Toothy or polished bevel?

Joe Duder

Joe Duder

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Jan 22, 2013
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Bad idea starting this thread just before the Friday offerings, but....

I used to love mirror polished bevels, but toothy just cuts and slices better for me. I would always finish stropping with BRKT white compound but now I stop at their black compound. It leaves the blade with a rougher edge that seems to slice delicate things like tomatoes a whole lot easier. I guess they're both polished but one's a lot rougher than the other. Just my observation and preference.

How about you?

How do you finish your blade?
 
man you were reading my mind... I used to polish up to 3.5 micron; now I go up to 600 grit wet/dry and finish on black compound. Bites like a shark ;)
 
xxwjtxx said:
man you were reading my mind... I used to polish up to 3.5 micron; now I go up to 600 grit wet/dry and finish on black compound. Bites like a shark ;)
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Bites!! That's the word I forgot to add. Thank you! :thumbup:
 
I usually slightly polish a toothy edge. For working with wood a thin polished edge and bevel works best, for food toothier is better.

I do like my bevels polished though :D
 
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Toothy for slicing (food). Polished for push cuts (wood). At least that's what I've heard.

My polished scandi Arete is a wood cutting laser.
 
Me neither; then again beyond field use I dont really do any wood work.. Maybe I need to snag a Carver and try it out!
 
RRaconteur said:
Food knives get left toothy. Pocket/woods knifes get a more polished treatment.


Michael
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thurin said:
Toothy for slicing (food). Polished for push cuts (wood). At least that's what I've heard.

My polished scandi Arete is a wood cutting laser.
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You guys hit the nail on the head. A toothy edge will cut much better with any kind of softer item as in tomatoes, steak, etc. It's almost like micro-serrations. Think of your average butcher. He commonly just uses a butchers steel to realign his edge. A few passes and he is good to go for a while. The "rougher" edge works better for that task. But if it was a polished, mirror edge it would actually INCREASE drag in the long run, making slicing more difficult.

But a carver wants a highly polished blade that will GLIDE through a hard medium like wood. Here, the toothy edge would actually do the opposite and increased rage for a carver.

For the most part, strops were used by the old fashioned barbers and your wood carvers. A leather strop isn't always the solution for every blade out there. It really depends on your intended use and the kind of grind on your knife.

But that's just my two cents. ;)
 
I go to 600 and then buff with Green Chrome.

I find that it give's you a polished edge to start the cut and then the underlying micro teeth do their job!
 
In the kitchen i like mine to slice straight through to the cutting board if i just drop the blade on it. In the field it any way that doesnt dull quickly. I have a few knives from some other makers that have more bite than i'm used to, but i like it because theyve remained at that same level of sharpness for a while now while taking some good abuse on the way.
 
I follow the "toothy" micro-serration philosophy on food and polished for field knives as well. But, as far as personal satisfaction, I like it as polished as I can get it. It took a long time to overcome my OCD and stop refining the polish for kitchen knives and the like
 
Anybody else strop their knife after every use? Even if you only cut a single tomato.

I strop every knife before I put them up, even if I just took it off the shelf to admire it. A lot of times I'll grab them off the shelf, do the three finger sticky check and say "I can get it stickier than that..." Back to the strop it goes. I love stropping though, it relaxes me.
 
Duder,

I strop all the time, even just a light pass on the green. You have to maintain an edge to keep an edge! That's my philosophy!

-Will
 
I also strop on BRKT green every time I use my knives. Doesn't take much to keep them up to snuff. I feel like I'm usually somewhere between toothy and polished.
 
Joe Duder said:
Anybody else strop their knife after every use? Even if you only cut a single tomato.

I strop every knife before I put them up, even if I just took it off the shelf to admire it. A lot of times I'll grab them off the shelf, do the three finger sticky check and say "I can get it stickier than that..." Back to the strop it goes. I love stropping though, it relaxes me.
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Joe,
Have you talked about this with your professional helper? You just look at it and strop? ;)
 
I'm perfectly willing to admit that I have a stropping obsession. It sucks too. I'll be cooking dinner, look over and see my strop and think just a couple of passes will get that blade hair batoning sharp. Next thing you know, smoke alarms are going off and Baja Fresh here we come.
 
I agree with everything that has been said about toothy for flesh and polished for wood. With my kitchen cutlery, I use a 1,000 grit water stone to achieve (or re-achieve) the cutting bevel. This is fairly toothy and bites. I then strop the bevel on the same stone. I then take a 6,000 grit water stone and strop the bevel 3 or 4 times on each side. This removes some of the toothyness, but plenty remains for effective kitchen applications. It is sort of polishing it, but I do not do it enough to actually polish the toothyness out of it (this is essentially the methodology prescribed by Murray Carter).

I love the look of a highly polished bevel. To achieve this, sharpen as described above. I usually polish the cutting bevel at 6,000 grit so that only 6,000 grit teeth remain. Then on to 10,000 grit water stone. To finish things off, I often go to finer diamond stropping pastes as described by Will. This works well on wood as there are no large teeth that can break off the apex of the bevel when placed under hard stresses such as cutting wood. I find that these edges remain sharp for a long period of time.
 
Joe Duder said:
I'm perfectly willing to admit that I have a stropping obsession. It sucks too. I'll be cooking dinner, look over and see my strop and think just a couple of passes will get that blade hair batoning sharp. Next thing you know, smoke alarms are going off and Baja Fresh here we come.
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Well as long as I get the food to go I like Baja Fresh. I don't understand why they play Brazilian Salsa at that volume in a supposed Mexican Baja eatery? LOL
 
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