Screw torque and edge touch ups. Your thoughts?

J

Jamesh Bond

Joined
Jan 14, 2007
Messages
1,760
Hey guys. Good to be back. Hope all is well with my peeps.

How tight do you go with your assembly screws? I push mine GENTLY to the point where I feel one more turn would start causing problems. I often wonder if this is overkill tho.

How tight is too tight? Am I good as long as nothing strips?


Also:
I hone ( NOT SHARPEN ) all my blades the standard way. I angle so the apex bites in a bit so I KNOW it's getting attention. Ya a microbevel of sorts is probable, but a few swipes on fine abrasive obviously ain't gonna change much.

*But, with my Emersons, I hone just like I sharpen (and I don't like it):

I attempt to match the original bevel so as to not make the thick blade anymore obtuse than it naturally is. This nearly always ends sloppy, convex, and never as sharp as the fresh sharpened edge, due to the nature of the fine abrasives and nearly imperceptible angle feedback.

Also, in the time these 'touch ups' take, I could've taken to a stone for a crisp new edge in half the time anyway.

But I don't want to grind away my blade every time I cut a box, so I deal till it pisses me off and goes to the stone.

I'd love to spend 2 minutes bringing my 7A back like I do with my other blades instead of the half hour my approach seems to take.

Overthinking? Me? A knife forum guy?
Fancy that. Lol

SO . . .

I appreciate, as always, anyone who gave their time to read my wordy descriptiom. The gist is:

1. Plz share your thoughts and techniques on assembly screw torque and stability.

2. Are these chisel edges REALLY as sensitive to less than absolute precision as I am led to believe, or for the love of God can I do my quick swipey thing and move on?
Plz share your thoughts and preferred ways to hone your Emersons, specially with ceramic rods.

Thx billions.
 
For light touch ups like u describe, u should try stropping.... Works great for keeping an edge maintained without removing material
 
I use a combo of an old leather belt and cotton web belt to maintain working edges without a full sharpening. Easily done and quick.

As for pivot adjustments, I find that every single model I own reacts a bit differently to pivot adjustments, so they all vary.
 
Urban redneck said:
For light touch ups like u describe, u should try stropping.... Works great for keeping an edge maintained without removing material
Click to expand...
Stropping is my first go to. But I'm referring to honing. The point where the strop won't fully restore the edge but full sharpening is still unnecessary.

Thx.
 
Most Emerson grinds I strop. If it's beyond that I go to ceramic rods. I have diamond but, on 154, prefer the edge I get from the ceramics. Flats, like my Super 7, I sometimes stone.
 
For the screws I get them gently finger snug then maybe a 1/4 turn if that. It's hard to explain. Titanium is not forgiving like steel. A torque value would be good for those without that internal torque wrench haha.
 
EChoil said:
Most Emerson grinds I strop. If it's beyond that I go to ceramic rods. I have diamond but, on 154, prefer the edge I get from the ceramics. Flats, like my Super 7, I sometimes stone.
Click to expand...

This is what I do as well. I actually have more strops & compounds now than I do different stones. I've found that Emerson's 154CM responds very well to stropping with different compounds and different surfaces. Black compound on a somewhat rougher leather surface does a pretty good job of honing an edge. I also use a 3 micron CBN spray on balsa wood. That's a fav for Emerson's chisel grind on straight edges because the wood is harder and it's easier to maintain a straight bevel than it is with leather. I finish up with a thin, smooth, bare leather strop on a steel plate.

I rarely have to use a ceramic stone on me Emersons, but I strop lightly after each day's use just to straighten the edge again. The last time I really had to sharpen with a stone was when I traded for a mini-Commander that needed some serious attention. I used a medium Spyderco 701 rod propped up against a SM rod for that, then finished with stropping.
 
EChoil said:
Most Emerson grinds I strop. If it's beyond that I go to ceramic rods. I have diamond but, on 154, prefer the edge I get from the ceramics. Flats, like my Super 7, I sometimes stone.
Click to expand...

Thank you for responding !

