Forces Required For Steeling A Blade?

[abrogard]

A question, this. Something I would like to know. Practical physics I think. 'Applied physics' I believe.

I wondered at the purpose and efficacy of 'steeling' knives and learned that the process is intended to repair damage to an edge rather than 'sharpen' in the sense of 'create a sharp edge' from scratch.

Apparently use makes an edge develop microscopic irregularities and the steeling repairs these. It is said to 'align' these irregularities and 'straighten' 'wavy' microscopic deformations.

Unable to find any studies that measured the change in, for instance, force required prior to steeling as against force afterwards I wondered about looking at it from the other end: what force is required to 'align' or 'straighten' these microscopic irregularities?

The fact bears on the steeling process, how one would do it. Presented to us in that way it would appear to be a very subtle and lightweight procedure indeed - nudging microscopic parts of the knife into alignment.

Could anyone with good physics knowledge perhaps crib some appropriate metallurgic figures for an appropriate metal and come up with some figures that might reasonably apply?

I am thinking we'd find the steel should be used with almost a featherlight 'kiss' rather than any stout 'abrasive' running up and down.

 

[Baluncore]

Apparently use makes an edge develop microscopic irregularities and the steeling repairs these. It is said to 'align' these irregularities and 'straighten' 'wavy' microscopic deformations.

I believe a gentle force is applied rapidly by the steel, many times, to alternating sides of the edge. Any curl or burr developed on the edge, would be folded back and forth, until it fractured and fell away from the edge.

Tony Atkins - 2009 - The Science and Engineering of Cutting. Page 229.
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The edge produced by grinding may provide a sufficiently sharp edge for some operations and tools are sold in that condition, but all types of tool can be further sharpened (whetted) before sale with an oil stone or diamond stone, or leather strop, and perhaps by lapping and honing where the surface is additionally polished. (Strop comes from strap but may also be connected with the Ancient Greek strophe and antistrophe, that is a back-and-forth movement in chorus and dances; lap is old English to fold or wrap; and hone means stone). Both lapping and honing employ fine abrasive powders such as rouge; honing is usually applied to cylindrical surfaces and lapping to flat surfaces, but the usage is not consistent since the fixture to sharpen blades of wood planes is called a honing jig. The purpose of extra sharpening is to ‘chase the burr down to as small a size as possible’ (Hamby, 2007, personal communication). The surface finish of a knife blade (whether left in rough-ground condition or polished) makes a difference to its performance and classification. Note that the use of an oil stone, butcher’s ‘steel’ and so on during the life of a blade is for maintenance of an edge, to break off, abrade off or rub off burrs produced during cutting or through contact with hard surfaces. It is a misconception that regular steeling or stropping can resharpen an edge.
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