All these Mercators are getting me excited. Especially that stainless one :redbullsmiley:
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All these Mercators are getting me excited. Especially that stainless one :redbullsmiley:
I took two Mercators with me to the UK, but never had any issues. Like you it never occurred to me that it could be a problem, I'm just used to having one around as a utility knife. Will often have one in my backpack and use one around the house almost daily. Promptly lost one of em shortly after getting back from the UK- left at a BBQ with a bunch of hunting and diving mates and it was never seen again.
Yeah they don’t like it when the knives are in your carry on bag :(
Would have been a fine carbide, high hardness stainless. Knives like that will blunt a fine edge pretty quick against an abrading media like bones.
They are to hard so don't respond to a steel as the edge doesn't roll at that hardness, just abrades. You need either a loaded strop or ceramic/diamond hone for touch ups.
Often better keeping a fairly toothy edge as well. I like 800 and a strop for filleting and boning knives. Those fina carbide stainless steels like aebl, 14c28n etc are better suited to razors and kitchen knives when run at a high polish.
Get your hands on a real fan dangle modern steel (s90v, m390 etc) and you'll be amazed at how long they can hold an edge. comparative
Its not hard to do, although the equivalent stainless will abrade slower than comparable simple carbon.
Chromium in solution is what makes a knife stainless, it also binds to carbon to form chromium carbides (the bit that makes a knife hard) in simple carbon steels the iron bonds with the carbon to form iron carbides which are much smaller (typically) and less hard than chromium carbides.
The harder chromium carbides are what make the knife slower to sharpen. However with good quality stones, your standard simple stainless knives should still sharpen quite easily. Most people that struggle with sharpening simply aren't sharpening far enough to reach the apex of the bevel (the feather, burr or wire edge is how we know you have reached the apex) and as such never get back to having an actually sharp knife.
As long as you raise a burr, then remove that burr you will have a sharp knife using any sharpening system.
The failsafe best way to sharpen a Mercator is to bin it and buy a knife with an actual decent steel made in the last century or so :thumbsup:
Some of these comments are informative and some down right funny.I used to use Mercator for trout fishing but now use a folding Buck.
I've enjoyed this thread, but all this Mercator talk has gotten to me. Should have my first Mercator arriving in the post tomorrow.
Yeah, i'd better get another, my last daily that lasted for five years, went into the lake along with the fish guts.
Mercators are a boys knife with a handle too small for a mans hand and an untrustworthy lock that is in the wrong place and can be depressed when gripping the handle firmly. The blade steel will sharpen to a shaving edge with a stone and strop but is soft and wont keep that edge like good steel. Ok for a spare under the seat of the car IMO
This ‘boy’ likes his Mercator, bought it about 30 years ago and it’s my ‘go to’ knife for rabbit/hare shooting expeditions.
The blade is showing signs of use and sharpening but I have another one (still unused) I also bought many many years ago as a replacement.
Ah, to think my first one cost $3:50 from memory (or less - memory not always as good as it used to be!)
Last two I had broke ,one was the free replacement cut my losses and got a Spyderco far superior
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Ive had 2 Mercators, the locking springs broke in both so dont bother with them anymore.
I did cut up a cattle beast with one once so they do work, well until the springs broke.
My niece put a photo on her Fartbook page that looked like a propeller with some leis, or garlands on it. I asked her what it was. She said "Rudder thingy from the Rainbow Warrior, I asked her if it was okay to hate the French. (She's up on all the PC shit.) No reply. So I still don't know..... Is it okay to hate the ferkin' French?
I had a mercator knife very recently with the spring broken first time trip I used it. Perhaps a dud batch came into NZ.
A mate sourced a bunch of them over the net. The second one I've used seems OK.
As you can see I spent a bit of time painting it up and sharpening to razor before I used it.
Fortunately I had a spare one I use for eating, with me.
Attachment 178364
Talking of sharp mercators; how about some pictures of Christmas trees using a stainless Mercator?
I'm not sure if the stainless variant is up to the task, so I'd propose that if you post a picture here with such a blade you'll have the right to claim your sharpening method as the definitive answer to the OPs question ?
Attachment 178367
Sharpen to whatever angle you like man, a lower angle will cut longer but deform quicker against hard surfaces like bone. The lansky systems the angle is only approximate anyway as its deferent depending on size of the blade etc.
