally able or willing to keep them that way off the beaten path.
 
toothy :eek: on SARsquatch sized & smaller...

polished :cool: on B8 sized & larger...

However, there are exceptions... I've polished my Scrapper, Mud Mutt & 411 just for fun ;)
 
Strop it on all Satins and LE's
Stone on all others EXCEPT if the blade is convexed then definitely STROPED.
 
I'm a huge fan of asymmetric. For some reason, an almost... 3-5° or so on the left and 15-20° on the right gets a .25" thick blade niiiiiice and slicey.

As far as polished vs toothy, it depends on how much time and interest in sharpening a particular blade I've got.

Sometimes, I'll go straight from kicking up a burr with a 400 grit belt to a strop with compound until the burr is gone. THAT IS TOOTHY.

When I'm more patient, or giving a pointer, I'll go through a few more grit progressions. Ending the same way, loaded strop.

Both get the job done, but more steps in grit progression give you a longer lasting edge IMO + IME.
 
Toothy cuts more aggressively. Personally, I like to get them pretty polished up... then strop with an aggressive compound to to bring back the aggressive cutting power. Sounds a bit strange writing it, but it works for me. :D
 
Sharp!

Since Busses are almost never good push-cutters (or I dont have enough strength) I'd rather have some tooth, which is what I always get if I need to sharpen it freehand outdoors.

Otherwise I just baby my knives and strop them all the time. They cut great anyways.
 
I prefer the toothy edge as well. I have a nice fine grit diamond rod that works very well to touch up and makes for a grippy cut.

For the inevitable reprofile of a new knife, my belt sander and a good fine belt works wonders. Done it on a rough diamond hone but it takes a while and a lot of patience.
 
Mirror Polished Edge for highest chopping performance.

Mirror polished 19 degree edge with a 1000 grit diamond stone toothy micro bevel at 20 degrees for any fully versatile EDC knife.
 
I sharpen mine by chopping with them :)

The wood acts like a Strop :)
 
One that CUTS what I need to CUT and HOLDS that edge. If it can take the hair off your arm without sawing against the grain ;) it can undertake almost any task that a man may ask of a knife. Beyond holding that edge, being able to renew that edge, in the bush, is my next most important consideration.
 
It is an extreme and oversimplified analogy, but....the paradox of trying to CHOP down a tree with a CROSSCUT SAW , and trying to SLICE a phonebook with an AX ...

No one would try that, of course :eek:, but it illustrates the disadvantages-- and implies the advantages-- of each by negative example < in greatly exaggerated form, I concede :o >
 
Last edited:
PeteyTwoPointOne said:
It is an extreme and oversimplified analogy, but....the paradox of trying to CHOP down a tree with a CROSSCUT SAW , and trying to SLICE a phonebook with an AX ...No one would try that, of course, but it illustrates the disadvantages and inferred advantages of each <in exaggerated form, I concede:o>

I also concede, for the average ELU there isn't gonna be a huge noticeable discernible difference in the two edge finishes in either REALISTIC application...

With all other things being equal<a HUGE assumption>, toothy is gonna perform better in slicing tasks, but will probably need touching up more often...and polished is gonna excel in chopping, chiseling, and similar applications and will experience less apex degradation...

so in the final analysis although I keep that analogy in the back of my mind, I don't obsess too much over it, and I sharpen because I enjoy the zen feeling I get from the exercise plus it's pretty easy to go from one finish to the other and I do that fairly often ;)
Click to expand...

There is a way to get the best of both worlds ---- polished bevel for ideal geometry, corrosion resistance, and minimal frictional forces + toothy micro bevel for instant bite into the cutting medium. However --- this is totally unnecessary and just an obsessive person's preference backed by better performance results. Cheers either way!!! If it cuts --- it cuts!!
 
I totally agree with everything you've said Rob and I've learned that I've got to be careful with freehand stropping :eek:

I like stropping the shoulder, but I have a bad habit that I can't break of getting too heavy handed and kicking the angle up too steep and wind up blunting my apex about half the time...

I've personally gotten better results with just highly polishing the shoulders and applying a ca. 25 deg per side microbevel on my Sharpmaker med rods :)

so, yup, pretty much exactly what you explained earlier matches my experiences also! :o
 
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