Just wondering what the best way to sharpen my Mercator Stainless is? Preferably an easy/cheap option as I am no knife guru. Just want a blade sharp enough to get the job done in the hills.
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Just wondering what the best way to sharpen my Mercator Stainless is? Preferably an easy/cheap option as I am no knife guru. Just want a blade sharp enough to get the job done in the hills.
Best way I have found (but not the only way) is to replace it with a carbon steel blade!
I have an Opinel #8, only downside is it can be a bastard to open if not used for a while. I cut some of the handle away to allow more grip on the blade when opening. Also a carrrying it daily and using it often helps keep it opening easily.
I have a couple stainless kitchen knives and dislike em, not to say that they are rubbish or un sharpenable though.
I am bias towards carbon steel.
It also sounds way cooler.
Didn't think they made a stainless, never asked and if you don't loose them they last quite a long time. Those opinel carbon steel blades take an edge like a razor
I have a bunnings mercator in ss, $12 if I remember correctly. Never really used it though.
If it's like any other hardened stainless blade, don't use a steel after sharpening on a carbide. You'll rip chunks out of it... Found that out the hard way with a 440hc blade
Opinel carbon steel is awesome in terms of being easy to sharpen and edge retention, but it'll rust before your eyes if you get it wet. Agree about stainless blades. I've found them hard to sharpen.
Back to the OP, everyone has their preferred method of sharpening. It gets like a religious argument at times. There's quite a few threads on the subject. Having tried most methods, I like the Warthog sharpeners. Good results, easy to use and reasonable price.
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.
Best way is to send it to @Shelley with a prepaid return envelope and $10
In the days when I trapped possums for a living in the mid seventies, early eighties a faithful Mercator with it's Solingen steel blade was the only knife in the game, to sharpen them we used a round "Carborundum" axe stone, just the fine side. The edge was ground at a very flat angle to an edge like a razor that held up well, the knives were retired when the blade became to short to be of use. Those knives were $7 or $8 each IIRC, I can't see any stainless steel version replicating those legendary knives, let alone for $12 in 2021.
So I've now got my hands on legit Mercator carbon steel blade but she's all rusted up. Should be able to tidy it up and get a good edge on that using a few of the tips given above.
you will still get ok edge on the stainless one...just have a go on your stone....as long as you keep consistant angle you cant go far wrong.
Only thing with rust is that it leaves 'craters' which will forever be a part of the finished edge.
Unless you can polish ALL the rust pitting out then it will never be as sharp as it could have been. In saying that, it should come up pretty mean unless the pitting is really deep. Kinda like a micro serrated blade....
I was curious as to how well the stainless Bunnings "Mercators" i.e. the Sheffield clones hold up. The manufactured edge was awful, so I followed the Kyle Noseworthys YouTube video below to create a new edge, using sandpaper, which produced a superior edge that holds well, but I'm still not sure and keep flip-flopping with it, even after trialling it as my day-to-day knife. I need to do a side-by-side processing assessment against my carbon steel Mercator.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TFGs_JAwJ2w&list=LL
P.s Kyle has some great knife sharpening tutorials on his channel.
I got wise in the end, but I must have lost a few mercators, they will be sitting next to a pile of rabbit guts. Flicked into the ground prior to squeezing the guts out and stowing on the motorbike..... turn back around, and were the fuck did that go?
I hit on the idea of polishing off the black paint with sand paper, much easier to see the shiny bit sticking out of the ground! Never lost that last one for 20 years!
Loaned it to a guy to cut some wrapping plastic off at work one day, several hrs later...... bro where's my knife, 5 pocket haka and no knife.
I dont loan knives any more, not even if you stay in my sight... get ya own bloody knife.
bit of colorful string through the wee loop helps no end too...if you watch the Graf Brothers video....the young fell has his on a LONG string....
90% of times you need to sharpen it it just needs its edge straightened, does not need a stone that removes metal.
Just use a smooth steel nail as a sharpening steel. It does not need to take anything off the blade, all it does is straighten the microscopic bends of the edge / ridge.
