Knife Sharpening Info and Tactics

You're sharpening your knife and have tested it to confirm for sharpness. You know that you have achieved it because you've found a burr on the knife's edge. This burr is how we know that the edge has reached the point of comprehensive sharpness. It confirms it. Should you stop there? Oh, but you must. There's only a little sharpening that can be done to an edge. To resume after that only results in unnecessary loss of metal on your blade edge. To resume gains nothing. Are you done then?

you have a burr on your blade edge and it should be removed. Once you've done that, the edge will usually have miniscule bits of metal still sticking to it. These bits feel just like sand on the edge. But you'd like to get it as fine as it can be, even greasy sharp at that.

maybe you've got knives that are going on show. Perhaps they're going to be included in a rite of some sort . Or perhaps you'd just like to show off your fine knives to your pals and family. I'm sure you'd need your edges to sparkle to make them silky smooth. Well, then. It's time to strop it.

Stropping is a method used to clean off a blade's edge after sharpening. It is designed to bend and twist those adhering metal pieces until they fall off. It's also done to reposition the minute teeth made on the edge while sharpening. Stropping is done by swiping both sides of your blade's edge over a leather strap. When you cannot feel clinging bits, you have successfully stropped your blade edge. It should be shining nice and bright at about that point. This is how stropping was always done in the past, but times are changing.

Did you ever think that you could one day be able to electrically strop an edge? I sure failed to. The sector of electric knife sharpening has come an exceedingly long way. Some electrical knife sharpeners are quite superb. Many of the high priced sharpeners are equipped with their own stropping abrasives. What about that? It's true. Spend anywhere form over $50 to a couple of hundred on an outstanding electric knife sharpener and it'll both sharpen and strop your blades for you. Just like that. Yes, I know. It seems like an awful lot of cash for simply an electric knife sharpener. But if you have the means and don't care to diddle with it, electrical knife stropping is surely possible now. It is totally up to you.

A cordless electric fillet knife is also a great way in automating and saving time while carving. An example of a brand that offers these kind of knives is cuisinart, which I can highly recommend (cuisinart cek 40 electric knife)

Let's make one point very clear. Stropping is not sharpening. It is not, really. But stropping with a polishing compound or an abrasive compound sure is. When you do this, when you add such a compound to the strap, the stropping has become its own kind of sharpening. Because it can now remove metal from the edge, it is a sharpener. All on its own , however , the strap can do only strop an edge. Therein lies the difference.

For fine knife sharpening, stropping is always the final step. It is done after absolute sharpness has been achieved. It makes each knife edge as fine as it can be. They will shine and shine. Isn't that special?.