How long should a edge last?

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fraggle09027

Joined
Mar 23, 2007
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I purchased a Endura a few months ago. The blade became dull so I bought a sharpmaker to sharpen it. I am using the 40 deg. side of the sharpener and I can get it to shave using the white stone but I seem to lose the edge very quickly. Am I doing something wrong? Or should I have to sharpen it every week. I only use the knife for cutting fruit and meat when I am out and opening boxes (cutting the tape not cardboard).
 
yes, I sometimes have to sharpen every day to maintain the razor edge. it loses its edge quickly when you are cutting cardboard, nylon rope, zip ties or other hard plastics.
 
If you are getting a wire edge that you aren't removing, your edge retention will be horrible. Ways to check for this are if it shaves on one side but not the other, or holding it up to the light looking for reflections. I use a $10 lighted microscope from Radio Shack that easily lets you see any burrs that are formed on the edge. They will be bright on one side and dark on the other. This burr or "wire edge" needs to be removed. You may have to make a few light passes at a lightly elevated angle to remove these burrs or wire edges, and once you do remove them your edge retention should go way up. On the other hand, if you are forming a clean edge, cardboard and rope can really make an edge lose it's bite fast. Cutting just tape and fruits and meats shouldn't have VG-10 losing it's edge very fast, unless you aren't using a suitable cutting board (plates will dull a knife real fast), so I suspect you may be getting a wire edge.

Mike
 
I use my delica 4 PE VG-10 every day, its at a 20deg per side.
After cutting down 2 large boxes (new fridge and freezer) it was still sharp enough to scrape hair off my arm, but you could see the scratches along the blade from the cardboard. Took less than 10 minutes to get shaving sharp, another 10 to get to hair-popping sharp.
Other than this I don't use it for anything labour intensive, mainly opening packaging, cutting vegies for my dragon, etc. I sharpen it maybe once a month, and i'm not happy unless it shaves without scraping my skin.

I can't say enough about these knives.
 
Gunmike1 raises a good point about the cutting surface for food prep. If it is glass or ceramic, they will destroy edges quite rapidly.
 
I find that half a dozen or so strokes on a leather strop brings the edge back up to shaving sharp. Stropping saves a lot of time if you like to keep a hair popping edge.

My work knife is a Yojimbo, it gets used every day on plastic strapping and wrapping, cutting through cardboard cartons and paper packages. I have only needed to sharpen it maybe 5 or 6 times on the sharpmaker over the last year or so. A quick strop every other day brings the edge back to a pocket scalpel.

Strops are easy and cheap to make, and might give you that edge you are looking for. What about a Spyderco Strop?
 
Thanks for all the advise, I think tape on the edge and ceramic is most likely the cause. I bought my wife a byrd the same time and have not sharpened it yet (I tend to use mine more though)
 
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