Removing the bur

U

Uncle Bill

Joined
Aug 24, 1999
Messages
434
When it comes to removing the bur or wire edge while sharpening, what is your experience with various steels? I find that some let you hone it right off, and some seem to make you just bend it from side to side.

As a point of reference, I find 1095 an easy steel with which to hone off the bur, and 420 sometimes all kinds of trouble.

This difference reminds me of taking an axe to various types of wood. Some are springy and tough, some are hard as all get out, but let you cut without rebounding, etc.

What about other steels? How do they treat you when you try to remove the wire edge?

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I don't want my children fed or clothed by the state, but I would prefer THAT to their being educated by the state.
 
A strop will take the burr right off, even on 420. Even if you want a coarse edge you can give it a few strops just to remove the burr without ruining the coarse edge.

-Cougar Allen :{)
 
That's why I use my rouge impregnated leather pad, Bill. I've had no trouble removing the burr from any knife I own, all varieties of steels.
 
WooHoo Tom, I bet you open a can of worms with that one! But it sounds like a good idea. I worked as a glazier and took my machete to the wet sanding belt we used to polish glass edges. After I finished with a cork polishing belt an accidental light contact with the edge left me bleeding. After that sharpening I used it with great caution.

jeff
 
I appreciate the thoughts about the best ways of removing a bur, but the thing I was really interested in was a comparison of steels.

Which steels let you knock off the bur easily and which don't? Which are springy or spongy? Which are tough? Which let you knock it right off?

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I don't want my children fed or clothed by the state, but I would prefer THAT to their being educated by the state.
 
I have alot of trouble with 440V, but I find that ATS-34 isn't too tough.
Aaron

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amacks@nist.gov
Don't forget to pay your taxes...they eventually become my knives:)

 
Speaking of "burr", it's a wire-edge on one side only when you test the blade with your fingers (running it across horizontally, not ALONG the edge, folks! hehe) right?

If you get that same feeling on BOTH sides on the edge, does it still count as a wire-edge, or is it the final edge? I know that most knives out of the box doesn't have the burr, so the feeling is like having a burr on both sides, like biting into your thumb pads. Is that the cutting edge? or could it be finer still? How will the final "burr-less" edge feel like?

Dan
 
My experience has been that fine grained, low alloy steels form less of a burr. Higher wear resistance steels don't seem to form a very large one either. It is mostly a problem for me with ATS-34. M-2, no problem, CPM42V, no problem, A-2, no problem. A couple strokes on the fine Spyderco ceramic rods does the job for all the above. I usually have to strop on Flitz and cardboard to get a good clean edge on ATS-34.

Harv
 
If you feel the burr on both sides that means you've straightened it out -- it's now sticking straight out from the edge, neither to one side nor the other, but it's still there, and as soon as you try to cut something with it it'll flop over to one side. That's what happens when you try to remove the burr from that silly putty stainless by stroking more and more gently on the hone alternating sides with each stroke -- that'll come so close to removing all the burr on real steel that you might consider it good enough without stropping, but not on surgical stainless. Strop it.

If you can strop it on the palm of your hand and it doesn't feel rough on either side you've removed the burr and you're ready to start cutting.

-Cougar Allen :{)
 
Thanks, Cougar.
smile.gif
It has been hounding me for some time now.
smile.gif


Dan
 
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