Trick to work out any edge angle:
Colour the cutting bevel in sharpie (just the sharpenened bit not the whole blade. Run a pass on your sharpened at the angle you think it is. If it takes off all the sharpie in one or 2 passes you are on the right angle.
If the sharpie is still on the edge and it has taken it of the back end of the bevel raise you sharpening angle. If it has taken it off the edge and is still on the back of the bevel lower your sharpening angle.
If all this is to hard just set your angle at 20 and don't worry about it. As long as you raise a burr the thing will be sharper by the end
Thank you @Nick-D I had it on 20 this morning, looked okay.
I got one of those Sheffield knock offs as a backup and to see how they are. It also has a stainless blade. With the lansky on 20 degrees, starting with extra course I worked it up to a raiser sharp edge. Honestly I’m pretty impressed
Further interesting results: my Mercator with a carbon blade came out less sharp than the cheap knock off sheffield with a stainless blade. Followed the same method. Interesting also that the carbon blade really needs to be finished off on a strop, more so than the stainless. Sorry if this is common sense to a lot of you.
I had blunt knives for years until the attached photo of sika show purchase a couple of years ago, now every knife in the house that needs to be sharp is sharp. 20 deg set, coarse and fine stones. Problem solved, one of my more useful purchases.
Attachment 186598
Sako 75’s come with the ideal barrel finish to get Mercators spot on :)
Attachment 186602
The knockoff stainless blade will be softer, so you will need to do more work on the Mercator to get the same result.
Being XC75(1075) the carbon blade will have a much higher ultimate sharpness potential than the cheap stainless will due to the large chromium carbides in the stainless. You will have to be a pretty good sharpener to get to a point you notice that.
Did you form a burr on the Mercator?
Tried a few Okapi but never owned one, - have always preferred the folders.
Attachment 186604
@Nick-D okay that explains it. In my nativity, I thought it was the other way around (the carbon steel would work up an edge faster as it’s softer or something)
This makes sense because I probably spent a bit more time on the stainless blade, mainly because there were still two angles visible on the edge. I’ll go back and spend more time on the Carbon blade. Thanks for the advise
Jeez, this thread goes on. Have used Mercators for 45 years roughly, only 1x stainless steel I think. the only thing wrong with them is they wear holes in your pocket and you lose the feckers. You sharpen them with what's handy. A flat stone,a fence wire or yes a s.s. barelled Sako 75,usefull for something I s'pose. Seriously, you sharpen them then hock and gut or leg 17+ goats or dress and break down a deer or two, then you sharpen it again. It's not feckin rocket science, some of you way over-think a non-existant problem. Get out there and use the knife and get a bit of experience on how to sharpen it in the field. Who carries a Lanskey sharpener in the field with them ffs. Sorry, just come back from an overnight hunt and had a few beers, had to get this of my chest.
That overreaction must be the beers? [emoji3]No one’s suggesting to carry a lansky in the field, but everyone I know sharpen their knives before they head out.. though it’s the sensible thing to do rather than trying to get an edge with fence wire or whatever.. enjoy your beers [emoji3]
Woods is on the money - they must be the easiest knife to sharpen in existence.
I don’t even bother carrying a steel in the field anymore. A couple of licks down the side of a bead blasted rifle barrel and shes all gold.
It usually is the case in equivelent stainless vs carbon as chromium carbides are larger and hard than iron carbides, but given the stainless is a knockoff its a good bet its got a shit heat treat and bugger all carbides in solution.
The thickness of the primary bevel has a big part to play in this as well. I can raise a burr on one of my very hard (62 RC) stainless kitchen knives in about 15 strokes on each side from dead blunt because they are super thin behid the edge.
Just focus on sharpening with your course stone until you can feel a burr. If you do this you will always end up with a sharp knife.
With respect, a fencing wire or bead blasted barrel will hone the knife, but do a shit job of sharpening them. Both a softer than the knife. A smooth stone will probably actually sharpen the knife though.
Imo sharpening should happen at home, honing in the field. FWIW I just use my sheath as a strop when in the field. Learning the how and why means you can properly maintain any knife, not just soft simple carbons like mercators.
Really appreciate the advise @Nick-D
Small blade like a Mercator can be stropped using the meaty side of the palm of your hand, being a chippy we do this to remove the burr on chisels.