Some Surpises Cutting Cardboard w/ the Delica

Chipping on fibrous material like cardboard is an odd report to be sure, until you mention the degree is only to the microbevel depth. If your final hone is on the ceramic of the sharpmaker, maybe this is why? Even the fine hones leave a little bite on the edge. Try stropping on a leather belt for final hone and polish.

I have the Tenacious in the 8Cr13MoV and it passes through 50 ft of board avg in a day and countless feet splitting stretch wrap and tape. I carry a small ceramic stick to touch it up a few strokes around lunch. The bite it leaves is great for the plastic wrap but I do notice faster wear on the tougher materials.

I have heard of success stropping ON cardboard but I do better on a denim pantleg or belt.

As for the boxcutter:
Box cutters have their place: at a table with a stack of boxes for 8 hrs, cutting insulation or slicing open bags of concrete all day. Otherwise, screw a tab knife or break-off razor, they are disposable crap. I would rather touch up my drop point twenty times a day than try to baby a $3 Husky after the pivot jumps out cause I dropped it once. You ever try to cut a wad of shrink wrap as thick as your arm with a little tab knife? I don't have all day for that. The longer blade is more versatile.

I hear people say they keep their edges "utility sharp". This is funny to me, cause nothing is more fragile and thin than a utility knife.

Really, it is all a matter of preference, lots of guys carry the disposable on the job and the pocket knife in the pocket. Others maintain the belt knife so sharp they haven't used a nail clipper in years.
 
wongKI said:
...acidic sweat?

Cardboard does a number on my edges too. Could be my sharpening, could be the material. But seeing as I've heard recommendations before to strop on cardboard (unloaded) over at the maintenance subforum, I'd guess that cardboard contains abrasives of some sort.
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I'm the king of acidic sweat, and to make matters worse I sweat a lot!. Prior to buying a titanium watch I had to replace my watch every 2-3 years because the backs became so corroded they actually cut into my wrist. Some people are just naturally harder on metal than others.

Back to the cardboard: most papers contain clay as a stiffening agent and filler. That means cutting cardboard is just a more sophisticated way of dragging your knife through the dirt. If you've ever hit the ground with a chain saw blade while sawing a log then you know how quickly dirt can dull a sharp edge. Nor surprising, really, when you consider that the main ingredient in soil is particles of weathered rock.
 
If I have a ton of cardboard to cut I use a razor knife, if it only a little I use whatever knife I have on me at the time.

I never had a blade chip on me cutting cardboard though.
 
Just took the Tenacious to some seriously glue infused backer board for an entertainment system, 50 ft of the stuff and no chipping or rolling to speak of. Still barely slices paper.

Maybe a photo of some of the material in question? That cardboard would have to be nasty enough to give you splinters or have staples in it.
 
i've heard that the adhesives in the cardboard are the real abrasive element, whatever it is, cardboard is what i use to test edge durability. 30 yrs. of cardboard does give me some idea of edge holding. maybe not as empirical as what some guys do, but it works for me.
 
The cardboard is nothing unusual. You all probably have some laying around. It is the stuff that JC Penny's boxes shirts and stuff in, and is very similar to cereal boxes. Speaking of which, I resharpened the Delica and tested it on a cereal box. It chipped again. Then I tried with my Cara Cara and it chipped. Finally, my trusty Food Network Deba, and it chipped too. I've never had any chipping problems on corrugated cardboard, just this stuff. I'll resharpen the knives and try them again maybe tomorrow.
 
Three knives you sharpened chipped slicing cereal boxes? Like one little micro ding or saw teeth? I don't know what to say but keep at it and let us know.
 
I broke out the 60x magnifier and had a look. The chips now seem to be rolls instead. The 60x mag is not enough to see actual chips, so even if they were chips, they are very small. I steeled the edge on the side of another blade, then stropped about 12 passes per side, and I can't feel the damage by running it over my fingernail anymore. I only did this to the Delica, but it seems like the roughness comes from the edge rolling, not chipping.
 
me2 i like your followup since it certainly gives credence to your experience. we have to realize that cardboard is like bologna & salami since its made by so many different producers. i think we can safely assume that all of these have a lot of crazy crap in them.
 
Well. There's only one thing left to do - boycott JC Penney's! ;)

I'd be interested in what happens after you convex the edge. I haven't been able to duplicate this, but that's ok, most people can't duplicate my bad experiences in S30V... Sometime you just get a bad one. If you want to check one of my Delica's, let me know, I'll be happy to send you one. Then we'll know if it's the knife or the cardboard.
 
me2 said:
The cardboard is nothing unusual. You all probably have some laying around. It is the stuff that JC Penny's boxes shirts and stuff in, and is very similar to cereal boxes. Speaking of which, I resharpened the Delica and tested it on a cereal box. It chipped again. Then I tried with my Cara Cara and it chipped. Finally, my trusty Food Network Deba, and it chipped too. I've never had any chipping problems on corrugated cardboard, just this stuff. I'll resharpen the knives and try them again maybe tomorrow.
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Maybe you got one that slipped by their QC. ;)

It would seem the steel is too brittle in that one knife if it's chipping out on cardboard.

