Sharpening Observation

W

Willieboy

Joined
Jul 4, 2002
Messages
1,237
Call be crazy and feel free to call the guys in white coats carrying big butterfly nets but get this.

Several years ago, I was fingerprinted by a policeman as I applied for a concealed carry license here in Texas. The officer had trouble getting any prints from my fingertips because I had been working on a household project involving sandpaper and I had sanded the tips of my fingers extensively. The officer asked if I worked alot with paper because paper was a fine abrasive. So, the other day, I rolled up a section of a newspaper and stropped several knives on it. I swear, those knives seemed sharper afterwards. Maybe the paper served to polish the edge?

For what it's worth.
 
There isn't a significant polishing action especially on most of the modern high carbide steels, take the same piece of paper and try to polish a scratch out of the sides of the blade. What happens mainly if you do this with a slightly worn edge is that it behaves like a smooth steel and weakly aligns the edge. It will also clean the edge of debris.

-Cliff
 
Thanks Hardheart. After reading that thread, I'm not sure if I should comit myself to a mental institution or think I just discovered something others have known for ages.

On a similar note, when I was a young guy, I played a great deal of pool. (Read that as 14 hours every day.) One problem that confronts serious pool guys is that the leather tip on their cue can spread a bit over time. The solution was to sand the edges of the french leather tip a little and then burnish it using a little spit and an match book. It had the effect of pllishing and hardening the leather....or so we all thought.
 
There is a man here who strops his knives with the front cover of the T:V: guide . He claims it works very well . Maybe its the ink ?
 
Magazine paper is loaded with clays and titanium dioxide whiteners. The titanium dioxide would act as an abrasive polish (I have a tub of it for rock polishing, but rarely use as the stuff gets all over everywhere and is almost impossible to clean off anything, which is probably why it is such a popular pigment for white paint, so I wouldn't even try it on a strop). I think a hard leather strop charged with Linde A, chrome oxide or diamond spray would be a lot more effective though.
 
And remember that although ink may not work to read 'sanded' fingerprints, the prints left at a crime scene are usually the oils in the fingertips--and the oil glands follow the ridges, whether or not they have been sanded.
Greg
 
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