Just something I wanted to say regarding Emerson knives and what folks have been saying about their cutting performance.
A lot of people have said that EKI knives cut poorly. Both in the V-grind (traditional sabre grind with chisel edge) and in the chisel grind (chisel ground with chisel edge) configurations, this is fairly true with a stock edge.
This is because the stock edge angle is fairly steep, which makes for increased effort while cutting as well as exacerbating the "curved sliding" problem with chisel ground knives.
There's a simple (if lengthy) solution:
1- Take the edge angle down, from the stock angle of 50-60 degrees down to < 40 degrees. (Remember, because these are chisel edged, you must set your angles from the GROUND flat, not the sabre flat!) Make sure that you raise a sizable burr -- Emersons are notoriously hard to grind down to the very last bit. You should examine the edge under a bright light to make sure you don't see a glint from an unsharpened portion. I use a 100-grit EdgePro waterstone.
2- Pop off the burr by covering the flats with some tape and kissing the backside on a 320/400 grit ceramic stone as close to the flat as you can without tearing up the tape. That'll break off the burr.
3- Repeat the above with higher grits and finish the edge to about 320 grit.
3- Strop it on cardboard or hard leather, charged with a metal polish (like Flitz or Maas) on both sides. This helps to polish up the wire edge that's easily acquired on EKI's chisel edges. The most important thing is to keep the edge angle the same! You aren't putting in a convex edge -- do NOT "curl" up your hand as you reach the end of the stropping surface. Also, it helps to push the blade into the strop at first to see just where the edge bites, then back down a tiny bit. That'll clean up the edge bevel and the edge itself.
4- The stropping with metal polish will leave a very push-cut oriented edge -- you can optionally restrop on unloaded cardboard to restore some toothiness.
Total work time: 45min-1hr for a stock new EKI blade.
I have a I&I tanto and a Commander, both of which responded very well to this treatment. They slice and dice as well as comparable knives, given the steeper grinds (you can't compare to a Spyderco Military, or a Puukko, or a BM 710, for example). They don't veer off nearly as much, and they definitely are quite sharp. With a #1 slash into 2-ply cardboard, I get more depth than a Gunting and about as much as a 806D2.
It's really easy on an EdgePro -- you don't even need the half-width stones -- but it can be a bear to impossible on a Sharpmaker or even a Lansky style setup. I can imagine that you could do it freehand too... but I'm not that skilled.
-Jon
A lot of people have said that EKI knives cut poorly. Both in the V-grind (traditional sabre grind with chisel edge) and in the chisel grind (chisel ground with chisel edge) configurations, this is fairly true with a stock edge.
This is because the stock edge angle is fairly steep, which makes for increased effort while cutting as well as exacerbating the "curved sliding" problem with chisel ground knives.
There's a simple (if lengthy) solution:
1- Take the edge angle down, from the stock angle of 50-60 degrees down to < 40 degrees. (Remember, because these are chisel edged, you must set your angles from the GROUND flat, not the sabre flat!) Make sure that you raise a sizable burr -- Emersons are notoriously hard to grind down to the very last bit. You should examine the edge under a bright light to make sure you don't see a glint from an unsharpened portion. I use a 100-grit EdgePro waterstone.
2- Pop off the burr by covering the flats with some tape and kissing the backside on a 320/400 grit ceramic stone as close to the flat as you can without tearing up the tape. That'll break off the burr.
3- Repeat the above with higher grits and finish the edge to about 320 grit.
3- Strop it on cardboard or hard leather, charged with a metal polish (like Flitz or Maas) on both sides. This helps to polish up the wire edge that's easily acquired on EKI's chisel edges. The most important thing is to keep the edge angle the same! You aren't putting in a convex edge -- do NOT "curl" up your hand as you reach the end of the stropping surface. Also, it helps to push the blade into the strop at first to see just where the edge bites, then back down a tiny bit. That'll clean up the edge bevel and the edge itself.
4- The stropping with metal polish will leave a very push-cut oriented edge -- you can optionally restrop on unloaded cardboard to restore some toothiness.
Total work time: 45min-1hr for a stock new EKI blade.
I have a I&I tanto and a Commander, both of which responded very well to this treatment. They slice and dice as well as comparable knives, given the steeper grinds (you can't compare to a Spyderco Military, or a Puukko, or a BM 710, for example). They don't veer off nearly as much, and they definitely are quite sharp. With a #1 slash into 2-ply cardboard, I get more depth than a Gunting and about as much as a 806D2.
It's really easy on an EdgePro -- you don't even need the half-width stones -- but it can be a bear to impossible on a Sharpmaker or even a Lansky style setup. I can imagine that you could do it freehand too... but I'm not that skilled.
-Jon
)
The low sabre grind and the chisel edge really kind of makes it hard to have a shallow included edge angle.
