Cleaning edge with cork.

Hi all, I am learning to free hand sharpen and enjoying it immensely. A couple of old globals, a two lions Sabatier, a henckels boning knife. Also a UK purchased santoku with Damascus clad (Lakeland retailer). Using a bester 500, and a 1000/3000 combo I'm getting OK results. By accident today I decided to run the edge through a champagne cork. It cleaned the edge and suddenly a great edge. Any thoughts on this, please?

It is making me happy, need more champagne corks...

It is not difficult to acquire corks.

Running the edge through cork is actually recommended for deburring. Not sure what you are asking?

If you can get your hands on a block of rockhard felt it works great. Also works great as a strop. Corks will do though.

My wife keeps me well supplied with corks. Ahem

rami_m said:

Running the edge through cork is actually recommended for deburring. Not sure what you are asking?

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Thanks Rami, just sharing a new experience, I couldn't find a reference to using corks for deburring. Thanks for the confirmation

Just be careful when using corks. I find newspaper works well.

You can really cut yourself pretty good with cork Oh it hurts and it especially hurts with dull stainless knives.

I use cork, too and it does work well. I think a bit of soft to medium-hard wood works even better, especially if you have a bit of end grain wood and you pull the edge through perpendicular to the lines of the grain.

Also, you ought to geta strop with polishing paste. Two or three strokes on each side can make a big improvement on an already sharp knife. I use a homemeade one, just a little rectangle of balsa wood with some paste melted on.

mhpr262 said:

I use cork, too and it does work well. I think a bit of soft to medium-hard wood works even better, especially if you have a bit of end grain wood and you pull the edge through perpendicular to the lines of the grain.

Also, you ought to geta strop with polishing paste. Two or three strokes on each side can make a big improvement on an already sharp knife. I use a homemeade one, just a little rectangle of balsa wood with some paste melted on.

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Thanks mhpr, what polishing paste do you use? I'm in UK so might struggle to match your supply

mhpr262 said:

I use cork, too and it does work well. I think a bit of soft to medium-hard wood works even better, especially if you have a bit of end grain wood and you pull the edge through perpendicular to the lines of the grain.

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Are you sure? I would guess you go rather along -- and not across -- the grain to have grasped some debris.

Yes soft wood works as well. I use it when the bur is being a royal pain.

If so, you better abrade the burr. If it came off it would leave a heavily damaged edge behind.

Benuser said:

Are you sure? I would guess you go rather along -- and not across -- the grain to have grasped some debris.

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I believe hi tried to said that you need to use end grain part — this way you can't go along or across. It will always be perpendicular to grain.

A week ago I sharpened lots of cheap stainless knives at my parents place. I couldn't find a cork and wasn't smart enough to use end grain cutting board, so I went with tightly rolled newspaper and deburred using the end part of it. Worked well.