Is mirror polish possible on convex edge?

mrgreen

mrgreen

Joined
Dec 26, 2009
Messages
313
I have a couple of convexed Busse knives (SAR5 and SJTAC). I'm putting together a sandpaper sharpening kit, based around the JRE industries EMS kit. Is this enough to get a high-polished edge?
 
Probably so but it seems counter productive unless you plan to sharpen it using a miror polish every time it needs maintained. Convex gets a lot of scratches just by the nature of most of the sharpening techniques so I don't think its a good idea. If you dull it good you are going to be a long time getting it back to sharp if you try to maintain a mirror polish.

STR
 
Absolutely!

Busse killa zilla

zillaground2.jpg


Busse NMFBM

sharp2.jpg


Better mirror picture of the NMFBM.

sharp.jpg


All reprofiled by me and full convex ground.
 
BTW, knives are maintained on a strop with green compound, followed by pink compound, then bare leather. Can easily get good results with just the green compound however.

I should add however, that using just sand paper (2000 grit is as high as i've seen) will not get a high mirror finish. I power sharpen with belts, then power strop with a leather belt, then I go to hand stropping.
 
230grains said:
BTW, knives are maintained on a strop with green compound, followed by pink compound, then bare leather. Can easily get good results with just the green compound however.

I should add however, that using just sand paper (2000 grit is as high as i've seen) will not get a high mirror finish. I power sharpen with belts, then power strop with a leather belt, then I go to hand stropping.
Click to expand...

So you carry your belt sander in the field then? :D

STR
 
Thanks for the quick replies. 230, if I'm not planning to do much chopping- mostly cutting or slicing, would there be a disadvantage to re-profiling those edges to bevel and use something like the Edgepro Apex on them.
 
STR said:
So you carry your belt sander in the field then? :D

STR
Click to expand...

LOL.

Honestly, an altoids tin with leather glued on both sides, one with green, one with pink compound can give you those results as well. Keep some wet/dry paper inside the tin and slap it over the leather for any heavy sharpening. It'll just take a little bit longer. I doubt if I were in the woods i'd bother going to pink compound though, probably just use the .5 green to maintain it or some 2000 grit wet/dry paper.
 
STR, I'm not worried about the cosmetics of the blade. From what I understand here, a polished edge is more efficient then a "toothy" edge. So I thought a mirror polish should be the goal.
 
mrgreen said:
Thanks for the quick replies. 230, if I'm not planning to do much chopping- mostly cutting or slicing, would there be a disadvantage to re-profiling those edges to bevel and use something like the Edgepro Apex on them.
Click to expand...


Long before belt sanders, edge pro, sand paper and water stones people were using flint knapping to make crude cutting tools. These tools worked out quite well, so in reality, an edge is an edge.

To be perfectly honest, I convex everything, but i'm going to be switching to a flat bevel on my smaller knives from now on. No reason really, I just want to play with new toys out of boredom and experiment with different edge types. I don't notice any discernible difference between a convex bevel and a flat bevel in smaller "cutting" knives. The only real difference I notice is when used in a large chopper, and then the difference is quite noticeable. As long as the edge geometry is there, and the edge is polished well, it will cut just as well IMO on a smaller blade. You'll get great results with the edge pro, the only downside is field sharpening ease which convex would get the nod.
 
230, I can't find it, but didn't someone post pics of the altoids tin setup you described? Have you seen it?
 
Lots of people use this system, so i'm sure there are pics posted.

Really though, its just an altoids tin with leather glued to it and sandpaper in the middle.
 
mrgreen said:
Thanks for the quick replies. 230, if I'm not planning to do much chopping- mostly cutting or slicing, would there be a disadvantage to re-profiling those edges to bevel and use something like the Edgepro Apex on them.
Click to expand...

I would have thought that convexed edges were easiest to keep a mirror finish on. All you need to do is strop regularly to keep a sharp edge and they will maintain a nice mirror finish. If you go to sandpaper then you wound need to strop a bit more than normal to polish the edge to a mirror finish again.
 
Finishing at 2k with yield a near mirror polish and even more so if the sandpaper is worn. Some stropping after is where the mirror part really comes into play.


Convex edges can also get very sharp :)
Picture1101-1.jpg
 
Guys, thanks for all the info. Chococrazy- I think the Otterbox setup is what I remembered. Knifenut1013-that's unreal, what knife is that?
 
mrgreen said:
Guys, thanks for all the info. Chococrazy- I think the Otterbox setup is what I remembered. Knifenut1013-that's unreal, what knife is that?
Click to expand...


Swamp rat, not sure which one.
 
Getrting back OT., convex edges are quite easy to polish with a strop and decent compound.

I use Chromium Oxide at .5 micron, and then switch to .25 micron diamond paste, or even .1 micron diamond paste for finishing.

I only use the .25 and .1 on the very top end steels. Midgrade grade steels, IME at least, don't seem to benefit significantly from anything finer than 1.0 micron. :thumbup:
 
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