resharpening stropped knives?

R

red96ta

Joined
Jun 15, 2008
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132
I got a new benchstone today and tried it out on a kitchen knife that I had previously sharpened and stropped. When i went to the stone, the slick surface of the stropped blade didn't want to bite into the stone. Instead, it just skidded across it.

So what's the procedure for bringing a stropped knife back to a stone when it needs it? A bit more pressure or is the best thing to just give it a few more licks on the strop to bring it back?
 
i would have to say just stropping the knife would be best, especially when the knife was just stropped. unless the edge takes some sort of damage, or you just forget to strop it for awhile, then you would need to take it to the stone.
 
Have you tried the hone on a different knife? It sounds more like a problem with the hone than an issue with a previously stropped blade. New hones often have an artificially flat surface due to being molded or cut to shape. I have found silicon carbide stones to be among the worst for this. Lay a piece of 120 to 220 grit Wet or Dry sandpaper grit side up on a board. Wet it good then invert your hone and work it on the sandpaper for a good while. Next try rubbing it with hot water and Comet using a Scotch Brite pad. If your hone is an oil stone soak it in oil before use. If you don't plan to use it with oil soak it in water for a while. Try honing real hard on something like an old cheap knife. Now your hone should be broken in.

By the way, none of the above applies if you have a diamond hone or a Japanese water stone.
 
Make sure you are at the correct angle. If you are too low you will just catch the shoulder of the edge and it will not bite. If in doubt try the sharpie trick.
 
Jeff Clark said:
... It sounds more like a problem with the hone than an issue with a previously stropped blade. New hones often have an artificially flat surface due to being molded or cut to shape. I have found silicon carbide stones to be among the worst for this.
Click to expand...
That's what it sounds like to me, too. I read that SiC stones have some kind of surface glaze formed when they're fired/manufactured, and I think sometimes probably to save cost they don't grind it off at the factory.

I would definitely try Jeff's recommendation -- don't do what I did once, which was get impatient and lap a new, glazed SiC stone against another old, coarse SiC I had ... it was too aggressive, and the surface afterwards was too rough and almost crumbly, wearing way too fast at first.
 
This is normal with a polished edge, make a few more passes on the stone and it will start cutting.
 
I use a Norton India combo stone and to really get that super sharp edge I finish with a strop. I only use a few passes on each side. Too many and it makes the edge too smooth. I also use a stop between sharpening. Make sure your stone is clean and not loaded with shavings of metal from previous sharpening as the blade will slide instead of sharpening. Good luck and lots of good info from this forum.

RKH
 
hey knifenut how come my leek could only split the hair once when you gave it back to me :) Next time get my knife that sharp!!
 
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