Convex problems

[nipper]

Nice one Jake

My Starkie arrived yesterday, so last night I went to town on my F1. What am amazing piece of kit!. It's the sharpest it has ever been.

I am still struggling to come to terms with the fact that a soft piece of leather, will sharpen a piece of VG10 steel (answers on a postcard please?). However, it does work and thats good enough for me.

One question springs to mind. The block of paste that comes with the strop seems really hard and when you rub it onto the leather, and hardly any of the paste comes off. Is this normal or should I be doing something to make the paste softer?

Thanks again to all the members for there input.

Nick

Ps: Can't wait for the Northstar now!

 

[leon-1]

Nick from what I have seen of them that is the same as any of the polishing compunds, so it sounds pretty much normal.

 

[JakeR]

YEAH! Another fan, well, that another for the tally. It is an amazing piece of kit. And the customer service i got from starkie was very good.

Its a perfect convex sharpener, but if you put it on a flat serface, then you can sharpen scandi's and pretty much anything else!

 

[OldJimbo]

Normally when I use buffing compound on leather, I use neatsfoot oil on the leather first. It then takes the buffing compound nicely. I usually use bore lapping compound on leather, though. It's just carburundum powder in oil, and fine valve grinding compound from the local garage would do as well. The larger abrasive particles sink into the leather so that one can get a good finish. I normally use green buffing compound on cardboard from cereal boxes - and fine stuf it is!
The Northstar should meet all expectations of sharpness,as it's a full convex from back to front and it's a well tested design.

Sharpness as in real world cutting rather than just slicing some paper or rope is a complex thing. Mostly, though it comes down to uniformity of grind.
If a person takes a $10 Mora - well most will slice paper and even shave hair. Use it on wood, though and the edge goes fast. Now take the same knife and lay the bevels flat on a LARGE sheet of emery on a flat surface and rub away and - well you'll see that the wire edge comes off like saw teeth at first. Keep going until you have a uniform wire edge and then work through finer grits and eventually you'll have an edge that will slice the thinnest cigarette paper or just as tough toilet tissue of the softest kind. How well it works on wood will relate to the acuteness of the bevel.
The strangest thing is that wood carvers need the blade to be as sharp as possible for all cuts, so they strop the bevels on cardboard with green buffing compound. This of course soon makes the bevels convex - slight though it might be. Much the same happens for us Scandi lovers who come in from the bush and strop the Mora sharp again. With most of my Moras and Scandis in general - I often can't remember the last time I actually sharpened them. And I do lots of cutting.
Round the top shoulders of the bevels - again on a large flat abrasive surface, and a person has a good idea of what a good convex will do. People like nice grind lines, but uniformly convexing the shoulders really does help in slicing fuzzies in difficult conditions. If a person wants to experiment with more convex on the bevels, then they just have to use some rubber under some emery paper. It'll work well IF the bevels are very uniform to begin with.
The thing about minor convexing of a Mora is that it'll show how much uniformity of grind counts - if you have some damp knotty wood to have to whittle fuzzies out of.