Ok, I have been reading this ongoing, and it's fascinating.
But please forgive my ignorance...I thought I knew what you were talking about, until I didn't.
Can someone please define 'leading vs trailing'? I thought you were talking about going tip to heel or vice versa. Call me a noob, but this one has confused me.

Jet B wrote:


Ain't that the truth! Most of the knowledge base in the field is based on anecdote, which doesn't mean it's necessarily incorrect, but a lot of it has not been tested rigorously with controlled variables.

Most of the knives in my collection fall into the more "tactical" styling, and I pocket carry at least one per day. I use all of my knives regularly, and none too gently, so my needs for an edge are dictated by overall usability, sharpness, and durability. Appearance ( i.e. polish) is a secondary concern.

I have a number of Striders of various sizes depending on the job I may need to do. Lately, I've been carrying a mini SJ75 a lot. This is a bit of a polarizing design; some love it, some hate it (looks wise), but the ergonomics are superb, and it's a tremendous little knife. The problem is that it's a knife that, to me anyway, screams for a polished edge, so of course you lose a bit of cutting ability with a good polish. I should mention that my standard for a good polish is different than many of you; for me a good polish stops at 1000 grit, with stropping to 1 micron followed by bare kangaroo leather.

Yesterday, I re-profiled this knife from 22 degrees per side to 20, and took it to my "polished" standard. It was extremely sharp, however I'd lost the tooth that I like to have for things like zip-ties, etc.

In an attempt to solve this, I re-mounted the knife ( I use a Field and Sport, BTW), set the arms at 22 degrees ( remember the knife is now at 20 degrees) and did one pass, tip to heel with a 1000 grit stone.

There is no visible difference, naked eye. With a ten power loupe I can see it pass, but barely. Cutting performance however is improved. I have some tooth back and cutting zip-ties ( which I seem to be doing a lot of lately) is noticeably easier.

My question is this; what other ideas do you have for having a polished edge that still has some tooth? I've tried stopping at a lover grit stone and stropping from there, but the toothiness is muted by the stropping. It seems to me that re-introducing some fresh tooth after the strop like this gives a bit more "bite" to the cut, but I'm sure curious about others experiences

Hi,
I didn't see anything like this anywhere...so here goes. (I just guessed ata category)
I've got 3 different companies knives, all claiming to be VG-10 at the edge. In profile, they are all kitchen knives, Shun, Calphalon (sp?) and one from AG Russell.
Interestingly enough, I sharpen them all the same, and they retain the edge COMPLETELY differently.
So my question (I think) is there wide variance in VG-10 steel, like you'd find in say 1095?
Call me curious.

Because only the right side of the clamp is moving the right side angle will be off a little because of the thickness of the knife. The left should be accurate say 20 degrees but you will have to run the right at 21 or 22 to keep the bevels even but how much you have to move it will depend on how thick your knife is. The thicker it is the more you will have to move it. The angle cube helps with this. I hope this helps.

BTW it sounds like the app may be accurate. I've also got to ask how do you like the 3V in the Tuff?