- Joined
- May 30, 2013
- Messages
- 117
Hey there.
I know the stropping substrate firmness has been discussed a lot here and many of you advocate hard substrate to keep the apex as crisp as possible yet i tried a lot without much success using various woods, whetstone wrapped in paper and such.
I have been using balsa most of the time with good succes yet i wanted something able to extend edge life way past balsa and leather capabilities.
I never really liked steeling my knives yet i bought a ceramic steel from Ikea a long time ago and sometime use it on kitchen knives for a quick fix...
When doing some casual stropping on a few knives i had the idea of wrapping half a sheet of newspaper around that rod, just enough to slighty have a give but not too much to feel soft.
I grabbed my Afck( ats34 old gen ) which has been sharpened at 30 inclusive or slightly under using 220 and 600 sic sandpaper, light stropping with black compound, i kept a decent edge for around 3 months and a half just by stropping it weekly with black and white compound on balsa, the knife was used mostly to cut light cardboard on a beech board, cut paracord and carve a groove in the said board.
It stayed sharp enough to shave on about 70% of the length however under heavy light the edge was dented, flattened and barely sharp on the belly, i felt the need to do a sandpaper session soon so i tried that Ikea steel wrapped in newsprint and white compound for 6-7 minutes and got back to treetopping sharpness everywhere except the belly which was still quite sharp but way beyond repair.
Interesting thing is there isnt any microbevel or microconvex and also the polishing \ plastic flowing action lead to a very shiny edge yet there was still rather deep scratching marks from the 600grit prior i used the steel.
Well lets see how good this goes over time
I know the stropping substrate firmness has been discussed a lot here and many of you advocate hard substrate to keep the apex as crisp as possible yet i tried a lot without much success using various woods, whetstone wrapped in paper and such.
I have been using balsa most of the time with good succes yet i wanted something able to extend edge life way past balsa and leather capabilities.
I never really liked steeling my knives yet i bought a ceramic steel from Ikea a long time ago and sometime use it on kitchen knives for a quick fix...
When doing some casual stropping on a few knives i had the idea of wrapping half a sheet of newspaper around that rod, just enough to slighty have a give but not too much to feel soft.
I grabbed my Afck( ats34 old gen ) which has been sharpened at 30 inclusive or slightly under using 220 and 600 sic sandpaper, light stropping with black compound, i kept a decent edge for around 3 months and a half just by stropping it weekly with black and white compound on balsa, the knife was used mostly to cut light cardboard on a beech board, cut paracord and carve a groove in the said board.
It stayed sharp enough to shave on about 70% of the length however under heavy light the edge was dented, flattened and barely sharp on the belly, i felt the need to do a sandpaper session soon so i tried that Ikea steel wrapped in newsprint and white compound for 6-7 minutes and got back to treetopping sharpness everywhere except the belly which was still quite sharp but way beyond repair.
Interesting thing is there isnt any microbevel or microconvex and also the polishing \ plastic flowing action lead to a very shiny edge yet there was still rather deep scratching marks from the 600grit prior i used the steel.
Well lets see how good this goes over time
