Cork - does it work?

[Ruso]

Does deburring on cork really works, or is it just a myth? Thoughts, opinion?

My thoughts:
When I started sharpening I was “deburring” on corck constantly. It was the norm, fashion, just the thing you do back then. Now, I almost never use cork or anything similar to aid deburring. Looking in retrospect, I think cork does very little to the burr. Am I missing something or you have similar experiences?

 

[crockerculinary]

I think just about any of the usual options can work for deburring if you use them effectively and create/weaken the burr effectively. None of them seem to be the right or only way, and you can also choose to not use any of them.

 

[Marek07]

As @crockerculinary said, many work well "if you use them effectively" Cork, felt, balsa, various leathers, cardboard, denim, scourers, sharpening stones - all can be used. Just find the technique that works for well for you and achieves the desired outcome.

 

[M1k3]

I never found it to truly get rid of it. Granted I never looked with a loupe. But in my experience, it helped weaken it.

 

[bahamaroot]

I never used the cork until after I started to see the burr coming off one the stone. Then I would run it through the cork and it did a good job of removing any pieces left and cleaned the edge up. You could really see the difference with a loop. I still use a felt block or cork but only after I know the burr is fatigued and see pieces starting to come on the stone first.

 

[captaincaed]

I find that deburring on a wood board, then touch up on the stone, wood board, touch up until it stays toothy after a stroke across the wood has been a fairly reliable final process. The first cut thru wood kills the nail bite test almost every time. Then, the touch up strokes on the final stone get the apex clean and toothy. Once the edge can survive a couple strokes on the wood board and pass the nail bite test, I'm usually good to go. I wouldn't call it a professional process. When Jon advocates for his finishing methods, I listen, and assume I haven't found knife nirvana yet, but I'm doing OK going down the road for now.

Had the same "meh" experience with cork.

I found that a nice hard material like wood was a good bet since that's what the edge will endure in actual use. The cork doesn't give the same feedback. Why deburr in a weaker material that may not remove all the burr? When you go to the board, you're going to tear off more metal from the harder wood that you could have taken care of when you were sharpening.

 

[panda]

I never used the cork until after I started to see the burr coming off one the stone. Then I would run it through the cork and it did a good job of removing any pieces left and cleaned the edge up. You could really see the difference with a loop. I still use a felt block or cork but only after I know the burr is fatigued and see pieces starting to come on the stone first.

X2

 

[AFKitchenknivesguy]

What do you all think of this:
https://www.japanesenaturalstones.com/kanayama-cordovan-strop-3311/

 

[panda]

What do you all think of this:
https://www.japanesenaturalstones.com/kanayama-cordovan-strop-3311/

Contact dave Martell for one of his hard felt blocks, best debuting tool.

 

[valgard]

Contact dave Martell for one of his hard felt blocks, best debuting tool.

I'm more a fan of the stropping pad, find it to be the best medium to do the final cleaning of the edge. But I own both, that hard felt is good stuff.

 

[valgard]

What do you all think of this:
https://www.japanesenaturalstones.com/kanayama-cordovan-strop-3311/

Probably useful, but I have leather, cork, balsa, linen, and felt strops all just plain without compound just for deburring (I have others loaded for different purposes). I find that I use the leather the least for deburring purposes as it doesn't seem to work that great for that, but it's great for loading with compound and for razors.

 

[kayman67]

In the past, with softer alloys, this was reliable. Right now, not so much and opens a lot of new problems for people since they don't understand what they do wrong.

What do you all think of this:
https://www.japanesenaturalstones.com/kanayama-cordovan-strop-3311/

In Europe, this might be the best bang for the buck

https://www.hiomakivi.fi/product/105/stroppi-lauta-400x75

 

[Ultrafiche]

I never used the cork until after I started to see the burr coming off one the stone. Then I would run it through the cork and it did a good job of removing any pieces left and cleaned the edge up. You could really see the difference with a loop. I still use a felt block or cork but only after I know the burr is fatigued and see pieces starting to come on the stone first.

Noob question here, but how do you know when the burr is coming off of the stone? Do you feel for it, or is there some visual indicator that shows itself?

 

[M1k3]

Noob question here, but how do you know when the burr is coming off of the stone? Do you feel for it, or is there some visual indicator that shows itself?

It'll look kind of like a piece of hair..

 

[big D]

I have only tried cork the last two times I have sharpened and it does work because I have been prone to inspecting under a 20x loop after an incident awhile back. It has a weird feeling to it though ,and I think it is really dependent on how weak the burr is as to it's effectiveness. Going to order a hard felt the next time I need something. Just don't think the cork is that wonderful even though it did work for me.
D.

 

[Ultrafiche]

It'll look kind of like a piece of hair..

Got it. And do you look for this throughout the entire sharpening process, or when you're applying some "finishing strokes"? I think I'm getting the terminology wrong, but I'm referring to the strokes near the end of sharpening that are intended to remove what is hopefully a fragile burr.

