Why is a sharp knife cutting worse?

I don't know who Twindog is but someone give that person a medal for what has to be the best explanation there could ever be for stropping. Glad to see that's a sticky!

I should probably take some time to scroll through the sticky posts... We probably all should...
 
David Mary said:
I've recently started stropping on a wood backed leather strop charged with 1 micron diamond paste, and I find it strikes a balance between a "smooth" and "bitey" edge that can slice paper and shave/pop hairs off my arm.
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That's my experience also. Cuts paper very well and shaves
 
David Mary said:
I've recently started stropping on a wood backed leather strop charged with 1 micron diamond paste, and I find it strikes a balance between a "smooth" and "bitey" edge that can slice paper and shave/pop hairs off my arm.
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Smooth or rough side of the leather?
 
Rough.
 
Alberta Ed said:
I haven't found stropping to be very useful; if anything, it will take off a biting edge. I've read that old straight razors were pretty soft compared to today's steels, so maybe stropping worked in old-timey barbershops when you went in for your weekly shave.
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It's useful to revive an edge but if you're deburring on stones it can definitely dull an edge. I find having a convex edge aligns with stropping much better than v edges.
 
Sal Glesser told me this in person about 20 years ago, when i asked him what the steel in stamped Global knives actually was.
 
kwackster said:
Sal Glesser told me this in person about 20 years ago, when i asked him what the steel in stamped Global knives actually was.
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OK, but how much inside info did he have with Global? Was he involved with Global or was he just guessing? Not saying anyone is lying but unless there is proof then it's just hearsay.

If you check out zknives, the author there states that the rumors in the industry indicated AUS-6 but "someone" did xray spectrometer tests and found it likely that it is in the 440B group of steels. The tests couldn't measure carbon but the other elements matched 440B ie. Chromium ~18% etc which would rule out AUS-6
 
When a completely unknown individual on a forum or in real life would make a statement like that it would indeed classify as hearsay.
The thing is that for me Mr. Glesser definitely does not count as an unknown, and when he says something i pay attention.
The man literally possesses a wealth of knowledge about many things, knives & boats are just two of these categories, and i don't think he guesses about something like this.

If he has inside info on Global or anything related you would have to ask him.
He seems to still be active on both the Spyderco forum and here.
Drop him a line, if he can find the time i'm sure he will answer.
 
FWIW, I've been hunting around the web looking for recommendations on sharpening Global knives. I was curious what Global and/or others experienced with the brand were using. Specifically from Global themselves, their sharpening tutorials frequently seem to demo up to a 1000 grit waterstone, which they classify as a 'medium' grit stone. Assuming JIS grit rating, that's in a similar range to ANSI 500-600 or so. And none that I've found so far include any stropping at all in their process and instead do all the finishing on the stone itself.

And most recommendations also mention using an angle somewhere in the 15-18° per side range. For a stainless blade at a modest hardness as low as HRC 56 by their spec, that sounds about right. And for me, if it's at the upper end of their spec at HRC 58, then I could see going down to maybe 12° per side, but no lower than that. And that's only assuming the factory bevels might be ground that low. If they're not that low to begin with, then I'd probably not go any lower than the factory's own edge grind.

I still believe overstropping, and the drawing out and overthinning of the edge as a result of that, is at the root of the OP's troubles.
 
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