Izula edge holding

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Supra1988t

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Aug 31, 2010
Messages
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Hi, I am relatively new to nicer knives and sharpening and I recently picked up an izula. I gave it to my gf for her to chop up some carrots and when she gave it back to me the edge had a nasty bur across it that you could catch on your nail, very dull. It cleaned up easily with a leather hone and black compound but I was very surprised that it lost its edge chopping a few carrots on a bamboo cutting board. I had hardly used it since I got and it still has its factory edge that I cleaned up on the hone to make it shaving sharp. I have previously owned some kershaws that were never as sharp as the izula but held an edge nice and are tough to sharpen. Is this normal from the ESEE? Am I expecting too much out of this steel? Thanks.
 
I would say from my experience that this is the because of the thickness of the Izula.

The thickness makes the carrot more difficult to cut thus having to push the knife harder into the bamboo cutting board than a normal Paring knife.

Use a Paring knife. It's silly to use an Izula to cook because it takes more effort to cut.
 
The Izula is a fine little knife, especially for woodwork and such, but the ESEE 3 far outclasses it in the kitchen. The Izula has a slightly thicker blade than the 3 and thus doesn't slice as well, like Testify said. Convexing the edge of your Izula will go a long way toward solving this problem.
 
a) the izula is a great knife, but is not a great kitchen knife - yes, it will cut nicely, but thinner blades will cut hard/tough veggies with less effort.
b) it's very possible the knife has a wire edge on it from the factory - which would explain the way the edge rolled so easily and also why it came back so fast.

Instead of a quick stropping, give it a very thorough job on the strop -- 50 strokes on a side, then 40, then 30, etc... when you're done, there will be no wire edge and the polished blade should stay plenty sharp for a long time.
 
I would just add that many cutting boards will dull an edge. I recently did some testing on a bamboo cutting board, an Epicurean board and an acrylic board and they all dulled the knives.
 
I personally prefer end-grain cutting boards (that I make myself) for this very reason. The end-grain, while much more difficult to produce, allows the knife blade to slide between and through the wood fibers rather than on top of them. This helps to prevent knife dulling, in addition to making a denser and longer lasting board.

Side-grain boards and bamboo are to be avoided like the plague, in my opinion.

From my experience the Izula holds an edge really well. I finally dulled the factory edge on mine after spending a weekend trimming and scraping fiberglass-filled bondo.

It's a tough little knife, but no knife will keep a razor edge after smashing the said edge into a bamboo cutting board.
 
1095 is one of the best knife steels going, especially with Rowen's heat treat. Any knife will get duller with use. Esee's are no exception , but as anyone here will tell you, any of their products are top shelf as far as edge holding goes , including the Izula. :thumbup:
 
that's right carbon steel as with any good steel takes a little more work to get back to factory edge, but once it's there it stays there for a while.....like others I've stuck with the 3 in the kitchen because of the thinness of the blade, it makes a great meat and veggie slicer!!!!!
 
In theory, once you use a knife once it's not as sharp as it can be. There is much good advice in the posts on this thread. Izula's are great knives, and can be made to be hair whittling sharp, but most knives, the Izula included, can be made sharper than they come from the factory. I reprofiled and convexed mine right when I got it to make it a better slicer, but what you hear in this thread is true... The Izula is a stout little knife, but it's thickness can also hinder it's ability to be a great slicer, but gives it other capabilities that are desirable.
 
Thanks guys, you have answered my question as she was hitting the cutting board rather hard. Her kitchen knives are a joke so I gave her the Izula just to see how it fared.
 
After reading this thread, I decided to fix luch using the Izula. I prepared a chopped salad for two, with with letuce, carrots, bell pepper, cucumber, olives, cheese, and similar stuff, all cut on an old cutting board made from some type of plastic. I'm happy to say that the Izula came out as sharp as it went in, in spite of running that tip all over the board.

On the other hand, the Izula has too much belly for preparing veggies and didn't provide that good of a good cooking experience...
 
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Supra1988t said:
Thanks guys, you have answered my question as she was hitting the cutting board rather hard. Her kitchen knives are a joke so I gave her the Izula just to see how it fared.
Click to expand...


I was cutting earlier with a Swamp Warden and a Spyderco Manix2 Flat Grind XHP.

The test was to cut Potatoes into Fries size.

The knife with the thinnest spine won, as predicted. So which knife would I use if I had to use something else than a Paring knife? Manix2, thin blade and flat grind without coating does the job with less hassle :thumbup:

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