Thread: Best way to sharpen Mercator Stainless?

To get reply to the original topic, firstly it appear that you can get a german stainless steel mercator.

https://www.blademaster.co.nz/shop/S...OTT10626R.html

Secondly, If I had a stainless Mercator I would use the exact same method as I have posted above. Yours will just require a bit more time on the stones than a carbon blade would.

Alternatively you could buy the kit that contains diamond hones instead of stone which would speed up the process for you.

Originally Posted by Mauser308

Only saving grace if there was one, was that the murdering F-wit picked up a knife off the rack in the shop. Not something that banning knives will fix even for an idiot over-reactor like Ardern.

And for sharpening stainless, the issue is the work hardening of the metal when it's used around something like bone or hair/skin which can roll an edge. It is very difficult to stone or steel a work hardened edge off, and you end up with a bullsh*t profile on the edge which is the reason you can't get a very good edge back. The work hardening needs to be removed back with a diamond tool with good angle control to keep things true. Once you have the edge reprofiled, touch it up often and it should maintain its edge better, but as soon as you put it through something that rolls the edge off it's on the way to a date with the diamonds. That's the difference from my experience anyway.

So for stainless ... hone a realistically blunt edge?

Originally Posted by mimms2

Not to tell you how to do your job or anything. But canola will impart flavour to meats or salad. And I'm not sure how they aerosolise it but that would have to taste like arse too.
Coconut oil is generally tasteless.
If you have knives specifically for jap cuisine then seasame (preferred), or soya oil.

What interests me most in this post is that while helpful, how the hell do you know what arse tastes like??!! No, on second thoughts, don't answer

I use one of the $12 copies and one of these:
https://www.marine-deals.co.nz/knife...IaAv-gEALw_wcB

I'd be very careful about which knifes I use that on, but for very thin blades - it suits my level of competency.

Originally Posted by Mauser308

Ahhh, the good old carbide knife fu*ker...

Indeed, a knife salesman's best friend that one...

Originally Posted by 40mm

All of my carbon kitchen knives get washed pretty soon after using and a spray can of canola oil sits in the pantry just for knives.

My Opinel gets used too often to rust, and I oil it sometimes too.

Walnut oil is the only food based oil that does not go rancid.

Originally Posted by thejavelin

I use one of the $12 copies and one of these:
https://www.marine-deals.co.nz/knife...IaAv-gEALw_wcB

I'd be very careful about which knifes I use that on, but for very thin blades - it suits my level of competency.

Yep that's the bastard right there! A headache with a handle.

[QUOTE=Mauser308;1218089]Ahhhh, realistically blunt?



I had one very expensive stainless filleting knife that was an utter cu*t to do anything with - tried everything to keep it sharp but once you went over the spine or through some pin bones a few times it was gone.

Me too, Lindes Fish Cutter, made by inox, has a flexible blade and is supposed to be for filleting, comes with a really cool plastic clip on scabbard. It lives it's life as a pricking controlling tool for cooking. Even the rubber handle coating perished. Expensive and most useless knife I have ever owned. In the picture you can see signs of the most evil treatment, I gave up, grinder material.

Cool part at least the scabbard fits a Victorinox straight boning knife perfectly, and that a awesomely useful knife.

Originally Posted by Tui4Me

To get reply to the original topic, firstly it appear that you can get a german stainless steel mercator.

https://www.blademaster.co.nz/shop/S...OTT10626R.html

Secondly, If I had a stainless Mercator I would use the exact same method as I have posted above. Yours will just require a bit more time on the stones than a carbon blade would.

Alternatively you could buy the kit that contains diamond hones instead of stone which would speed up the process for you.

I got the boys from the local tradezone....while it wasn't cheap I dont think it was that much tho.
It has ss scales tho not copperwashed.
Or maybe it was that much and I have suppressed the memory of spending that much on a kids pocket knife!

