Thread: Annoying video about kitchen knives that may actually be helpful

Originally Posted by Bart

Most sources, unlike Ramsey, promote steeling with a leading edge.
Verhoeven's famous paper, often cited here on the forums, explains that steeling a knife, completely folds over the bur (the result of regular knife honing) and plasters it flat against one side of the edge. He even has SEM-pictures to illustrate it. It requires only 2 or 3 light passes, as doing more is detrimental to the edge.
Here's a link to Verhoeven's paper: http://mse.iastate.edu/fileadmin/www...nifeShExps.pdf The information about steeling is on pages 12 and following.

This applies only to smooth steels. There's also a kind of abrassive "steel", that in fact acts more as a hone, and should be treated as such.
One of the problems I had to overcome with my kitchen knifes, is that I was 'oversteeling" them, which required me to hone them way too often. Figuring out that it really doesn't take much, greatly improved the longevity of my kitchen knife edges.

Stropping is not the same as steeling, imo.
Stropping gives an edge an edge (no typo here). But that second edge (or fin) doesn't last long (it wrinkles up from the cutting action), hence the need to restrop frequently. At my work, I have to cut newspaper and cardboard frequently. I use an old chef's knife for that. Whenever I find the knife a bit too dull, without time for a honing job, I'll strop it a bit on my jeans. That always gives a very distinct improvement, albeit it wears off quickly. I am sure, at that point, the knife is way past the point where steeling would offer anything beneficial. Steeling only works for as long as a knife is still near original keenness. Stropping seems to add something to an edge, regardless the condition.

Bart.

Well, my take on this is that a "fin" or very thin flexible edge is prety worthless at chopping onions, as it will quickly break off when contacting the chopping block.



In kitchen knives, apparently, this "fin" is folded back and plastered against the main edge, and thus you use the honing steel edge first. And yes, that has little to do with razors, or stropping.

With a razor, we actually can make use of the "fin" delicate edge, as all we are cutting are whiskers (and the occasional cheek!), and so we use a leather strop to coax this edge back out into alignment, maintaining it's thin, delicate nature.

However, my original intent was that the vid shows a pretty good visual depiction of edge "wavy" deflection that occurs with use.

The angle they use to show that wavy edge (looking down along the edge) is just about impossible to achieve with an optical scope, so I thought it was a useful visualization tool, that's all.

Originally Posted by Seraphim

Well, my take on this is that a "fin" or very thin flexible edge is prety worthless at chopping onions, as it will quickly break off when contacting the chopping block.



In kitchen knives, apparently, this "fin" is folded back and plastered against the main edge, and thus you use the honing steel edge first. And yes, that has little to do with razors, or stropping.

With a razor, we actually can make use of the "fin" delicate edge, as all we are cutting are whiskers (and the occasional cheek!), and so we use a leather strop to coax this edge back out into alignment, maintaining it's thin, delicate nature.

However, my original intent was that the vid shows a pretty good visual depiction of edge "wavy" deflection that occurs with use.

The angle they use to show that wavy edge (looking down along the edge) is just about impossible to achieve with an optical scope, so I thought it was a useful visualization tool, that's all.

I completely agree. Moreover, I liked that video. That guy was pretty funny, while offering valid information. Thank you for sharing.

Bart.