No rudeness intended whatsoever, but that wasn't my question.
I'm not really interested in choice of tools. Interested in how you prefer to use them (especially the ceramics since that's what I use) based on the body description and question #2 in OP.

Simple apex swipes? Or precise removal on the entire edge bevel?

I admit, despite my wordy bleethering, I am still absolutely terrible at conveying my thoughts with any clarity. Irony.
 
Sosa said:
For the screws I get them gently finger snug then maybe a 1/4 turn if that. It's hard to explain. Titanium is not forgiving like steel. A torque value would be good for those without that internal torque wrench haha.
Click to expand...

Sounds like we have the same method. Cept I perceive the opposite, with the titanium seeming to be more forgiving. Or maybe due to its grippy nature, it just feels tighter before the limits are reached.

???? Dunno ????

Thx.
 
Man i must really suck at life. I'm not referring to pivots. Why I said assembly screws. Not pivot screws.

Thx.

Thx.
 
dalefuller said:
This is what I do as well. I actually have more strops & compounds now than I do different stones. I've found that Emerson's 154CM responds very well to stropping with different compounds and different surfaces. Black compound on a somewhat rougher leather surface does a pretty good job of honing an edge. I also use a 3 micron CBN spray on balsa wood. That's a fav for Emerson's chisel grind on straight edges because the wood is harder and it's easier to maintain a straight bevel than it is with leather. I finish up with a thin, smooth, bare leather strop on a steel plate.......
Click to expand...

Yeah, for me one of the main appeals of an Emerson is how the steel takes to strop and stone. I really like working with it. The chisel grind is a two-way thing: it edges back up quickly but it's so different to work with than V-bevels.
 
Jamesh Bond said:
Thank you for responding !

No rudeness intended whatsoever, but that wasn't my question.
I'm not really interested in choice of tools. Interested in how you prefer to use them (especially the ceramics since that's what I use) based on the body description and question #2 in OP.

Simple apex swipes? Or precise removal on the entire edge bevel?

I admit, despite my wordy bleethering, I am still absolutely terrible at conveying my thoughts with any clarity. Irony.
Click to expand...

I don't think you're rude.

I go basically as instructed on the Emerson site, holding the knife and using one-direction strokes of the rod. Sometimes I'll mark the bevel with a Sharpie and begin that way to get the proper angle and proceed from there. As with anything there are exceptions that sometimes require varying the method. Sometimes I'll go with circular motions for a while, etc....just depends on the edge condition. I try to keep the factory bevels/edge alignments...even though it's so tempting at times to just "V" them all.

Stropping is as usual, but of course one side only on the chisels. Then a flat swipe or two on the other side on balsa or cardboard.

As I was saying to Dale above, the Emerson steel is such that ceramic gives a slower, more controlled edge work-up than diamond, IMO. In other words I can sneak up on a fine edge a lot easier.
 
Dat 154CM !

Imma let this one go guys. I can't seem to form my question enough to convey what I'm asking, and it's truly not very important anyway.

Good to see y'all. I'll be around.

Thx.

Sent from my SM-S920L using Tapatalk
 
OK... answering your question about honing Emersons with their chisel edges...

I have not found the chisel edge to be "sensitive" at all in my stropping / sharpening. My Emersons are the easiest knives for me to maintain keeping the factory angle. That's one of the main things I like about them. When I sharpen or strop any knife on a flat stone, I use an old technique that I got from Buck a long time ago. They called it the "shadow" method. I work under a strong light so I can see the shadow created by the edge of the blade on a stone or strop surface. I drop the edge just until I can see the least amount of shadow before it disappears. Then I strop or sharpen edge trailing until I get desired results. I work from my elbow trying to keep my wrist fixed. That helps prevent rocking the blade and convexing the edge. I don't have any trouble keeping my Emersons factory sharp this way.

But again... I do this after each day's use so my knives never get really dull. These are more touch-ups ands edge straightening than removing metal. Also, as said above, I like harder surfaces for my strops. When I use leather, it's either very hard leather or very thin leather on a hard sub-surface like steel.
 
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