Factory vs Resharpened Edge

A

Alphonse Breaux

Joined
Jun 25, 2013
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I just purchased my second high-quality knife (Benchmade). Close inspection of the blade (of both knives) reveals the typical vertical grind lines. The lines are visible to the bottom of the cutting edge. The blades are extremely sharp, able to slice thin or thick paper held in one hand with no problem, and also able to shave hair easily.

This makes me curious about two things when resharpening or "tuning up" a slightly used edge:

1-Why is it necessary to sharpen to a highly-polished edge (and strop to polish the edge even further) in order to get the knife to cut as well as it did with the "rough, unpolished" factory edge?

2-Since the grind lines on the new blades are vertical, or plumb, or consistently perpendicular to the edge of the blade, why does Lansky recommend sliding (for lack of a better term) the stone horizontally when pushing the stone vertically? I realize some overlap is necessary on each upward movement of the stone to prevent unevenly sharpened edges, but it would still be easy to keep the movement of the stones much more perpendicular to the edge than recommended.

Any ideas about:
1-the high polish edge vs the visible grind lines from the factory?
2-the Lansky recommended angle of the stone compared to the factory angle of the grind?

Thanks in advance.
 
1. That's a misconception, a coarse stone will get the edge sharp and all other grits beyond that refine the level of sharpness. Where you stop is personal preference.

2. Because the factory uses a belt sanders and the lansky uses small stones. You must move the stone along the edge or it just doesn't work.
 
A high polish isn't required to cut as well as the factory edge.
 
Alphonse Breaux said:
1-Why is it necessary to sharpen to a highly-polished edge (and strop to polish the edge even further) in order to get the knife to cut as well as it did with the "rough, unpolished" factory edge?
Click to expand...

Because it cuts much, much better than the factory edge ;)
 
Alphonse Breaux said:
I just purchased my second high-quality knife (Benchmade). Close inspection of the blade (of both knives) reveals the typical vertical grind lines. The lines are visible to the bottom of the cutting edge. The blades are extremely sharp, able to slice thin or thick paper held in one hand with no problem, and also able to shave hair easily.

This makes me curious about two things when resharpening or "tuning up" a slightly used edge:

1-Why is it necessary to sharpen to a highly-polished edge (and strop to polish the edge even further) in order to get the knife to cut as well as it did with the "rough, unpolished" factory edge?

2-Since the grind lines on the new blades are vertical, or plumb, or consistently perpendicular to the edge of the blade, why does Lansky recommend sliding (for lack of a better term) the stone horizontally when pushing the stone vertically? I realize some overlap is necessary on each upward movement of the stone to prevent unevenly sharpened edges, but it would still be easy to keep the movement of the stones much more perpendicular to the edge than recommended.

Any ideas about:
1-the high polish edge vs the visible grind lines from the factory?
2-the Lansky recommended angle of the stone compared to the factory angle of the grind?

Thanks in advance.
Click to expand...

Much easier and more consistent grind to have some lateral movement on the stone.

Have examined several factory edges that appeared to have been sharpened on belt sander and finished (presumably) with paper wheels. The actual cutting edge on the Benchmades I examined (only 2) had a high polish microbevel right at the cutting edge. Have observed this on some CRKT knives as well. Their powered finishing equipment is pretty robust, they do a fairly rough grind to establish the edge and then a few quick passes with a hard finishing wheel to refine the apex (guess on my part). There's still usually some variation along the cutting edge, but the "teeth" have mostly been polished off.

Not to say a coarse edge doesn't work very well, better than a high polish for many applications, but appearances are sometime deceiving without a very close look.
 
I find factory edges to be a little more obtuse than I like them. So for this reason I reprofile just about every knife I come to possess. It's just the process for me. So if one adopts my philosophy, once one knows who makes a good knife, one is free from concerning one's self with the factory edge. It's nice when the factory edge is scary sharp. If it's not I sure as heck can make it that way. If it is, well I'll reprofile it anyway (with an exception here or there) to get the bevel the way I like it. One has to remember that it's going to get dull and need sharpening anyway. I choose to get ahead in the game and get an easilty maintainble edge on there so that quick touchups with with a Sharpmaker are possible. This require free handing in the first place as there aren't enough hours in the day to reprofile with a Sharpmaker.
 
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