Not all coffee mugs are created equal.

J

jackknife

Joined
Oct 2, 2004
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17,489
Okay, I was inspire by Gary's post, and the creating of a fellowship of the coffee cup. But I've been thinking that there's one little iota of information that needs to be made clear; not all coffee mugs are good.

Of late, I've been out and about, and went to touch up a pocket nice, and found that a number of mugs are totally finished somehow, with even the ring on the bottom having a glazed finish. I don't know if this is a growing trend in the manufacture of coffee mugs, with new technology involved, but it is worrisome. In more paranoid moments I can even think of a tin foil hat senerio, depriving us knife knuts of a means to keep ones personal blade shaving sharp. :D

But in the photo you can see the different rngs and finishes. The dark blue mug, has no unglazed ring on the bottom at all. Bad mug. The top right mug has a ring, but it is small and thin, and will shapen, but not he best. The top left mug has a great ring. Wide, great grit, you could sharpen Conan's broadsword on that thing. When buying coffee mugs, pay careful attention to the under side. Not all mugs are created equal.
:D
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I've noticed that too. On some, even if there's a lot of unglazed ring, some of them are way too rough/irregular/bumpy to be useful. And with ceramic mugs, there's also a very wide range of hardness/abrasiveness in the materials used to make them.

It may be possible, maybe even easy, to scrub the glaze off of some with a SiC stone, diamond hone or similar. I used the coarse side of my Norton 'Economy' stone (SiC) to smooth out the bumps on the bottom of my coffee mug, and it worked pretty fast (using light pressure, as always). Might be able to do this on concrete, as well.

Of course, I'd discourage this 'scrubbing' until after one actually buys the mug, if selecting one at the store. :D


David
 
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Coffee cup sharpening should come with a warning. Had a guy come in last week that sharpened his straight razor on the bottom of a coffee cup and almost destroyed it.
 
If he sharpened his straight razor on a coffee mug, then he deserved a ruined razor. As Bill Engivall says, "Here's your sign!" Even as dumb and hard headed as I am, I don't think I would try that, even with my paper wheels.:hopelessness: Nothing personal to anyone, just saying!

Blessings,

Omar
 
OHALLUM said:
If he sharpened his straight razor on a coffee mug, then he deserved a ruined razor. As Bill Engivall says, "Here's your sign!" Even as dumb and hard headed as I am, I don't think I would try that, even with my paper wheels.:hopelessness: Nothing personal to anyone, just saying!

Blessings,

Omar
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Very true..
 
Buying mugs based on their rings isn't THAT crazy, but when you shop for cars and lower the driver's window down half way.... :D
 
sodak said:
Buying mugs based on their rings isn't THAT crazy, but when you shop for cars and lower the driver's window down half way.... :D
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They already think I'm nuts at the Salvation Army store.

Mugs, by virtue of being ceramic, have a life span. They get cracked, sometimes breaking if they get dropped or banged in the dishwasher. Sometimes we need a few mugs, so I go check out the second had store. I like it because you can get advertising mugs cheap since they don't really go with a decor. Savings and loans, used car dealers, auto body shops...

So there I was at the Salvation Army store, taking each mug on the shelves, and turning them over looking at how much of a ring they had on the bottom. I didn't realize I was sort of speaking to myself, "yeah, good one, no not this one..."

A lady that was working there asked me, "just what are you lookiing for on the bottom of those mugs?"

So I tell her, "The ones with a bigger unglazed ring make great knife sharpeners."

She gives me a strange look and moves away. True story.

Carl.
 
Good points there had to scour about when I did that one and also found too many bad mugs :(
G2
 
Oddly enough, I've had great success with using the glazed ones as "finishing stones". You can still see the black steel buildup on the mug, but it's slower and smoother. It gets the blade sharper than I can get it with the unglazed ring, but not as sharp as I can get it with my stones. Still working on it :)
 
I couldn't get this technique to work for me at all. I tried this with my edc of the day made my knife so blunt I couldn't cut tape. Couldn't wait for my day to be over so I could race home and fix my poor blade. Hats off to you guys who can actually sharpen with a cup
 
Wow, that first cup looks like a dream to sharpen on. All of my cups look like the one on the right. Will have to keep my eyes peeled for a better cup.
 
I have a couple newer cups that have real nice rings on them, fairly coarse finish. One of my older mugs from a previous house that had granite countertops is nicely "lapped" to a smoother finish. Have tried using the glazed top of a mug, but the edge of some Pyrex bakeware works way better for a "steeling" finish. I only use the coffee cups on my softer Chinese made Chicago Cutlery knives. Much as with a butchers steel, I find the tougher steels, especially stainless, respond way better to polishing with compound compared to the underside of a coffee or mixing bowl. My "good" Parker Bros set (unknown stainless - made in Japan) has to be done on a stone or my Washboard to respond well. A grooved steel can barely touch them and then cannot cleanly remove the burr, the coffee cup can barely touch up the edge. This steel holds an edge for a long time, so better off sharpening it up properly.
 
coli said:
I couldn't get this technique to work for me at all. I tried this with my edc of the day made my knife so blunt I couldn't cut tape. Couldn't wait for my day to be over so I could race home and fix my poor blade. Hats off to you guys who can actually sharpen with a cup
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It sounds like you may have had much too steep an angle on your blade. A common mistake with people who are not used to free hand sharpening.
 
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