Stainless blades have the general advantage that they get work-hardened by the strokes, which helps retain the edge. Not sure if carbon steel work-hardens much, someone please chip in.
Yeah it was fairly dull so put it on the kitchen sharpener then on my hunting steel. Ripped out quite a few chunks. I took it into work and had one of the machinists have a look. He showed me under a microscope what a carbide sharpener does to hardened steel. It had microscopic cracks all the way from the heel to the point. So now use the steel and diamond file every now and then if it needs it.
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!
@40mm to solve your issue with the Opinel being difficult to open, remove the blade from the handle, and using some sand paper or a fine tooth hand saw, relieve (open up) the cut in the handle where the blade hinge is. You only need to remove a very small amount. Reassemble, and the knife will be a dream to use from there on in.
They become difficult to open because the factory uses kiln dried timber for the handle. Once they get into our humid environment and get washed a couple of times, the wood swells making the blade hinge too tight.
Thanks @hotbarrels
For a quick and dirty hone, believe it or not the top of your vehicle side window glass works pretty well.
Manganese is typically the element responsible for work hardening tendencies in carbon steels, the percentage of manganese in steel is sometimes increased in the manufacturing process for such things as cutting teeth or blades on earthmoving equipment, with a knife its not really desirable to have the blade work harden as it will become increasingly difficult to sharpen and increase in brittleness with a tendency for breakage as usage occurs, so the manganese content is moderated to produce the desirable hardness qualities (Rockwell Hardness) obtained by hardening and tempering but limit the tendency for work hardening. @Von Gruff Knives on here could probably write you a thesis on this subject, I'm 40 years out of engineering but this is how I recall it.
Bought my Son the new slightly bigger ss version of a Mercator a couple of years ago.
I just sharpen it the same as anything else.....stone it till a featherededge...then steel it..
Steel it 4 or 5 times of touch up then stone again.
Always struggled to keep my Mercator sharp, own several used to put a very fine edge on it with an oil stone.
Have been using a lansky knife sharping system and for the Mercator the middle stoning angle works awesome and it holds its edge way better. All knifes when finished get dragged threw the end grain of a piece of 4by2 then a light steeling then check for any more feathering by slopping it on the palm of my hand. Which is a trick learned from sharping Chisels.
If the knife won't shave the hairs off your arms I start again.Attachment 177986
The best way to remove the wire edge is with a hard backed leather strop and green stropping compound. This is a video I did a while back on sharpening new knives I had finished for a bulk order. The initial secondary bevel is done of the belt grinder so where I am starting from s where most will be doing so with a knife that has lost its edge.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1NNQ...annel=VonGruff
They are usually humourless there about knives. You could have got yourself a criminal record. Deeply hope NZ does not go after UK's severe oppressive knife laws as yet another over-reaction after the New Lynn jihadi attack. Collins and Ardern seem to spark each other off to greater heights of hysteria in these situations.
I do the same as you but without the 4x2.
Lansky stone kit followed by two light strokes on each side with a very fine butcher steel.
I sharpen until the entire blade area will grip firmly on a finger nail without sliding.
Once I get the blade to this point I can cut up and bone out three deer before putting it back on the Lansky kit.
In saying that I’m very careful to avoid touching bone and taking the edge off when processing deer.
I also coat the blade with a very thin film of olive oil which does a very good job of protecting the blade.
Attachment 177989
I have the same kit @Tui4Me (great choice in beer bud) twigged recently to get a bolt of correct size,two nuts for it and clamp the bolt head in vice,put one nut down on thread,slip lanski over it and clamp it in place with 2nd nut....means it stays still and can put a little pressure onto stones...... saves buying the stand LOL
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 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.
[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. Attachment 178066
Cool part at least the scabbard fits a Victorinox straight boning knife perfectly, and that a awesomely useful knife.
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! :D
Attachment 178063
Attachment 178064
Attachment 178065
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.
Attachment 178070Attachment 178071Attachment 178072