Never had this happen before, help

[Jazz]

Assuming one is sharpening freehand, why would it take longer if you alternate your strokes?

Maybe not much, but it would, and would be annoying. I do it when finishing, but not until then.

[Bloke]

For myself, the best way to manage burrs is to be mindful of them in the first place and to ensure I cut them off cleanly and regularly as I go. The last thing you want to do is get into a battle with a burr you push from side to side till it breaks off. :eek:

I use SiC stones most and keep them flat and sharp by lapping on loose grit SiC and water on glass. It only takes a few seconds to refresh a well maintained stone and I believe it make a considerable difference to the stones performance and I seem to get bests results when finishing with a wet, fresh lapped stone and absolute minimal pressure. :)

[anagarika]

Thanks David. I'll have to try this later with my Para3/M4 that I've been using a bit today.

Sharpening is freakin art. There's no one way to do it, varies with the different steels and sharpening tools. I enjoy the challenge and learning curve, including all the tips and pointers I've received here. Was working on my Centofante 3 the other day with the scrubbing passes method, gave the Sharpmaker a break because I want to be proficient in freehand as well. Oddly, I had a heck of a time getting the thing sharp in the easy going VG10 steel. Yet a couple day prior I had no problem with doing the same thing, same method with M390.

Centofante VG10 burr is tenacious, a totally different animal compared to M390. I’d suggest using diamond with light pressure to minimize burr formation. Strop on jeans with white compounds. This was advice I got over BF and helped me out of my problem doing VG10.

[zhyla]

I’m not saying you should flip every stroke, that would take forever. Just that you may need to flip periodically to prevent/clean up burrs.

[RazorSharp86]

That’s exactly why I’m a huge advocate for burr-minimization. When you’re novice, it’s easy to create a huge wire over your edge and get frustrated with your sharpening progress, thus continuing to raise more burr and this make it more difficult to get a clean edge at the apex.

Now, there’s much said in this thread already, with a lot of good information , as well as mis-information . So I won’t go into too much detail, as I have my own preferences and others have theirs. Just try to go easy and inspect the apex and bevel more frequesntly, and it should help teach you how to do well with it in the future.

I remember learning how to hone razors and knives way before it became a popular thing with many resources available, and I had a real journey to learn. My preferences have chabged many times, and I had to go through many variations of sharpening methods until I finally settled on what works for me.
So give it a try, and try to enjoy while you’re at it. ..!