Tips on Sharpening Cheap Steels

M

Mialum

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Jun 18, 2022
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I have gotten pretty good over the course of 2 or 3 years at sharpening my addiction knives, and thus have offered my services to others, friends, family, coworkers, etc; which they quite readily accepted. However, the problem has arisen that from time to time they bring me knives of with appallingly terrible steel, which steel that I cannot for the life of me remove the burr from. After raising the burr on a belt grinder (with copious additions of water to avoid overheating), I've tried stropping, honing steels, dragging lightly through softwood, power stropping, single passes on whetstones, you name it, and still either the burr persists or the edge just mashes down like the cheap junk it is and the blade is dull again. Any tips for these steels?
 
Depending on how cheap the steel is, it might not be hardened. If that's the case, then it will not take an edge no matter what you do. Have you tried sharpening on stones? I use stones to sharpen my knives. Just my humble opinion.
 
Mialum said:
I have gotten pretty good over the course of 2 or 3 years at sharpening my addiction knives, and thus have offered my services to others, friends, family, coworkers, etc; which they quite readily accepted. However, the problem has arisen that from time to time they bring me knives of with appallingly terrible steel, which steel that I cannot for the life of me remove the burr from. After raising the burr on a belt grinder (with copious additions of water to avoid overheating), I've tried stropping, honing steels, dragging lightly through softwood, power stropping, single passes on whetstones, you name it, and still either the burr persists or the edge just mashes down like the cheap junk it is and the blade is dull again. Any tips for these steels?
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aggressive stone raise angle light passes till burr removal. creates tiny microbevel but should kill the burr. smallest microbevel should still last a decent length in the kitchen or other fields of use
 
For cheap steels, the Work Sharp Ken Onion works better for me than freehand or fancy guided sharpeners. I usually grab 5 or 10 dull knives, go through the sequence of belts, and finish with a plain leather strop to remove whatever burr remains. I aim for about BESS 150, but sometimes accidentally get below BESS 100.

But there was one cheap knife (Mossy Oak with 3Cr, I think it was) that I never did get sharper than BESS 300. Beyond that point, the edge would just crumble. Presumably a case of bad heat treatment.

For expensive knives, I use those fancy guided sharpeners.
 
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You need to be careful and slower. Too much pressure and too long a stroke can create a new burr.
However, cheap knives are also the reason I don't sharpen other people's knives. They are a PITA, it's pointless because it won't stay sharp, it gums up my stones, and there is no good way to tell some people they have cheap knives.
 
So-called 'cheap' steels will usually be very ductile, or what I call 'bendy' at the edge, and will therefore need a much lighter touch when grinding or refining the edge. Any heavy pressure at all will simply make these burr-prone steels even more so, forming massive & stubborn burrs.

I'd not use a belt grinder for this at all - even factory edges belt-ground on relatively soft & ductile steels will often have some big burrs on them, as powered grinding just exacerbates the burring issues with these steels. And the burrs always need a very light touch to abrade them away gradually, instead of trying to break them off, as they'll just bend back & forth all day long. That's what the 'ductile' nature brings to the steel.

A medium-grit stone in aluminum oxide, like an India stone, works pretty well for sharpening steels like this. I'd avoid trying to go much past about 400-grit or so (like the Fine India), in finishing these edges. Anything finer will leave the edges too thin & flimsy and they won't hold up in use.
 
Yeah, the simpler ('cheaper') steels respond better to a simpler approach. Nothing fancy in terms of the stones used, and you really don't need more than one stone at all. That's what I like about using a Fine India stone (360-400) for these steels. The job is 'easier', in the sense that the steel is both soft and lacks wear resistance - that means it grinds much more easily on nothing more than a mid-grit stone to reset the bevels, and the Fine India will leave a good working edge on these steels. Keep the stone lubricated (India stone + oil), so the 'gummy' nature of the steel doesn't clog the stone. A clogged stone can't cut the steel very well, so it will exacerbate the burring issues.
 
Arathol said:
Sharpening on a belt grinder is the last thing I'd let anybody do to any of my knives.....
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Yeh, that's why my EDCs (and any knives I actually care about [ahem, did I say something? 😂]) get the waterstone treatment.
 

Coarse Grit Sharpening

While doing some Dual Grit Sharpening tests , I threw in a 240/240 grit test on the IXL Lock Back because the Dual Grit performance increase was - Lack Luster ! Steels being steels , not all steels will respond the same to the way the knife is sharpened . And to be honest the steel on the IXL...
www.bladeforums.com www.bladeforums.com
 
311climber said:
aggressive stone raise angle light passes till burr removal. creates tiny microbevel but should kill the burr. smallest microbevel should still last a decent length in the kitchen or other fields of use
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^^THIS^^

For low-quality steel, start by stropping at the sharpening angle +2°, and if that doesn't do it, go up to 3°. Finish stropping at the sharpening angle. With particularly stubborn cases I'll also strop on hanging denim loaded with Flitz at 45°.

You can still get BESS scores well under 100 with this method.
 
It has been covered in other comments but I want to share my experience as well.
You can't go for a thin edge like you would quality steel, think splitting maul. Light passes once you get the edge profile you want, stay fairly coarse there will be no whittling of hair. Very light strop if at all, the burr will just keep flopping back and forth if you still have one at this point and once it snaps off you will be back to dull because the "Apex" will be gone.
 
Cgw1984 said:
They absolutely are.
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Totally disagree on that. If you have the right stones (diamond/cbn), super steels are *much* easier to sharpen that soft steels. A super steel with a good heat treat will deburr very easily. A doo-doo-soft steel is very hard to deburr. NOT impossible by any stretch, but it's more work. You can get it hair-whittling sharp, but there's not much point to it because it's just going to roll.
 
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