I use a fine stone and follow up with a few strokes on the diamond steel.I paid $89 about a month ago the true slozenger mercator made in germany.

All these Mercators are getting me excited. Especially that stainless one

Originally Posted by Tui4Me

I got caught with a Mercator in Heathrow Airport!

My check in bag was over weight so at the last minute I moved some stuff and I looked in horror as my faithful Mercator showed up on the x-ray screen..

Apparently a Mercator is over the maximum legal length for a folding knife in the UK..the guy (and his supervisor) was pretty serious about it at first, but after I explained I was a Kiwi hunter and these things are as common as muck in NZ he took it off me and let me off.

Pissed me off because I really tried to look after that one!

I took two Mercators with me to the UK, but never had any issues. Like you it never occurred to me that it could be a problem, I'm just used to having one around as a utility knife. Will often have one in my backpack and use one around the house almost daily. Promptly lost one of em shortly after getting back from the UK- left at a BBQ with a bunch of hunting and diving mates and it was never seen again.

Yeah they don’t like it when the knives are in your carry on bag

Originally Posted by Mauser308

Ahhhh, realistically blunt?

What I'm meaning, is keep a (diamond) steel with you and every so often a couple of licks on the stainless to keep scraping off the work area on the blade profile before it can turn into the hardened lump that you have to wear off. I dunno if that makes it more logical to write it like that?

I had one very expensive stainless filleting knife that was an utter cu*t to do anything with - tried everything to keep it sharp but once you went over the spine or through some pin bones a few times it was gone. I had an expensive smooth steel that was awesome for everything else, it was an annealed mild steel and you coated it with oil. A little counterintuitive as the knife was hardened and you were rubbing it over a softened steel object to sharpen the blade but it was awesome. Absolutely useless for the stainless filleter though. Just blunted it. Ended up dealing to the edge of it with 200 grit wet and dry and working up to 1000grit and then stoning it (this was before the days of whizz bang sharpeners). Worked good for about a week. Then had to do it all again. Prick of a knife... Don't know what happened to that knife, might have given it away as a bad investment. Don't know what happened to the steel either for that matter, but I have been meaning to make another. Knowing what I know now, I think I would have a better run out of that blade - by changing the maintenance regime to what suits that knife rather than trying to deal with it like the rest of the carbon steel blades.

Would have been a fine carbide, high hardness stainless. Knives like that will blunt a fine edge pretty quick against an abrading media like bones.

They are to hard so don't respond to a steel as the edge doesn't roll at that hardness, just abrades. You need either a loaded strop or ceramic/diamond hone for touch ups.

Often better keeping a fairly toothy edge as well. I like 800 and a strop for filleting and boning knives. Those fina carbide stainless steels like aebl, 14c28n etc are better suited to razors and kitchen knives when run at a high polish.

Get your hands on a real fan dangle modern steel (s90v, m390 etc) and you'll be amazed at how long they can hold an edge. comparative

Originally Posted by 7mmwsm

If putting a edge on stainless is so tricky, why are Bacho's so popular?
Sounds like there's way too much thinking going on. I'm like VC, just give it a few strokes on the same stone I use for everything else, a few strokes on a steel or diamond thingy and start chopping.

Its not hard to do, although the equivalent stainless will abrade slower than comparable simple carbon.

Chromium in solution is what makes a knife stainless, it also binds to carbon to form chromium carbides (the bit that makes a knife hard) in simple carbon steels the iron bonds with the carbon to form iron carbides which are much smaller (typically) and less hard than chromium carbides.

The harder chromium carbides are what make the knife slower to sharpen. However with good quality stones, your standard simple stainless knives should still sharpen quite easily. Most people that struggle with sharpening simply aren't sharpening far enough to reach the apex of the bevel (the feather, burr or wire edge is how we know you have reached the apex) and as such never get back to having an actually sharp knife.

As long as you raise a burr, then remove that burr you will have a sharp knife using any sharpening system.