OT: Knife sharpening question

"Alun Saunders" wrote: (clip) I have discovered that if I just leave it alone in the knife block for a day, or overnight, it somehow seems to magically get sharper, in fact much sharper than it ever was! (clip) ^^^^^^^^^^^^ Is there someone in your house with a sly sense of humor? Set up a surveillance camera. This just can't happen by itself!

==================================== Here's an idea. The steel you refer to is a round one, right. That type "sharpener" doesn't really sharpen, but smoothes and reshapes the edge. There may be a possibility that the edge is too thin and sometimes curls over, like the edge on scraper. Therefore, it would seem dull to "head on" cutting applications until the curl was removed revealing the true edge, which would seem much sharper. Next time it does this, try pulling the edge against a piece of hardwood (cutting block, etc) a couple of times. If this is what's going, it will take away the waste metal and reveal the sharp edge. Otherwise, you're no worse off than you were.

Ken Moon Webberville,TX

Hi Alun, How much do you want for that knife and knife block? Arch

Fortiter,

Mine has fine grooves that cut steel.

Alun,

How much you want for that knife block? It's not in the shape of a pyramid, by any chance?

Barry

yup, that sounds weird.

you might post on the knife group..... rec.knives, if memory serves.

-Dan V.

No it's not for sale I'm afraid, but I've got some magic beans you could have for a good price if you'd like!

I'm as puzzled as anyone else, but it's happened a couple of times now.

You could be right there Ken. I know from reading up on this that the actual cutting edge of a well sharpened knife is very, very thin and fragile, and that "steeling", like you say, is not sharpening at all, but mereley smoothing and reshaping the edge. A thought has just occurred to me regarding your advice re pulling the edge against a pice of hardwood. The first thing I do after such a failed sharpening attempt, of course, is to slide it back into the slot in the (beechwood) knife block ... I don't suppose that in itself would be enough to do the trick would it?

Thanks Dan ... I hadn't thought there'd be a newsgroup just for that!

The steeling process raises a small wire bur on the edge, which is what does the cutting. If the bur is too large, it can roll over. Drawing it across a piece of wood removes the bur, leaving the edge.

You can get a sharper and more durable edge, by honing, which removes the bur and refines the actual edge, as a carver would do. It's not necessary for normal kitchen use chopping meats and veggies, and most simply don't bother.

Insidentally, the bur is used as the cutting edge on a scraper, but normally honed off on a plane or chisel.

Jin

Alun Saunders wrote:

I bought a knife at a yard sale once.

it was a good knife- high end manufacturer, 12" french knife, maybe a couple of years old- somebody paid close to a hunnert bux for it new. an inch and a half was broken off of the tip. I paid $8.00 took it home, ground the tip to shape, ended up with a 10" french knife. so far, so good.

I put an edge on it. it cut great.... for a few minutes. then it went dull. put another edge on it. same thing. frustrating.

now, I'm pretty good at sharpening, been doing it since I was a kid. I can make a decent piece of steel shave hairs off of my arm, no sweat. I ground the thing without heating it up, so it wasn't a temper issue.

I put the knife in the rack and from time to time I'd use it, note that it wasn't holding an edge, curse it and switch knives. after a couple of years though, I started noticing that it was improving. it was holding edge longer.....

I've had it for close to 20 years now. it holds an edge just fine. probably my most used knife.

what was it about that freshly groung edge that didn't work? beats me.....

Perhaps the edge had the temper ruined before, and griding away the soft edge to get to the normal temper helped it retain the edge better. Some have reported that Japanese chisel blades do this at times, and new blades don't hold an edge better than ones used for a bit. (I think this was in some book I read).