Wire Edge Prevention

[KnifeGrinders]

Once again, excellent research Mr. KG.  Thanks for sharing!

I’m sure that my burr removal experience and research is not as extensive as Mr. KG’s, but I have never been able to definitively verify complete burr removal with only BESS data as evidence.  I know, but am too lazy to find it, that Mr. KG has mentioned before that the wire edge, or line of crud, or burr base or whatever you wish to call it can actually be sharpened or burnished into a sharp edge.  It’s junk metal and will crush and dull quickly but can nonetheless be formed into an edge.

I have sharpened numerous blades to the 50 to 80 sharpness range where still existing burr clearly presents under microscopic observation.  That difficult to remove crud metal was obvious along the edge, but had been ground or burnished into a sharp apex.

FWIW, microscopic observation is the only way I’ve found to really determine if burr exists or not, and that observation requires very careful attention to lighting.  If the angle of the light is not absolutely perfect, a burr covered edge can appear completely clean.

In my experience, it is true for hard quality steels that their wire edge may score 50-80 BESS, but for budget knives such a good score is an indicator of the strong edge and burr-free apex.
The sharpness test itself is a challenge for these lower-end steels, as any remnants of the burr will crush against the test line. Yes, it is possible to hone their base burr sharp enough to cut hair, but it will mushroom against the test line and score over 100 BESS. Only when their apex is burr free, it will score near 50 BESS.