Paper curls up a bit when doing paper slicing

[DangerZone98]

Hey everyone. This is a totally minor issue but it kinda bugs me. I have a Cold Steel Outdoorsman Lite that does a weird thing in the paper cutting test. As I slice the paper, the rifts where the paper was cut tend to curl up by about 1 mm. It doesn’t feel like a clean cut like some of my other knives, if that makes any sense. I also haven’t noticed my other knives do this.

Is this simply a sharpness issue? This knife is more of a beater utility tool, so I’m not too crazy about a laser edge on this one.

 

[Mister Coffee]

Did you iron the paper flat first so that there are no curls in it? A medium hot iron and three or four whiskey's ought to do the trick.

Of course, I could be wrong about this.

 

[DangerZone98]

Did you iron the paper flat first so that there are no curls in it? A medium hot iron and three or four whiskey's ought to do the trick.

Of course, I could be wrong about this.

Nope, no ironing or whiskey involved haha.

 

[David Mary]

Can you show a pic of what you mean?

 

[DangerZone98]

Can you show a pic of what you mean?

Hi man. Honestly, I think I’m just nitpicking. I don’t notice any performance issues and it’s a utility knife rather than a precision tool. Freshly sharpened on my humble Lansky crock sticks.

 

[David Mary]

Interesting. Can we see the knife's geometry?

 

[DangerZone98]

Interesting. Can we see the knife's geometry?

It’s a fairly standard saber (maybe a slight hollow?) grind. I usually sharpen at around 20 degrees per side, but it could be a flaw in my sharpening method. The edge angle might be greater than 20 dps. I still have lots to learn.

 

[David Mary]

The edge angle might be greater than 20 dps

This was my suspicion, or thicker behind the edge (or a combination thereof), where the shoulder pushes and folds the paper up out of the way of the cutting path. Looks like it might be the case, and it might benefit from thinning out the primary grind. You could do it with a diamond plate. Not sure what other tools you have at your disposal.

 

[DangerZone98]

This was my suspicion, or thicker behind the edge (or a combination thereof), where the shoulder pushes and folds the paper up out of the way of the cutting path. Looks like it might be the case, and it might benefit from thinning out the primary grind. You could do it with a diamond plate. Not sure what other tools you have at your disposal.

Just the crock sticks for now I’m afraid. I spend too much on knives and not nearly enough on sharpening equipment. Thanks for your time, David. Anyway, I can practice sharpening further on this knife.

 

[David Mary]

You're welcome. But I highly recommend grabbing yourself something to at least reprofile an edge with so you can knock down the shoulders. Cutting performance of a knife can be dramatically improved without even touching the apex. If you had a diamond plate at, say, 220, and one at 600, you could basically do your own "regrind".

 

[David Mary]

Looks like an interesting read, by the way.

 

[Robert Ptacek]

You're welcome. But I highly recommend grabbing yourself something to at least reprofile an edge with so you can knock down the shoulders. Cutting performance of a knife can be dramatically improved without even touching the apex. If you had a diamond plate at, say, 220, and one at 600, you could basically do your own "regrind".

David is so right.

 

[DangerZone98]

You're welcome. But I highly recommend grabbing yourself something to at least reprofile an edge with so you can knock down the shoulders. Cutting performance of a knife can be dramatically improved without even touching the apex. If you had a diamond plate at, say, 220, and one at 600, you could basically do your own "regrind".

Took your advice and upgraded to a Worksharp Tri-Angle system. I plan to learn freehanding eventually, but I wanna stick to guided setups for now. The plan is a 17.5 deg back bevel and 20 deg cutting bevel. Seems nice and balanced for utility stuff. Thanks for the help, man.

 

[David Mary]

No worries. I go straight to a 15° per side back back bevel on my knives.