Piece of Cardboard... Can make all the difference

Hankins

Hankins

Joined
Dec 7, 2008
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How can a piece of cardboard make all the difference... Glad you asked:D
Actually after reading several threads regarding stropping and sharpening it is opening my eyes to new possibilities.
Found a rolled edge on a blade that seemed sharp...
Stropping Guru's weNeed suggestions your on how to pursue this for the "Perfect Edge"
With D2 and/or 5160 as a base steel
 
I am far far from a stropping guru but I am a firm believer!

I use mostly 1095 and sharpen with a worn 320grit JFlex, a leather belt loaded with white compound followed by hand stropping with a metal polish loaded strop.

I get literally hair whittling polished convex edges ~60% of the time with tree toppers the rest of the time.

Not bad for something that takes maybe 10 minutes starting with no edge at all.

I do want to get some micron belts soon and see how they work at refining the edge.
 
Have used 15 micron belts to good effect but still like a bit of a toothy edge.
Found that raising a slight burr with a 300grit belt then stropping it on the 15 micron belt (Held tight on the grinder) yields a decent toothy edge.
Has not however given me the topping sharpness I've been searching for...
What degree of angle on a hollow grind blade?
 
Matt, as a person who has 2 sharp objects from your workshop... let me tell you... they're sharp enough!!! lol

Any sharper and they'll cut through your sheaths!

hmm on second though maybe that should a challenge... =D
 
I love the strop. I have 5 bench strops from HandAmerican and use them a lot. After cutting something with my edc knife I will strop it on my pant leg and it realy makes a difference.
 
Hankins, for my knives I've come to prefer a polished edge but if you want a toothy edge, it's not hard to do. Try this:

Grind your secondary bevels and raise a bur at 120-320 grit.
Get a sewn muslin wheel loaded with black compound.
Buff the edge with medium-light pressure. Your angle should be about half that of the edge.
So, you ground the edge at 20deg? Buff holding the blade at 10. Use enough pressure that the wheel buffs all the way to the apex, but not enough that it rounds it over.
Once the bur is gone, strop by hand on a metal polish loaded leather strop. This isn't really necessary but it will really add a bite to the edge. Again, don't let the strop round over the apex, just polish it.

This edge won't split hair but it will shave, slice and cut like crazy. I've gone as low as 60 grit for the edge, talk about a screaming sharp slicer! :eek:
 
You can also strop on newspaper for the same effect. After I run thru my waterstones ill finish on leather or balsa ( or cardboard) with chrome ox or diamond spray. I shave with a kamisori so I like to give my knives a lot of the same treatment. Just for fun :)
 
For that hair melting edge you want tho... A good practice for that would be to make sure your blade at least shaves before you even move to the strop. I can't really offer any advise sharpening with a belt grinder though, I sharpen all my knives freehand on jnats. I even grind in the secondary bevel on stones. I can't recommend waterstones enough. I can easily pass hanging hair tests with blades fresh off the stones.
 
I'm no guru either... very few of my knives require a tree-topping or hair-whittling edge. My only problems with cardboard as a stropping surface are that it's not all the same, and most of it is actually coarser than my final sharpening steps. It's cheap and it does work, though. Especially for quick touch-ups on a "working" knife before the edge actually gets dull... and I'm all about touching up an edge often.
Leethal Cutlery said:
A good practice for that would be to make sure your blade at least shaves before you even move to the strop.
Click to expand...

I completely agree. Thick or thin, toothy or polished, I feel firmly that any knife's edge should be able to shave hair off your arm or leg cleanly. Stropping such an edge gives it that next level of crispness, and only takes seconds if the edge is already in good shape. :thumbup:
 
I am also far from being a guru at sharpening but funny enough I use a cardboard strop always and its loaded with white jewlers rouge, I strop exacto blades, my skiver blade and round knife blades on this strop all of the afore mentioned blades are used to cut leather any where from 4oz all the way up to and mostly 10-12oz veg tan leather. all of these blades will shave you or lay you open if not used properly....I also use a 4 inch wide leather strop that is glued to a 5 inch wide piece of 1/4'' thick oak this is loaded with green rouge and all of my knives EDC included see this strop frequently. the card board strop is a piece of hard card stock like what is on the back of an artists sketch pad the thick stuff not the honeycomb garbage....it is glued to a 3'' wide piece plexiglass (its what was layin around) the glue is spray adheasive name not important...just spray only one side of the card board not both card board and whatever you're gluing it to so when its wore out you can replace it...
 
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Have also used my Pant leg (ala Levi's) for a final strop.
The cardboard just opened my eyes to other possibilities.
The unseen is what I am striving for...
Leaning towards D2 as a final blade steel, for use in small to mid sized blades from 3" up to 5-6" edge
5160 for choppers with a convex grind
 
I think 3M makes some diamond lapping sheets down to 0.5 micron. That might work better on the carbides in the D2, for example. I've used their polishing sheets on the 10xx in the HRc @ 60 with good results. But they were a little of a pain for D2. If you want the slight convex you can mount them to cardboard, or etc.
 
No doubt. My first hair wittling edge was achieved with 100 grit sandpaper and a stropping on some cardboard. I have no idea why it worked either.
 
Alot of times a rough toothy edge that has been polished on a strop of any kind will appear to whittle hair but all its doin is catching on the small shingles on the hair strand an pulling it apart.
 
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