Compendium of tips for sharpening serrated knives

[cabfrank]

That sounds about right.

[Ow!Icutmyself!]

Oh, yeah, one thing I really don’t understand is why knifeaholics need to cut cardboard. I just stomp on the stuff and it fits just fine in my recycle bin. Probably quicker too.

[RustyIron]

Oh, yeah, one thing I really don’t understand is why knifeaholics need to cut cardboard. I just stomp on the stuff and it fits just fine in my recycle bin. Probably quicker too.

Bwahahahahahaha! You're a brave man for saying that out loud. As long as we're speaking freely, I've never had a need to cut wet rope as I stood on the deck of my yacht in the middle of a monsoon.

[Evil D]

Oh, yeah, one thing I really don’t understand is why knifeaholics need to cut cardboard. I just stomp on the stuff and it fits just fine in my recycle bin. Probably quicker too.

Most of society go through their day to day without a knife at all. If you run with this mentality then you'll find a lot of situations where you can get by without a knife, then what's the point? Why are we here at all?

[vivi]

Oh, yeah, one thing I really don’t understand is why knifeaholics need to cut cardboard. I just stomp on the stuff and it fits just fine in my recycle bin. Probably quicker too.

when the bin is smaller than the box it makes more sense to cut it in half or quarters. when I fold them in half they take up more space. All there is to it really. TV boxes, furniture boxes etc. are often longer than the height of my bin.

It's also more courteous than leaving big boxes next to the bin like other folks on my road do - more efficient for the workers.

now cutting them into little strips? that I don't get....unless you're specifically doing edge retention testing.

[Ow!Icutmyself!]

Oh, of course, when we were rebuilding I got quite a few large boxes to recycle. I was a true gentleman and cut them into sizes that fit in our bin. I used every knife I had during that hectic time. Spydercos, a Bushman, a David Boye cobalt folder, a Sage EDC Bowie, even my chef’s knives, including an etched Boye knife with Hokusai’s “Great Wave Off Kanagawa” that was rescued from the rubble and restored. I did NOT use my Jay Fisher chef’s knife because it was way too expensive and it could have ruined the mirror finish. Oddly enough, the best cutters were a plain edge Dragonfly, and the Sage EDC Bowie. All of those knives are plain edge. My experience with serrated knives starts this year.
I had a dedicated serrated tomato slicer by Cold Steel, but I couldn’t locate it in the rubble. I am looking forward eagerly to learning how to sharpen serrated edges and when they are more appropriate to use. I don’t need a dedicated tomato slicer anymore because the Sharpmaker can give me the sharpness and the toothyness to slice tomatoes effortlessly. I grew so many of the darned things, we are on the verge of tomato dysentery!

[Ow!Icutmyself!]

Can anyone tell me how I’m doing in my attempt to sharpen and reprofile the serrated edges of my Dyad? It seems like very slow progress. The concave edges seem to cut quite well, but they don’t catch hairs on my arm. I’m after that “hair whittling edge”. Am I being too optimistic?

[Ow!Icutmyself!]

Well, I kept going and got to this point after much sharpmaker work and trying the stropping with a buffing wheel and a dremel. I think I got a few hairs off my arm, but I am of Anglo-Saxon lineage, so I have more arm hair than a Sasquatch. I could just be shedding.
I think, thanks to the replies on this thread, that I’m getting there. Thanks, everyone!

[Evil D]

Well, I kept going and got to this point after much sharpmaker work and trying the stropping with a buffing wheel and a dremel. I think I got a few hairs off my arm, but I am of Anglo-Saxon lineage, so I have more arm hair than a Sasquatch. I could just be shedding.
I think, thanks to the replies on this thread, that I’m getting there. Thanks, everyone!

Just keep in mind, the circle is where you make the edge sharp, the X is where you're really not accomplishing anything unless you're trying to reprofile the angle of the entire serration. If you're doing this on the 15 degree slots on the Sharpmaker, you may see faster progress if you switch to the 20 degree slots. This will focus the sharpening more on the apex itself, but it will also not sharpen/polish the entire bevel as you're doing so whichever you prefer.

[vivi]

yep,you'll be done 10x faster following david's advice.

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many years ago, when the CPMD2 Military was a current production model, a forum member let me test drive his.

The first thing that stood out to me when I checked out his edge was how rough and coarse the entire edge looked.

But then I cut with it. Shaving sharp, gracefully push cutting through thin paper, as sharp as any mirror edge I had tried.

I asked him about it and he basically said the same thing I've been saying ever since our discussion.

Mirror edges look pretty but applying them is a waste of time. The degree of polish on steel behind the apex has very little to no influence on cutting ability in a knife. It's only the level of polish on the apex that matters.

Upon closer examination of his Military the apex was indeed brought to a very high polish.

The rest of the bevel had a finish right off his coarse reprofiling stone.

There is nothing to gain beyond aesthetics by polishing the full bevel. Drop the edge angle by 1 degree per side, then sharpen the apex at the original planned angle and polish to whatever level you want.

You can set the edge off your coarse stone, then polish just the apex and be done in 5-10 minutes instead of hours.

[JARHEAD]

Can anyone tell me how I’m doing in my attempt to sharpen and reprofile the serrated edges of my Dyad? It seems like very slow progress. The concave edges seem to cut quite well, but they don’t catch hairs on my arm. I’m after that “hair whittling edge”. Am I being too optimistic?

No.
I really like to use a strop on mine, flesh side if you have it. It helps a lot.
Opppps late!

[PaloArt]

Rub on rok
Nife cut good

Aahhh Oogg

yep, keep it as simple as possible

[Ow!Icutmyself!]

Hey , I can’t thank everyone enough for helping me with this. I’ve gotten the apex on my Dyad serrations pretty darn sharp. The tips of the serrations are still pretty pointy and grabby, but I can live with that-For a while. It didn’t take long at all to buff the edges to a nice gloss with the dremel - I only went to 15 K grit. . I actually like that look. I know it doesn’t have much to do with sharpness , but after trying to pay attention to everyone’s response, I got the belly of the serrations sharper than any other of my knives. I just received my new Manix 2 in 15v, along with a pair of CBN rods.
The world’s worst sharpener may not have to heat his knife anymore before he cuts the butter!

[Evil D]

Hey , I can’t thank everyone enough for helping me with this. I’ve gotten the apex on my Dyad serrations pretty darn sharp. The tips of the serrations are still pretty pointy and grabby, but I can live with that-For a while. It didn’t take long at all to buff the edges to a nice gloss with the dremel - I only went to 15 K grit. . I actually like that look. I know it doesn’t have much to do with sharpness , but after trying to pay attention to everyone’s response, I got the belly of the serrations sharper than any other of my knives. I just received my new Manix 2 in 15v, along with a pair of CBN rods.
The world’s worst sharpener may not have to heat his knife anymore before he cuts the butter!

Be really careful with the Dremel, not just for safety reasons but because you can also round off your sharp edge in the blink of an eye and ruin your progress.

It might help if you lay the blade flat on a sheet of glass or something that's very flat, then buff the serrations. This will help to prevent you from going around the edge itself. On the back side I would just strop the blade flat on a strop.

[Ow!Icutmyself!]

Hey, that glass trick seems like a pretty good idea. I used to make Opal jewelry and got fairly good at controlling a dremel. But I never had to worry about rounding off a sharp edge then. After I dull the edge a bit, I’m going to try that. The buffing also took out a few shallow scratches, and the blade looks great. It’ll be a shame to take that pretty blade out to the garden when I cut it down for the winter. (Not really) thanks again for the tips.