Magnacut, Heat treatment, edge angle, and edge retention

racer32 said:
Thanks everyone for all the responses. As @Larrin picked up on I am not a seasoned sharpener and all input is well apricated. Certainly this knife has provided me the opportunity to go deep into this world.

Regarding the factory edge, I remember it lasted longer that what I can get with my sharpening but it did not impress me over the cheap no name steel I had been using before. IF there was a HT issue, taking a 20*+ factory edge down to 17* could show as a drop off in edge retention performance?

I know I can raise a burr. In my reading and youtubing to get where I am in writing this post I have/had considered the de-burring not being done correctly. One of the reasons I bought the camera. Over the weekend I sharpened and re sharpened this knife a few times, each time adjusting one thing or the other to try and isolate where I was going wrong. I am confident, at least the last few attempts, I am de-burring.

When I said better edge retention @ 20*, I am not talking about 3-400 cuts of carboard before edge starts falling off. We are talking maybe 50-60 cuts before its hanging up on paper. I realize I should probably do a better job of documenting and quantifying if I am going to get to the bottom of this.

I did not mention in the first post but I did buy a second Magnacut blade over the last year and I have not had an issue with that blade post my own sharpening. That one is a Benchmade fix blade I use for dressing game. Different application but I have not had issues with its edge. Maybe hide and meat is less abrasive than carboard but then again mud covered hogs are not that gentle of an application.

I am not giving up on Magnacut, just ordered a new daily for myself and it is in Magnacut, just a domestic supplier. And I am not giving up on this blade either :D Just got to keep learning.

Thanks again all,

M
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I only have 6 knives in MagnaCut (5 makers), and I love it. One thing I find great, is how easily it gets back to hair-popping sharp with stropping (before it gets dull). Nathan Carothers has stressed that point, and I admit that I used to occasionally try to strop knives that needed attention prior to stropping.

All this post is mean’t to say is do not give up on the steel!
 
Sharpening has come a long way from sharpening wheels and flat stones, in this time you only had carbon steel (for hundreds of years) now we have a big candy store full or exotic steels which in a way created (in part) the sharpening industry. For magnacut I would recommend a work sharp field sharpener and a paddle strop with 2 types of diamond emulsion (mixture of water, oil, diamond dust)
Start with 7 micron and 1.5 micron. Just make sure not to cross contaminate the microns, the more knives you buy in various steels the bigger your sharpening collection will by necessity grow but you'll be more than prepared if you start with just these 2
 
I thought it was pretty good I remembered something of his schtick at all. LOL

Thanks for correcting my memory.
 
Well I pressed on refining my technique last night after putting the kids to bed. I have managed to get an edge that will go through 100+ carboard passes without completely loosing its sharpness. It does loose its ability to shave but that I think is to be expected. It still cuts paper with very little hiccups though not as cleanly. A pass on the strop brings it back a little, still not to shaving though. Under the microscope there is no significant visible edge damage.

Thanks everyone for giving me the insight not to blame the HT! See Blues Blues truth can be found on the internet ;)

-M
 
fwiw, I'm a big fan of stropping with leather and a bit of diamond paste ... I find I hardly ever need to escalate further unless I'm re-profiling
 
dirc said:
this is why people who have a lot of cardboard to cut use these ;) and never have to sharpen (apologies, I know we're just talking about best angles / heat treatment etc etc) All that talk about the right tool for the job seems to be a good point to make here

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I use an Olfa. You can sharpen boxcutter blades, too.
 
I usually just strop box cutter blades on cardboard. Keeps em going with minimum hassle.
 
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