Community Sharpening Journal

[Traditional.Sharpening]

Jason ^^^^^^ is the best I've ever seen at sharpening a knife. And, I'm talkin Free Hand!
He's sharpened several for me & they've all cut and sliced better than anything I could ever turn out.
The man has an amazing talent.
Send him a knife or 3 and see.....

I think you have me mistaken, I'm not Jason. I believe we've spoke before at Blade forums though, if you are the same member I'm thinking of then I actually just sent you a message on an unrelated subject at Bladeforums.

Btw, this is my profile there...

https://www.bladeforums.com/members/fat ... /#feedback

Probably need to ask Sal change my forum name here to avoid confusion with that in the future as it's certainly not my intention to mislead anyone into thinking that.

[MacLaren]

Jason ^^^^^^ is the best I've ever seen at sharpening a knife. And, I'm talkin Free Hand!
He's sharpened several for me & they've all cut and sliced better than anything I could ever turn out.
The man has an amazing talent.
Send him a knife or 3 and see.....

I think you have me mistaken, I'm not Jason. I believe we've spoke before at Blade forums though, if you are the same member I'm thinking of then I actually just sent you a message on an unrelated subject at Bladeforums.

Btw, this is my profile there...

https://www.bladeforums.com/members/fat ... /#feedback

Probably need to ask Sal change my forum name here to avoid confusion with that in the future as it's certainly not my intention to mislead anyone into thinking that.

Oh man! My bad. Yeah, I've known Jason Bosman for years now. His business is called Traditional Sharpening.
Your Father & Son Traditional Sharpening
Yeah man, I've been meaning to send you some big Busse's! Everyone says your freakin awesome with those!

[weeping minora]

Thanks for keeping Cliff alive, T.S.

I think if your overall aim is to microbevel to establish an apex, it is rather easy/simple to avoid burr formation, however, it is much more difficult to completely nullify the formation of a burr when sharpening the secondary bevel to form an apex. I believe a newer sharpener in learning to freehand should learn to sharpen and form a burr, to understand the bane to the cleanliness of a truly formed apex, and to gain the understanding on how to properly minimize and eliminate that burr. Overall, this will help in burr detection, rather than the potential for missteps of not knowing what a burr can feel like, by never learning to form a burr in the first place.

I believe many pocket knife users are too abrasive in their usage of their knives to benefit from such an acute edge geometry that Plateau Sharpening draws maximal benefit from, though it is undoubtedly a highly valuable asset to learn and to add into your sharpening toolbox. JMHO.

[vivi]

found an angle guide at CKW for $11. gonna order one.

https://www.chicagoknifeworks.com/wisem ... vel-gauge/

[RugerNurse]

Any tips for finding the angle? I usually place the heel of the blade on the stone and tilt up until the shadow disappears and then use that angle to sharpen

[Scandi Grind]

Another trick is to put sharpie on the edge, do a few passes, see if you are evenly removing ink, and adjust if necessary. If you want something to keep checking your angle by as you go, there are cheap plastic angle guides you can buy to use as reference. These will also give you a number for what angle your using and let you go back and use the same angle repeatedly just by putting it on the guide real quick. That way once you find the angle you can keep using it without having to re-find it every time you go to sharpen.

[RugerNurse]

Should look into a plastic guide. Mostly I keep basing off the heel of the blade and the shadow but I wonder if it gets slightly off each time. I make a mark on my finger so I have another reference point also but I’m curious about the guide

[TkoK83Spy]

Working towards my only 2nd ever mirror polish finish. Being a warehouse guy all those years, I fell in love with the coarse edges. Figured this knife isn't likely to see that kind of use anymore. So far so good, I'll just keep at it as time goes by over the week. About to set back up and knock off that burr and get to the other side.


picture uploading website

[Giygas]

Is there anyone here smarter than I am who can explain how this could possibly work:

https://youtu.be/dTyeLn7kt08

I get how it could work on a knife with axe-like geometry (like the ER he demonstrates it on), but Im not seeing how it could work on a knife meant to function like a knife.

Bonus video of Eric showing the SpyMyto, for the 6 people other than me who are excited for it: https://youtu.be/z3P1vSi4O6I?t=4m10s

[vivi]

been a long time since I did a convex edge by hand. It was fun. this thing carves wood so well now, well a head of my mora 511's

https://dubz.link/c/adf778

120 grit, a few passes on 500 grit to clean up the apex, then a microbevel on a fine spyderco ceramic bench stone.

[benja-man]

been a long time since I did a convex edge by hand. It was fun. this thing carves wood so well now, well a head of my mora 511's

120 grit, a few passes on 500 grit to clean up the apex, then a microbevel on a fine spyderco ceramic bench stone.

Did you use sandpaper or stones?

[Traditional.Sharpening]

Is there anyone here smarter than I am who can explain how this could possibly work:



I get how it could work on a knife with axe-like geometry (like the ER he demonstrates it on), but Im not seeing how it could work on a knife meant to function like a knife.

It does look nice but I have zero explanation for how it works the way it does. The fact that he rotated the blade in the clamp and it appeared to not affect the angle at all was strange indeed. That has not been my experience using the Tormek, it's critical to get the blade clamped in just right to follow existing edge geometry. His aluminum clamp is also strange, I don't see how aluminum could flex enough to clamp on to a very thin blade as you mention without breaking.

[Eliteone2383]

I use a kme on all my knives including spyderco. I always draw sharpie on the factory edge and keep the factory angle. The tapered diamond rod for the kme works beautifully on spydercos serrations also. I learned to sharpen free hand but with the kme I just find it to be faster and not as tedious. If anyone wonders why I went with the kme it's because of all the accessories for it. Broadhead jaws, pen knife jaws, convex rod, lapping films, diamond stones, hard stones, shear and scissor attachments, stone thickness compensator. There's not a blade out there I can't sharpen on it. As a archer/bow hunter putting mirror edges on broadheads is a major cool factor.

[vivi]

been a long time since I did a convex edge by hand. It was fun. this thing carves wood so well now, well a head of my mora 511's

120 grit, a few passes on 500 grit to clean up the apex, then a microbevel on a fine spyderco ceramic bench stone.

Did you use sandpaper or stones?

150 grit sandpaper clamped to a strip cut from a foam sleeping pad. then a few passes on 500 grit to polish up some.

I think the next SRKC I mod I'm going for a FFG off my sander.

[Josh Crutchley]

Is there anyone here smarter than I am who can explain how this could possibly work:



I get how it could work on a knife with axe-like geometry (like the ER he demonstrates it on), but Im not seeing how it could work on a knife meant to function like a knife.

It does look nice but I have zero explanation for how it works the way it does. The fact that he rotated the blade in the clamp and it appeared to not affect the angle at all was strange indeed. That has not been my experience using the Tormek, it's critical to get the blade clamped in just right to follow existing edge geometry. His aluminum clamp is also strange, I don't see how aluminum could flex enough to clamp on to a very thin blade as you mention without breaking.

The vertical rod wasn't fixed it place so the angle could change. Might be good for knives with wide bevels.

[ejames13]

Is there anyone here smarter than I am who can explain how this could possibly work:



I get how it could work on a knife with axe-like geometry (like the ER he demonstrates it on), but Im not seeing how it could work on a knife meant to function like a knife.

It does look nice but I have zero explanation for how it works the way it does. The fact that he rotated the blade in the clamp and it appeared to not affect the angle at all was strange indeed. That has not been my experience using the Tormek, it's critical to get the blade clamped in just right to follow existing edge geometry. His aluminum clamp is also strange, I don't see how aluminum could flex enough to clamp on to a very thin blade as you mention without breaking.

The vertical rod wasn't fixed it place so the angle could change. Might be good for knives with wide bevels.

In the video he claims the angle is fixed. If it's not, the angle markings wouldn't make much sense.

[Josh Crutchley]

In the video he claims the angle is fixed. If it's not, the angle markings wouldn't make much sense.

Well if you watch the demonstration the vertical shaft clearly moves in use. If the rod was fixed the edge angle would change when moving the knife in the clamp.

After watching it a few times it's starting to make sense.

Most sharpeners use the vertical postion to set edge angle. So if the horizontal distance changes it also changes the edge angle. (Example 1)

This one uses that weird shape to lock in the angle and the free moving rod to make up for changes in clamping. It's like a self adjusting fixed angle sharpener. (Example 2)

[ejames13]

In the video he claims the angle is fixed. If it's not, the angle markings wouldn't make much sense.

Well if you watch the demonstration the vertical shaft clearly moves in use. If the rod was fixed the edge angle would change when moving the knife in the clamp.

After watching it a few times it's starting to make sense.

Most sharpeners use the vertical postion to set edge angle. So if the horizontal distance changes it also changes the edge angle. (Example 1)

This one uses that weird shape to lock in the angle and the free moving rod to make up for changes in clamping. It's like a self adjusting fixed angle sharpener. (Example 2)

Thanks for the diagram. That makes sense.

[Mat_ski]

I have been trying to learn to free-hand sharpen on diamond stones. For that I decided to start on the cheap Ultrasharp stones. I gradually progressed from cheap knives laying around the house to various models from my usual rotation. I was finally "brave enough" to free-hand my Sage 5 Maxamet.
There were few tries with crap results, but after playing around with my technique and angle I finally got it to hair-popping sharp. Decided to take some micrographs at work and share one of them here along with regular pic.
What do you guys think?

[weeping minora]

I have been trying to learn to free-hand sharpen on diamond stones. For that I decided to start on the cheap Ultrasharp stones. I gradually progressed from cheap knives laying around the house to various models from my usual rotation. I was finally "brave enough" to free-hand my Sage 5 Maxamet.
There were few tries with crap results, but after playing around with my technique and angle I finally got it to hair-popping sharp. Decided to take some micrographs at work and share one of them here along with regular pic.
What do you guys think?

Looks to be a bit excessive in convexity, along with an additional bevel being formed, where somewhere in your sharpening progression you made your bevel a bit too obtuse, deviating from the originally intended angle, which didn't quite get convexed all the way. This can happen if you aren't diligent in checking your movements/progress, or you become impatient, which can become a bigger detriment when you're dealing with this class of super steel.

My honest recommendation would be to sharpen the secondary bevels to a more consistent angle (more "lock" in your wrist when holding the knife during sharpening). At your current rate, it will become excessively hard to sharpen to the apex upon further sharpenings, as you will be motivated to sharpen the entire bevel, eventually finding yourself perpetually chasing that convexity. This can lead to over-sharpening and the inability to establish a clean apex without doing-so (continued sharpening); giving you the illusion (and effect) that you cannot get the knife sharp and will ultimately discourage further progress with the steel. Perhaps this is what happened when you had a few "crap results" from previous sharpenings?

I would recommend a coarse electro-plated diamond stone to correct this, as they are aggressive cutters and can sort-out any bevel issues with a bit of patience. Just be diligent on how much of the bevel that you're removing, and exactly where the bevel is being corrected in doing so. The Sharpie trick can help sort you out with a better visual if you need it.

Of course, this is just my opinion. If you're happy with the performance, along with the adeptness and comfort in sharpening with that level of covexity; by all means, do your thing. Otherwise, the apex looks clean. Good job.