I have cut a lot of cardboard over the years with a lot of different knives and never had one chip on me.
 
tipoc said:
And if you cut up boxes for a living you use a boxcutter. It's the right knife for the job.
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I have to wonder why a boxcutter would be the right tool for the job - I seriously doubt that it would be the BEST tool for the job. I would rather use a carbon steel Mora - touch it up at lunchtime and sharpen it every night. If you wear it down over a couple of years then what's the big deal - spend the $10 and buy another one. If you cut up boxes for a living then I would hate to think about how many blades you would blunt in a year using boxcutters - they are lovely and super sharp when you start on a fresh blade, but they dull fast due to the cheap disposable blade being made as cheap as possible by using cheap steel.

It has to be more environmentally friendly to use a knife that you can sharpen then to throw away hundreds of disposable blades every year.
 
The other day, after a few posters had mentioned how tough cardboard can be on their blades I said, in jest, ...
They do make box cutters for a reason.
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Someone objected to this idea and so I said...
And if you cut up boxes for a living you use a boxcutter. It's the right knife for the job.
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A little brusque maybe but the point is right. Apparently, to some, this is like being at a wedding and stepping on the train of the brides dress. Aw shucks!

As many have described cardboard can be made of varied stuff and not all of it paper products. In cutting up large quantities you can also encounter packing tape and staples. It is hard on blades.

Now I don't care what you use to cut up your boxes. You will use what you see fit and resharpen the blades as you desire. I do not care if you trim your toenails with a knife either and bypass the clippers. Your call.

But there is a reason that utility knives/box cutters are widely used in industry. These knives come with inexpensive disposable (and recyclable) blades. Over the last 15 or so years serious efforts have been made to come up with more ergonomic designs fitted to a variety of tasks and designed to reduce fatigue by the users. In construction they are used to score sheetrock, everywhere to open and breakdown boxes, etc. Hundreds of thousands of workers carry and use them daily.

Now we know that as a portion of the blade gets dull more can be extended and a dull blade quickly replaced. This saves the bosses time. The bosses consider time resharpening blades as lost time. Time training workers how to sharpen knives they also consider as lost (a stock clerk in a supermarket does not need to be trained to sharpen a knife, neither does the Macy's clerk, nor a fella who opens sacks of concrete). The blades are retractable and so, in the hands of the unskilled with knives, safer.

A utility knife is a knife. A knife of a specialized type but a blade still. In industry any question of their utility has been settled.

If I have some small amount of cardboard or fiber board to slice up I use the blade on my hip, or pocket, as do most of you. When I have a good deal to cut up I use a utility knife.

Interesting points made by some on altering the grind for the specific job.

tipoc
 
I think the reason your input got such negative reactions is that the original post was not requesting knife recommendation but rather experience. The question was have you ever experienced the type of edge wear that me2 produced and what were the possible causes? How about that knife on your hip or pocket? What are its characteristics and has it ever exhibited this type of wear in cutting cardboard?

The cheapo box cutter does have a place at a pack station or next to the mixer on site, but that is not any kind of advice for this question.

Me2, if your knife polished up fine after a few passes on the steel, why do you not just carry a small stone or steel to touch up on the job? You mentioned how many inches of aluminum it sliced but how many cardboard boxes produced the edge wear you are asking about?
 
I'd have to agree with use a box cutter to cut cardboard...

Just cut a box apart with my 154cm Sheepsfoot Grip and it went from hair poping to just okay...

Still kinda slices paper, but it def dulled it in a hurry....
 
I used to work in a huge warehouse, and the guys in shipping were always impressed with my cardboard cutting skillz. Their boxcutters weren't as sharp as whatever I had on me.

I was around the same kind of business for 20 years, and my father for 30, and we cut miles of cardboard with all kinds of pocket knives. The only thing I ever use box cutters for is trimming asphalt shingles. And in case you are wondering, asphalt shingles will dull any kind of pocket knife up in a hurry. I tried it.

Scraping off an intake manifold off with an Old Timer stockman will also result in dull knife.

Digging with a case trapper... ditto. My wife likes to cut scotchbrite pads in half too. :thumbdn:

This explains why I have a toolbox full of sharpening stuff.
 
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