So far, it looks good, feels good and feels at home in my pocket.
I have to admit that I’m a bit anal when it comes to keeping a sharp knife. In my office, you’ll find Crock Sticks of various types, at least 3 or 4 types of natural and man made stones, a couple of DMT stones, and more gizmos, (all guaranteed to keep your knife razor sharp) then I’d like to admit to. And, yes, in the garage is the ‘must have’ grinding/buffing setup.
In fact, I probably have one of the few wives in the world that never complains that her kitchen knives are dull. So you get the general idea that I can’t stand a dull knife.
Generally speaking, the Great Easterns come with a decent edge on them. But,…if you compare them to some of the Cold Steels, Bark Rivers and Fallknivens I’ve had, the Great Easterns come up a bit short and the #73 I’m testing was no exception. Don’t get me wrong, it had a good, functional edge, but in the quest for perfection….
No, I didn’t crank up the grinder or start with the diamond stones. All I did was pull out my trusty paint stirring stick with the leather belt glued to it and loaded it with some green stainless grade polishing compound.
With a moderate amount of effort, the 1095 steel took a razor like edge and was cutting the way I like a knife to cut!! I say ‘moderate’ amount of effort as I had a bit of difficulty getting the last inch of blade (toward the point) to hone as fine as the rest of the blade. It was tempting to touch it up with a stone, but I really felt just a few more strokes on the strop would do the trick. Well, it took quite a few more strokes before I finally got it where I wanted it.
By no means am I an expert on blades, sharpening, knife making etc, but it almost seemed like as they ground the upsweep of the blade, either the grind angle may have varied slightly or there just wasn’t as much steel taken off that last inch of blade. At any rate, it finally came around with a little elbow grease and polishing compound.
In fact, I highly recommend if you don’t have some sort of a strop either buy one or make one. It is absolutely amazing how fast you can bring an edge back with minimal effort as long as you don’t let the edge deteriorate too far. It’s pretty rare that my knives see as a stone anymore.
So, the edge is honed, it’ll shave the hair off your arm….but will the edge hold up?
TSA Knives, LLC