Shaving sharp off a reprofiling stone

[Pelagic]

I didn't think people who had to pay someone to sharpen their knives would be extremely particular about edge finish. But you never know what they've read.

There are not many instances where a polished edge works best for me. When woodcarving I really enjoy a 0.1 micron (~200,000 grit) mirrored finish. Of course this finish excels at essentially all pushcutting tasks, I find my pushcutting ability to be more than adequate off a 600—1200 grit stone (plus minimal stropping when desired). Even my typical 325 grit finish does well. I could spend half the day thinking about what is optimal, or I could get the knife to whittle hair in under 10 minutes and start using it.

[StuntZombie]

Watching the video got me curious, so I decided to try something similar with a Dragonfly in VG-10. It...didn't work out so well. I used the extra coarse stone from a Worksharp guided bench stone set, and the edge got pretty torn up. I backed up to a well used DMT coarse, and that worked a little better, but I was still noticing microchipping at the edge. Finally, I just stropped it on a piece of 400 grit wet/dry sandpaper, and I was able to clean up the chips in the edge. I always have a little trouble removing the burr stropping on sandpaper, so I cleaned it up on the Spyderco medium triangles.


The edge was highly polished before this but, I think I prefer it like this. Now it has more of a refined toothiness. I would have liked to go coarser, but I just couldn't keep it from chipping. I wonder if the steel composition makes a difference in this case. Or it may have been that the diamond plate I was using doesn't seem to be of the highest quality.

That chipping doesn't sound normal.

You're right. After I gave it a closer look, it appears I was just seeing parts of a large burr. Oops!

[Wartstein]

In the community sharpening journal I discussed how I've been experimenting with my DMT X Course for sharpening my Manix XL. Today I made a 5 minute video:

Vivi (and others), I´d have a question concerning your vid and that "feeling a possible burr with your thumb" - thing: How "hard" ist this? Would anyone feel a burr that way clearly and easily, or do you have to be rather experienced to be able to do so?

Maybe it would be a good idea to check for a burr with a lupe, and if there actually IS one "learn" how it feels beneath your thumb... ?!

[vivi]

In the community sharpening journal I discussed how I've been experimenting with my DMT X Course for sharpening my Manix XL. Today I made a 5 minute video:

Vivi (and others), I´d have a question concerning your vid and that "feeling a possible burr with your thumb" - thing: How "hard" ist this? Would anyone feel a burr that way clearly and easily, or do you have to be rather experienced to be able to do so?

Maybe it would be a good idea to check for a burr with a lupe, and if there actually IS one "learn" how it feels beneath your thumb... ?!

Using a loupe is a great idea. I have one somewhere. The thumb test is easy though. Run your thumb from above the edge down across the apex, and if it feels like anything is hanging up you've got a burr. Or if you have a strop, strop once per side on a heavily loaded strop, and then check the bevel to see if any stropping compound got scraped off by a burr.

[Wartstein]

In the community sharpening journal I discussed how I've been experimenting with my DMT X Course for sharpening my Manix XL. Today I made a 5 minute video:

Vivi (and others), I´d have a question concerning your vid and that "feeling a possible burr with your thumb" - thing: How "hard" ist this? Would anyone feel a burr that way clearly and easily, or do you have to be rather experienced to be able to do so?

Maybe it would be a good idea to check for a burr with a lupe, and if there actually IS one "learn" how it feels beneath your thumb... ?!

Using a loupe is a great idea. I have one somewhere. The thumb test is easy though. Run your thumb from above the edge down across the apex, and if it feels like anything is hanging up you've got a burr. Or if you have a strop, strop once per side on a heavily loaded strop, and then check the bevel to see if any stropping compound got scraped off by a burr.

Thanks, Vivi, good advice!
Actually I have a strop, but only use it unloaded occasionally. Somewhere some compound must be hidden though at my place, I´ll find it and try then..

[Manalishi]

I’m not a pro by any means...I use a sharpmaker To keep my knives sharp..In my opinion after years of back in forth I have stopped moving past the brown “medium” stones..Each time I go all the way to ultrafine I feel I have lost something when I’m done..The edge will pop hairs,but for me and what I do “cable construction”Lots of cutting mule tape,rope,pull string..etc stopping at the brown stones work best for me..YMMV