Stropping on Glossy Magazine Covers

Being a custom knife maker with a shop full of knife making machinery puts me in a position that most knife sharpeners do not find themselves in. It also makes my opinion a minority one.
Something I have found out over the years, no matter what technique is used to sharpen; not enough time is spent doing the "ground work" when sharpening a blade. That is all the work needed to get an edge to the point where a strop is needed. If the ground work is done then stropping should take but seconds. The burr should be ready to fall off the edge. This is true in making a knife. It should get easier as you go; if the ground work is done early then the final steps should be easy, or a least getting easier towards the end.

Just about any material, not peanut butter, :) can be used to strop an edge, some work better than others. But the choice of strops should be dictated by the condition of the edge. If the edge is not deteriorated but little, a couple of passes on anything will restore the edge, being it coffee cup edge, or cardboard, or glossy paper; the leg of your blue jeans will work quite well. Once an edge has gotten to a certain point no strop material will work. I'm of the mind, never let an edge get to this point.

This is how the ERU sharpener came about. I wanted a tool that was more than a strop but less than a reprofile devise. The focus was a highly accurate adjustable devise that would function to restore an edge after it had gotten beyond the point where a piece of leather could be used to restore the edge. This tool needed to be small and compact so it could be easily carried in ones front pocket, to be pulled out and used when needed; when there was nothing about at all to be used to strop.

I am 71 this year and time is of the essence, as the saying goes. I've read of people who spend 8 or 10 hours putting an edge on a blade, taking the edge to a degree of shine one needs sun glasses just to use it. This makes me shudder, 8 hours spent doing a job that can be accomplished in 15 minutes is a huge waste of precious time. Its an old man thing.
You'll understand when your 71 :)

Best regards, Fred
 
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I agree spending hours sharpening a knife is crazy but the guys that do that usually enjoy sharpening and find it relaxing so they don't look at it as a waste of time or a chore. I am curious how you acompolished in 15min what takes others hours? Power tools?
 
fsatsil said:
I agree spending hours sharpening a knife is crazy but the guys that do that usually enjoy sharpening and find it relaxing so they don't look at it as a waste of time or a chore. I am curious how you acompolished in 15min what takes others hours? Power tools?
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As I said in the post above I'm a knife maker and do have a shop with machinery in it. My wife says far too much machinery in it. Some things you must have if you want to forge knives, a disc grinder, 2 x 72 belt grinders and other tools to turn steel into knives.
The machine pictured operates @ variable speeds down to 25 surface feet a minute. which is slow.
A Bubble Jig is used to maintain a constant angle relative to the belt. If my son changes the belts it only takes a few minutes to go from 150 grit to 2,000 grit.The reason it only takes minutes to go from dull thru re-grind to finish at 2,000 is the angle is always correct, contact is constant with abrasion only taking place across the bevel surface. I remove the wire edge produced using an ERU adjustable knife sharpener; it takes two passes using a corresponding angle to finish the knife. No strop is needed.

I started sharpening by hand, most people sharpen by hand. Using a wet machine is just a way to do this quickly and accurately taking care not to harm the heat treatment the blade has gone through.

There is a point of diminishing returns when it comes to polished edges. Unless the goal is getting the most highly reflective surface humanly possible.

I believe you are correct that people find sharpening relaxing with the plus being you produce a sharpened knife. Of course in a knife shop thats not possible, being efficient is whats needed. For me this is where the enjoyment of having a shop lies; operating efficiently, producing a product or service of quality and delivering it, in as timely a manner as possible.
We produce two products at our shop other than making knives. We also offer a sharpening service and rebuild straight knives. I'm retired so I'm told. Working with my son is a pleasure.

Regards, Fred

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frankster said:
I use a Balsa Wood paint stick to strop my knives. Works great with a dab of jewelers rouge.
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That's interesting I wouldn't have thought that jewelers rouge would work I always thought it was made for soft metals like gold and silver.
 
fsatsil said:
That's interesting I wouldn't have thought that jewelers rouge would work I always thought it was made for soft metals like gold and silver.
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It is usually made for polishing of softer metals; but, if the edge is fine enough, and the steel isn't too wear-resistant (mainly limited to simple carbon steels or low-alloy stainless steels), red rouge can do a decent job in smoothing out the very fine snags along the edge. Doesn't do much true abrading or polishing on cutlery steels, but it seems to 'grab' the little imperfections and burrs well, stripping them away or realigning a slightly rolled, very fine edge.

Years ago, I applied some red rouge to the edge of the leather slipcase that came with my Spyderco DoubleStuff hone, just to experiment with it as a field-ready strop. For the most part, with most knives I tried, it didn't really add much to my edges. But, with a few knives that were already refined well at the edge, I occasionally see improvement of the smoothness of the edge, making cutting in paper and similar materials noticeably 'slicker' and quieter. Most recently, I noticed this improvement after touching up a Victorinox paring knife with an EF diamond hone (already a very good edge), then giving that edge a few passes on the red rouge over leather.

In a nutshell, it can produce some noticeable improvement in some situations with simpler steels. But from what I've seen so far, the edge needs to be ready for it (edge angle & thickness, level of refinement) to make much of a difference.


David
 
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