CORKING blades
- Thread starter antdad
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I think the idea is to wipe away any imperfections after manufacturing...if you notice getting a better result with the second or third use of a blade then it might be for you. I believe you run the blade edge once or twice with the slightest of pressure through cork or even something like polystyrene. Lets see what the corkers say.
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Had a screw top on the bottle this evening otherwise I would have been off to the kitchen right now.
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When I have to hand a cork (and I get the hang of the microscope), I shall do a before and after shot :ugeek:
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Pete said:Hey a microscope sounds good! look forward to it HM.
I still can't understand why anyone would want to turn a Feather into a Red IP and a Red IP into a Dorco. :lol:
It's not the point - the point is that it (for want of a better expression) "strops off the crud" left behind by suboptimal honing at the manufacturing stage leaving a cleaner, fresher, mintier* blade to razz over your face.
* ok - I made that bit up
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I imagine that this is the theory behind it; you sometimes see joiners running the edge of a chisel through a piece of softwood after sharpening for this reason. I think they should get a finer stone, personally. HM's microscope might well confirm the presence of a sharpening burr (see pic), which would give a ragged finish to the edge; however, all metal cutting edges are necessarily ragged to some degree, burr or not, due to the coarseness of the grain structure and size of carbides in the steel. Although I have never corked a blade, or felt the need to, I can see that it might make for a smoother shave, at very little expense in terms of sharpness. Stropping should be a better bet and improve the life of the edge, but it also sounds like as good a way as any of slicing your fingers open.Rev-O said:
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well put Andy
to get back to Tony's original question i would\have used a real cork as opposed to those god awful fake things.
for a start the real thing isn't as dense as the fake stuff and is easier to use in this application, less risk of you doing yourself a mischief and less chance of going overboard and blunting the blade.
i've only tried this a few times on Merkur blades and didn't really notice much improvement.
can't polish a turd :roll:
i do however hand strop my blades before every shave as a matter of course, it has become such a habit now it's part of my ritual.
does it make any difference - ...mmm not sure
i certainly don't believe anyone who says it adds x amount of shaves to the blade life, one at the most.
i look at it like your stropping a cut-throat, you wouldn't cork that now would you :?
p.s. i'm now selling 2 old corks in BST :lol:
to get back to Tony's original question i would\have used a real cork as opposed to those god awful fake things.
for a start the real thing isn't as dense as the fake stuff and is easier to use in this application, less risk of you doing yourself a mischief and less chance of going overboard and blunting the blade.
i've only tried this a few times on Merkur blades and didn't really notice much improvement.
can't polish a turd :roll:
i do however hand strop my blades before every shave as a matter of course, it has become such a habit now it's part of my ritual.
does it make any difference - ...mmm not sure
i certainly don't believe anyone who says it adds x amount of shaves to the blade life, one at the most.
i look at it like your stropping a cut-throat, you wouldn't cork that now would you :?
p.s. i'm now selling 2 old corks in BST :lol:
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Arrowhead said:
Whoa, that is bad technique. Yes, a chisel, or any other edge tool, will have a burr after sharpening. Problem is, if you deburr by actually cutting something, you'll rip off the burr -- and the fracture edges that remain will not be sharp. So this type of deburring will leave you with a dull tool very quickly after sharpening. Now this may not be a major problem in lathe work, especially when roughing, but in joining, and other types of hand planing, you really want your tools as sharp as can be, or have to really like sanding...
The correct way to deburr is to whet and then polish. This is easily accomplished with a felt wheel on the bench grinder (or even on a spare lathe set aside for this) with some polishing compound. Sharpness of my gouges markedly improved when I put a felt wheel on the grinder (and started using it of course...)
Henk