Newbie lost trying to strop my BRKT PSK

C

candlelight001

Joined
Jun 3, 2008
Messages
764
Hi,
New in the knife world: Got a a bark river PSK, shaving sharp out of box. Made 20 16 inch cuts into corrugated cardboard, now it's tearing the cardboard. Tried to strop it on my belt, laid on a table, no effect. Also on notebook cardboard. Read CONVEX SHARPENING THE BRKCA WAY, and looked at a video on YouTube, not getting it right here. Is my mistake not using compound or sandpaper, or is it my technique? I was under the (perhaps misguided) impression that for minor touch-up a leather belt or notebook cardboard would work...

Any advice would be most appreciated...
Thanks!
 
Last edited:
Probably you're stropping with too much pressure. That's the most common thing done wrong. Very lightly is the trick.

If you press too hard, the stropping material tends to push up too much and round off the edge - actually making it duller! Not good! A session with the BRKT black compound should set that to rights.

The Bark River compound set on KnivesShipFree's strop is probably the best way to go - the compounds do a great job of honing and polishing the edge. Here's the Page.

One other trip - when stropping (you're pulling away from the edge, right?) - start at the tip and move towards the handle. It's much easier to keep the right angle that way.
 
try some wet/dry sandpaper about 400grit on a mouse pad. be carefull if you are picky about the blade finish.use very light strokes, and see where this goes.
 
Follow-up:

Plain leather or cardboard is used basically to polish the edge - so it makes an already sharp edge really sharp. Or used regularly, it keeps that really sharp edge really sharp.

If the blade is actually dull, it needs something more abrasive to bring it back - that's when you need the black compound, or even the sandpaper over leather.

I'd encourage you to practice with it a bit - if you really screw things up, you can always send the blade back to Escanaba, and they'll put a brand new hair popping edge on it for you! :thumbup::D
 
Thanks for the replies folks... I was definitely putting to much pressure on.

So I got a sharpmaker and a strop w/ compound. I quickly put a razor edge on my benchmade mini-grip with the sharpmaker. But, while I could get the Bark River edge sharp enough to shave if I used a lot of pressure on skin, I couldn't get it as sharp as the benchmade using the strop. So on a whim, I gave the Bark River 5 passes each side on the fine Sharpmaker stones. Then stropped it some more, now its super sharp.

So, two questions:

Can I screw up the bark river edge by lightly using the sharpmaker on it?

Any ideas why I couldn't get to ultra sharp on the strop alone?

Thanks!
 
1. not really, you can reset the convex at any time with some sandpaper
2. the sharpmaker rod surface is like having abrasive grit 15-25 (white to brown) times larger than 0.5 micron chromium oxide, if that's what's on your strop. Lets you work faster, the strop alone could take forever. Like jumping from steel wool to a double cut file to remove metal.
 
Grampa said:
...when stropping (you're pulling away from the edge, right?) - start at the tip and move towards the handle. It's much easier to keep the right angle that way.
Click to expand...
Do you mean by this that the whole edge is stropped in one stroke, rather than stropping in sections?

Thank you...
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top