What do you do with a tough blade?

315

315

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So what do you guys do with a blade that seems almost too tough to get a really, really sharp edge on it? Getting rid of it isn't an option as my parents gave it to me and I still like to use it. I can get an ok edge on it but not what I would call super razor sharp. Do you just say it's good enough? It can't be 100% me, I think, because I'm able to get almost every other knife I own to shave hair.
 
Like Kas said, what knife (and blade material)? Stainless won't get as sharp as an edge, especially the older stainless steels. Hardness, carbon content, quality are all going to play a role.
 
I have had a couple like that, sometimes it is bad heat treat and other times I just needed to adjust my sharpening technique. I too would like more details...
 
It's a Western my folks gave me in 1987. It's a USAmade knife and I remember the box had Western/Coleman on it. Fairly stout lockback with a stainless blade.
 
try stropping it after sharpening -- leather or cardboard with a bit of green or gold compound on it should do the trick.
 
315 said:
It's a Western my folks gave me in 1987. It's a USAmade knife and I remember the box had Western/Coleman on it. Fairly stout lockback with a stainless blade.
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If your Western Cutlery knife is ground anything like the L48A fixed blade given to me by my Dad about 45+ years ago, their grinds were very thick behind the edge. Took me a long time to commit to thinning it out behind the edge, which improved the way it cuts. And I'm considering thinning it some more...

About 99.9% of the time, sharpness issues can be greatly improved by thinning the grind behind the edge and taking the edge itself more acute, to 30° inclusive (15°/side) or lower. A combination coarse/fine bench stone, like a Norton India (aluminum oxide) or Crystolon (silicon carbide), would handle that sort of work pretty well, on most middle-of-the-road steels.
 
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- sometimes it's a matter of sweat and graft..........and persistence

One of two of the guys I know well my side of the pond will spend a good 3 hours or so on an blade to get the cutting edge angle to a better profile.

Once achieved, the blade will sharpen up far faster, am sure
 
Chui-888 said:
- sometimes it's a matter of sweat and graft..........and persistence

One of two of the guys I know well my side of the pond will spend a good 3 hours or so on an blade to get the cutting edge angle to a better profile.

Once achieved, the blade will sharpen up far faster, am sure
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I've easily spent that long so far on my GEC fixed blade. Reprofiling it to 18*/side, I realised that the last ~3/8" from the tip wasn't ground evenly. I've been fighting to get it to apex for so much time that I have to put it to the side after a while and move on to something else.
 
Obsessed with Edges said:
... grinds were very thick behind the edge. Took me a long time to commit to thinning it out behind the edge, which improved the way it cuts. And I'm considering thinning it some more...
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This. I like to go 10 degrees per side and then put a 15 dps micro bevel on everything I buy. If 15dps is too acute for that particular knife, I go to 20. If that doesn't work well, I get rid of the knife. I've never had any factory knife, save maybe a SAK, that was decently thin behind the edge. Haven't tried Opinel. I reprofiled the large blade on a RR Elephant Toe last night and now it looks like a Scandi grind. We're talking an eighth of an inch primary bevels. To be fair, it's 10dps minus half of the flat grind angle, so it's more like 8-9dps. It cuts well now. I was sure glad it was 440A and not D2 ... I'm thinking about buying a belt grinder for my Queen large stockman which desperately needs a full regrind on the clip blade. The good news is that once it's done, it only takes a minute or two to touch up the micro bevel, even on tough steels.
 
Thanks for the input guys. I'll admit, some of what you're talking about is Greek to me but I get the jist of it. I thought perhaps the blade was just extremely hard thus more difficult to put an edge on it. Perhaps one day I'll just have to spend a significant more amount of time on it. I can get it so it'll take a few hairs off but several others I have are noticeably sharper.
 
315 said:
Thanks for the input guys. I'll admit, some of what you're talking about is Greek to me but I get the jist of it. I thought perhaps the blade was just extremely hard thus more difficult to put an edge on it. Perhaps one day I'll just have to spend a significant more amount of time on it. I can get it so it'll take a few hairs off but several others I have are noticeably sharper.
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What are you using to sharpen ? I was having a hard time getting a good edge on one of my traditional knives, while using diamond stones. I broke out the ol' Arkansas stone and BOOM, problem fixed.
I also recommend that you that you use a bright direct light and some kind of magnification so you can see what is going on with the edge.
 
Started with a diamond stone, then did exactly what you did, switched to an old Arkansas stone. This blade has always been a bit finicky getting a great edge on it. I may just leave it as is and call it good enough.
 
If you get a chance, posting a pic or two in a close-up of the edge might illuminate what's going on. If the edge grind is a bit thick, it's generally easy to see from an experienced eye and the suggested options to fix it will improve. Lots of possible things can impact it; but if the grind is thick and the edge angle is too wide to cut well, it renders all the other variables essentially moot until it's thinned out adequately, no matter what's used to attempt sharpening in the meantime.
 
Use coarse diamond, 325 grit or lower, DMT if possible (they use a different kind of diamond-well Atoma does too, but they are way more expensive), and go from there. Persistence will get you there. Remember Too, you’re sharpening it with that stone, and then polishing as you work your way up. Good luck.
Thanks, Neal
 
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