How to maintain an already sharp edge?

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Squashfan

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Jun 6, 2012
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Through the good tutelage I have received on here, my knives have gotten much sharper. But that has brought up a good question. What can I do to keep my knives sharp? The knives are sharpened up to a 2000 grit ceramic hone then stropped. I know to strop them after use but how long can I keep stropping them without sharpening on a stone? I have a plain leather stop, BTW. And what can I do if the edge goes beyond stropping? I have an Ontario carbon paring knife with a prominent burr from use. What should I do for it? If it were on my Lansky I would be use my fine (600) grit stone to turn the burr. I tried to turn the burr once before on this knife with the fine stone. When the burr turned and came off, the edge was no longer apexed.

Thanks in advance,
Squashfan
 
The burr should not come off before it is very refined. Or still better, it should be abraded. Use your finest medium and the lowest pressure.
By the way, when a new burr comes up during use, I suspect a geometry problem.
 
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If you're sure the original burr has gone, but a new one does occur, there has to be some imbalance in geometry - one side undergoing much more friction than the other one, causing a new burr.
It's more common, though, that a remaining burr will get more obvious and gets moved to one side,
 
Those Ontario paring knives are 1095, but in my experience fairly low RC. That burr edge might have been a wire edge, and when it fell off took the apex with it. If it happens chronically you might want to try some polishing compound on hard leather or a sheet of paper to finish it off/final deburring. I keep one of those paring knives in my bench at work and this is all I do for maintenance (black compound on paper). Stropping on plain leather won't do much for maintenance once the edge shows some use - you need to add some abrasive.
Low RC 1095 is tough stuff but will hold a burr. Will also take a nice edge with relatively less work. The unglazed underside of a ceramic coffee cup or bowl might work better than a much harder ceramic hone.
 
I've never dealt with carbon steel, but what I do to keep a sharp edge very sharp is i will strop it until I either damage the edge form use or round it with the strop. I have a double sided strop with medium and fine compound. Once it is beyond a simple stropping I will take it to the stones and the severity of the damage will determine which stone I start with. If I have a chip or a ding I will start with my coarsest, it it just has a few small flat spots or a burr I will start with a medium or fine depending on how bad it is.

You can strop it until you roll the edge or chip it or dent it or what have you, or round the very edge with the strop itself essentially dulling it. That is a common problem with people new to stropping, it just takes practice and a little feel and with a strop and some compound you can keep a knife sharp almost indefinitely. When you damage the edge that is when you will need to go back to the stones and hone out the damage and then go back to stropping it until you damage it again.

I recommend getting a double sided strop with a coarse/medium and a fine on the other side. Plain leather doesn't do much and also the abrasive compounds will make it go faster and easier to get a wire edge or burr off and refine the edge a little further.
 
Where can I get compound or what brand do I look for? I have heard of using compound but I don't know which brand to get.
 
Squashfan said:
Where can I get compound or what brand do I look for? I have heard of using compound but I don't know which brand to get.
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I also keep a bare leather strop for the most frequent touchups (mostly straightening an edge, bare leather doesn't do a lot of actual sharpening), or just evening therapy. But I also use a balsa wood strop with 1 micron diamond spray from HandAmerica. That's my favorite strop. It can handle almost anything that my edges ever need. I just don't use most of my knives any harder or longer than I can handle with that strop. I have a strop block with green CrO2 on it (.5 micron, IIRC), but I don't use it much.
 
Squashfan said:
Where can I get compound or what brand do I look for? I have heard of using compound but I don't know which brand to get.
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The black and white available at Sears is pretty good stuff. Dico makes a good product as well. Basically you want a coarse compound (black) for repair of all edges and maintenance of the toothier ones, and some fine compound for your more refined edges. You could add some sub micron compound for shaving and specialty tools, but not really necessary and possibly undesirable for most cutting.
 
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