 

[M1k3]

Got it. And do you look for this throughout the entire sharpening process, or when you're applying some "finishing strokes"? I think I'm getting the terminology wrong, but I'm referring to the strokes near the end of sharpening that are intended to remove what is hopefully a fragile burr.

I don't really look for it. It kind of just happens. Steel and burr size dependant. But it generally only happens when trying to weaken and get rid of it.

 

[Ultrafiche]

Got it. Thanks for the explanation. I'll look out for the burr coming off next time I sharpen.

 

[M1k3]

In my experience, the more stainless and bigger the burr, the more likely you are to see it.

 

[captaincaed]

Got it. Thanks for the explanation. I'll look out for the burr coming off next time I sharpen.

It helps to rinse your stone when you're at the final deburring step, that way you can hear/feel/observe the burr coming off more clearly as compared to feeling the stone particles.

Also, I'm not the expert here, but I find that softness/non-cryoed stainless is more correlated to difficult deburring than being stainless in general. My AUS-8 Mac deburrs really nicely, and was cryoed. My Sabatier is carbon, but soft, and is difficult to deburr well. Some alloyed steels, if not cryoed, have seemed quite difficult to deburr.

 

[Ultrafiche]

Thank you! I'll definitely do that.

Not to totally hijack the thread, but one thing I've been struggling with is knowing when it's time for the final deburring step. I've been following Jon Broida's videos and think I've gotten a feel for the basic motions of sharpening and understand the principle behind it. However, how do you know when the burr is weak/fragile and it can be removed?

 

[captaincaed]

It's a process of trial and experience. I find that there are some symptoms you can detect around the time you're deburring. These are beginner notes, you should add to the conversation.

I definitely had the same question after watching his vids and trying things for myself.
https://www.kitchenknifeforums.com/threads/steel-is-like-cheese-troubleshooting-deburring.45314/

 

[Ultrafiche]

It's a process of trial and experience. I find that there are some symptoms you can detect around the time you're deburring. These are beginner notes, you should add to the conversation.

I definitely had the same question after watching his vids and trying things for myself.
https://www.kitchenknifeforums.com/threads/steel-is-like-cheese-troubleshooting-deburring.45314/

Thank you! I'll take a look through and move the conversation to a more appropriate thread.

 

[ma_sha1]

However, how do you know when the burr is weak/fragile and it can be removed?

High hardness carbon steel knives, the burr coms off easy, no need to decide when. Just run the edge on stone at higher angle than sharpening, both sides, they’ll come off. I don’t dare to run it near vertical like Kippington does.

For vg10 or lower hardness, tougher stainless blades, the burr doesn’t come off easy. I do the above first alternating sides, if still some left over, I run the blade gently through the side of soft wood chopsticks, they’ll be gone.

 

[bahamaroot]

Noob question here, but how do you know when the burr is coming off of the stone? Do you feel for it, or is there some visual indicator that shows itself?

You'll notice small pieces of "debris" in the swarf on the stone.

 

[Ultrafiche]

You'll notice small pieces of "debris" in the swarf on the stone.

Cool! Bigger than just the grit/slurry that you see when sharpening, I assume?

 

[bahamaroot]

^^Yes^^

 

[Ultrafiche]

Got it. I'll look out for debris / hair! Thanks for all the help here, guys.

 

[ian]

Thank you! I'll definitely do that.

Not to totally hijack the thread, but one thing I've been struggling with is knowing when it's time for the final deburring step. I've been following Jon Broida's videos and think I've gotten a feel for the basic motions of sharpening and understand the principle behind it. However, how do you know when the burr is weak/fragile and it can be removed?

Good replies to this above. But after you sharpen with decreased pressure, you can then also just flip the burr back and forth a few times using edge trailing strokes, and remove it with a horizontal pull across the stone like in Jon’s deburring vid. I’ve been doing that lately and enjoying it. Kippington’s deburring technique also works well, where he aggressively pushes the burr to one side using a near vertical angle edge trailing stroke, and then strips it off with an edge leading stroke. Or you can just do edge leading strokes and be confident that the burr will eventually disappear.

Regardless of which method you choose, just try it a few times to figure out the timing. If the burr doesn’t all come off during your deburring, it probably wasn’t weak enough, so try again with more weakening. Etc... It’s all kind of dependent on technique, so it’s hard to say “do this many weakening strokes”. That said, I do less than 10, just to reassure you that the correct number is not 10000.

 

[Robert Lavacca]

I love felt myself. I usually use loaded leather for touching an edge up at work if I need it. When I sharpen, I’ll usually try to get the burr off on the stone as much as possible. Then i’ll switch over to a clean felt strop I built. Maybe pull it through the felt block if need be. Probably going to build another felt strop to keep one loaded also. I’m not a huge fan of leather. Idk why..