Thanks, will try this for the deburring next time.
Appreciate it, I think I've gone back and forth a bunch and narrowed down my "next knife" search a bit. Will post for recommendations between my two choices in another thread.
-
The BladeForums.com 2024 Traditional Knife is ready to order! See this thread for details: https://www.bladeforums.com/threads/bladeforums-2024-traditional-knife.2003187/
Price is $300 ea (shipped within CONUS). If you live outside the US, I will contact you after your order for extra shipping charges.
Order here: https://www.bladeforums.com/help/2024-traditional/ - Order as many as you like, we have plenty.
Why can't I cut paper?
- Thread starter Jfd986
- Start date
Thanks, will try this for the deburring next time.
Appreciate it, I think I've gone back and forth a bunch and narrowed down my "next knife" search a bit. Will post for recommendations between my two choices in another thread.
So I tried this the other day, and I think it worked. For clarification though, do you strop the knife at an elevated angle (single trailing passes) to deburr or do you do the sharpening motion (up and down, pressure on the trailing strokes, maintaining consistent angle but in my case elevated for debuting) to deburr?
Can you start the 1000-grit alternating passes when you feel the edge and the burr is gone, or is there some other way to decide when you're done with the elevated-angle deburring?
Last I knew Global came with convex edges from the factory which is why I have heard of some folks have trouble sharpening them. The knife looks kind of sharp to me not 6000 grit sharp. I would start on a coarser stone to reestablish the bevels and apex. YMMV
When I start on a 1000-grit stone, I get a burr after about 5-7 minutes on each side of the edge (I'm assuming this is happening easily because the knife is made of plain ol' stainless and not some better steel like VG-10 or Chromova etc etc)
If I start with a coarser stone, I may get a burr faster, what does it mean to re-establish the bevels and apex? It's my understanding that the bevel angle from the center on my knife is, let's say for argument's sake, 20 degrees on either side. The apex would be the point where the bevels meet, the "sharp bit". What shape do you feel the bevels and apex are currently in, when you see that tomato cutting video? Do you think one bevel is at more than 20 degrees, or the bevel angles are different in some places? Do you feel as though the apex is to one side in some spots on the knife, and not perfectly centered?
Ideally, I'd like to fix the problem with my knife's current sharpness without buying more equipment. Would I be able to re-establish the bevel and apex on a 1000 stone? What if I went through the whole re-profiling stone sharpening routine a few times, would that do it?
It's just something I threw out there as a possible cause and a possible solution. I don't think based on the tomato cutting that your edge is really where it should be. I will leave the actual sharpening pointers to other folks as I'm not a burr sharpener.
I wasn't very clear was I. I'll make sure to read my own posts before hitting the button next time.
The deburring passes are not stropping motions. They are edge leading motions, like cutting into the stone. Very light pressure and at an elevated angle should cut the burr off in as few as one pass per side, but may take 3 or 4 per side. More than that and you will make a new visible bevel. You can feel the burr if it's still there by stropping the blade lightly on your arm or the back of your head. It will pull a little if it's still there significantly.
These small number of edge leading passes will make a tiny new bevel, even if you can't see it. Going back and alternating passes at the original angle will get rid of it. This should take maybe 10 passes per side or maybe a few more if the bevel is very wide.
Then go to the 6000 side and use edge leading alternating passes at a slightly elevated angle. This will polish the edge and refine it. The 6k stone might be too soft for edge leading passes. The edge will dig into the stone sometimes. In that case, use as light a pressure as you can manage for the edge leading strokes, but limit them to 10 per side or so. After that you may have to use a stropping motion on the 6k stone. Use as few passes as possible and check sharpness after each back and forth pair of passes. Once its sharp to your liking, stop. My 4k grit stone is pretty soft and I sometimes have to use stropping motions to finish edges with it. Edge leading motions will dig into it if I'm not in top form and paying attention. Edge leading will give me slightly sharper edges, but edge trailing for the last 2 or 3 passes per side is much more forgiving of sloppiness on my part.
For very stubborn burrs, I use a slightly different procedure, but it's usually not necessary. It's an extra step and takes longer overall. If it doesn't work let us know and I'll post the alternative process. When I say stubborn, I mean on very gummy/soft stainless steel, unhardened steel, or mild steel. Yes I've made and tested knives from annealed steel without heat treating them. It was a dark time in the mid 2000s.
If you are slicing tomatoes easily it is probably either how you hold the paper or how you move the knife an edge that can easily slice a ripe tomato is more than sharp enough to slice paper even if you have a fairly nasty bur. if you slice the paper closer to where you are holding it and keeping your knife in line it should be fairly easy to slice paper relatively cleanly with a moderately sharp or even borderline dull knife most cutting tricks including hair whittling don't require that impressive of an edge if you are using the right cutting technique.
Last edited: