Mirror polish vs toothy edge?

R

Requiescat in pace

Joined
Apr 21, 2020
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13
Hi folks,
My first post here. I saw something on YT the other day about a toothy edge from a lower grit working like micro serrations having advantages over a mirror polish??
I have felt that my knives seemed duller after using the Lansky sapphire stone but thought I was doing something wrong.
Thank you in advance for all of your knowledge.
 
Big advocate of a toothy edge. Every knife I ship has one. Just cuts real life stuff in the ranching world better. Try cutting a calf with a polished edge. Slides all over the place without cutting. Ask me how I know.
 
Do a search on the Maintenance, Tinkering & Embellishment forum. There are many threads and posts about this subject. It's really a matter of what you want your knives to do and personal preference. From what I read, most people (myself included) prefer toothy edges.
 
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Polished edges are good for push cutting paper and looking pretty. I've had trouble with a more polished edge not catching the edge of paper however. A toothy edge will grab the paper and cut.

A lot of it is the pressure you use while sharpening. A light touch on coarse diamond (325 grit) is very toothy and aggressive, and will still pop hair off my arm and cleanly slice paper towels.
 
Horsewright said:
Big advocate of a toothy edge. Every knife I ship has one. Just cuts real life stuff in the ranching world better. Try cutting a calf with a polished edge. Slides all over the place without cutting. Ask me how I know.
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Thank you for your reply, I had no idea that answers were almost instant on this forum. Could you advise me on the optimum grit for a toothy edge?
Kind Regards
 
I prefer a toothy edge for most uses ... a good toothy edge will still shave hair but a highly polished edge will have problems biting in trying to cut animal hide or rope and like things.

I stop at 400 to 600 grit for 90% of my knives.
 
MtnHawk1 said:
Do a search on the Maintenance, Tinkering & Embellishment forum. There are many threads and posts about this subject. It's really a matter of what you want your knives to do and personal preference. From what I read, most people (myself included) seem to prefer toothy edges.
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Thank you for your reply. I’m a firefighter so need to cut all sorts. I guess toothy would be best.
 
T
JJ_Colt45 said:
I prefer a toothy edge for most uses ... a good toothy edge will still shave hair but a highly polished edge will have problems biting in trying to cut animal hide or rope and like things.

I stop at 400 to 600 grit for 90% of my knives.
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Thank you for your reply. That helps me. I thought the higher the grit the sharper. Every day is a school day.
 
Answers are snapping right along today, eh? Good to see the activity.

Now that I have been carrying and using knives for about 60 years, I have to admit that I like different grits for different tasks. I am in construction, still put on my tool bags on occasion (and use my knives for work) and then do some light catering on occasion. Then of course, I have different knives that do different every day tasks like sharpening my pencils, cutting my cigars, cleaning my fingernails, etc.

To set the edge bevel I want, I use my Lansky on my smaller knives, and my Worksharp on the bigger knives, or knives that I damage the edge on while in use. Damage is rare, but it happens.

So personally, I have a 1200gr diamond rod that does all the sharpening. I don't strop or polish, or anything else. And I sharpen freehand. That takes care of all my daily knives and seems to get me where I need to go with all my knives. As mentioned above though, pressure is everything, and I use a light touch. 1200gr seems to be grabby/toothy enough for all my steels, and since it is convex (all hand held/freehand edges are!) it doesn't have a fragile edge.

My exception is from a tip I picked up many years ago when butchering a lot of meat. One of my the boys that was breaking down wholesale packaged bulk buy hunks of meat with me was whizzing through the meat a lot faster than I was. I mean, a l faster. (Remember the light touch comment here!) He is a professional caterer that has a lot of time in meat cutting and butchering, and he only sharpens to 240gr! Personally, I thought he was kidding me, and 240 seemed to be the same as sharpening on a street curb. Particularly with my carbon blades, the 240 kicked ass! He then told me that when he serves steak or medallions, he has all his steak knives for the table sharpened to 240gr. They cut the proteins better and made his meats seem more tender.

Does the same thing with his fish filet knives. Tried 240 out in mine, now I do too. I don't make sushi, so I am limited to descaling, fileting, then cutting to size. 240gr (remember the light touch) crushes a whole salmon or a catfish.

I would take the suggestions you get here (some great already) and experiment with your use and the edges best for your steels. It seems to me that different steels hold different angles better, and respond differently to the different grits, too.

The 1200gr is the sweet spot for me except for my butcher knives. Good luck!

Robert
 
I like having a high polish on my knife. Slicing performance feels better than toothy for me and I like being able to split hairs.
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Here's how my edge looks after a 0.25micron diamond polish. Strand of hair is about 0.08mm diameter
 
I like the look of a mirror edge but find a toothy better. It takes more of my time to sharpen to a mirror and they Both get "dull" equally fast.
 
I prefer a toothy sort of edge as well. Polished edges are cut for cutting paper and showing off, but when youre actually using a knife in the real world they dont work as well. Cut a tomato and youll see, a toothy edge just works better (for me)
 
JJ_Colt45 said:
I prefer a toothy edge for most uses ... a good toothy edge will still shave hair but a highly polished edge will have problems biting in trying to cut animal hide or rope and like things.

I stop at 400 to 600 grit for 90% of my knives.
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Stopped at 600 grit because that what my stones dictated. I’ll let you know how it went. Thank you for your advice.
 
Ok, so how toothy does everyone like it? I find 400-600 grit is good enough. Of course I've went all the way through 800 & 1200 & at that point it's more work than I care to do for a purty edge.
 
Maybe it's a different topic and I gladly delete it but has anyone noticed a difference with steels used? I recently started using K390 and somehow I can't get them above just shaving sharp.
It might be tempering but maybe it's just that k390 just wants a 'toothy' edge.
 
For work in my auto repair shop a toothy edge is better. Same with a lot of outdoors stuff. The grey stones on a Spyderco sharpmaker will give a somewhat toothy edge that shaves hair.
 
Requiescat in pace said:
Thank you for your reply. I’m a firefighter so need to cut all sorts. I guess toothy would be best.
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For your kind of needs I’d stop at 220 grit, then strop on leather that has Green Chrome polishing compound to remove any burr for a good 20 strokes each side. I’ve used this level of toothy edge for leather , Rubber, Canvas & other materials . Plastics, small wire and pretty much all of the things you would encounter in your line of work. Stay safe! BTW, your Mirror edge is for food prep, Sushi type work. Shaving hair in a push cut.
 
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