How do you deburr your blades? Plus polishing.

[Frapiscide]

I've recently been trying to get a razor or sharper edge on my sharpmaker. Every time I get an annoying burr on the edge and the best I can do is to roll the burr onto the other side. How do you guys deburr your edges?

Also, what do you use to polish your edges? I was thinking of polishing the edge on my P2 to turn it into a super slicer.

[Ankerson]

All you have to do on the sharpmaker to deburr the edge is increase the angle about 2 degrees on each side with about 2 or 3 very light passes and the burr will be gone.

[jeep45238]

Don't even bother with that.

Take one of the brass rods, put it at the base of the blade, and allow only the weight of the blade (or lighter) and pull the full length of the edge.

No more burr.

[FLYBYU44]

Or...strop it on a leather strop, that's what I do.

[The Mentaculous]

Or...strop it on a leather strop, that's what I do.

With stropping compound?

BTW I find that if I do super light passes on the regular fine stones at the regular angle, it usually eliminates the burr. I need to get a good bench strop and some chromium oxide though to get a really nice finish

[2cha]

I pull edge lightly through an old softish plastic cutting board.

[VashHash]

I don't use the sharpmaker but I usually use the back of a legal pad to deburr then a piece of leather to strop it further split hide side first then smooth side. No compound

[Donut]

You can drag the edge at a fairly large angle across cardboard or leather (strop). I've done this once or twice when I didn't have anything else around.

I think if you are using the sharpmaker correctly, you won't be left with a burr.

[PocketZen]

I pull edge lightly through an old softish plastic cutting board.

I simply use the wood base of my water stone. I also have used a wine cork, end of a cutting board and a felt block.

[jackknifeh]

You can drag the edge at a fairly large angle across cardboard or leather (strop). I've done this once or twice when I didn't have anything else around.

I think if you are using the sharpmaker correctly, you won't be left with a burr.

I agree with donut about using the sharpmaker correctly. I've never used one but I believe it is a good sharpener based on testimonies and the results people are getting with them. With a little practice I'm sure you'll get to the point where there isn't a burr. Even then however I'd recommend stropping the edge. When I sharpen a knife I strop everything unless I want a really toothy edge. Then I don't strop. Knivesplus.com has a good strop for about $15. I've been using one for about 5 years. I think it's 8" long and 2.5" wide and mounted on a piece of wood. You don't need any compound for it. Just add a couple of drops of olive oil every few months to keep it from drying out. This is the only strop I've ever used so I'm not an expert. I have priced other strops and seeing what they can cost I quickly decide to stay with what I have because it does work well. After I'm done with my sharpener and have a really great edge on a knife I'll put a few strokes on the strop and no matter how sharp the knife was it is always just a little bit better. My favorite way to quickly test an edge is by slicing printer paper. Even a little burr will cause the knife to tear the paper instead of slicing through it. There are lots of techniques. This is what I've come to like.

Jack

[ChrisR]

+1 for stropping ... stropping is basically done to de-burr an edge and polish it to a fine sharpness :)

[toomzz]

Polishing: finegrit sandingpaper followed by a leather strop using polishing paste (used in the kitchen to shine pots and pans :cool: ) The sandpaper is radical is not neccessary for 'normal maintenance'.
You can polish on the strop and finish the bevel on it. Especially zero scandi and convex-grinds gets freaking sharp on a leather strop! Something I use a cotton polishingwheel.
In addition I also use Flitzz polishing paste, by hand with toiletpaper :rolleyes:
A little bit goes a long way. Simply spread a little on the blade and start wiping. The surface becomes blueish (the stuff is blue), develops a glare and when you keep on wiping the glare becomes a shining mirror. After that rinse the blade with hot water and little detergent...et presto!

<:{{{{{>

[The Deacon]

Sharpening at a low angle using light pressure minimized burr. A few strokes, alternating sides, at a slightly higher angle generally removes any that do form. Stropping on shiny cardstock gets rid of any that remain.

[wongKI]

Reduce pressure, minimise burr formation at every grit, and strop/2k paper off anything that remains. This usually entails using no pressure (almost) and checking burr after every stroke.

[bh49]

All you have to do on the sharpmaker to deburr the edge is increase the angle about 2 degrees on each side with about 2 or 3 very light passes and the burr will be gone.

+1. this is idea.

Don't even bother with that.

Take one of the brass rods, put it at the base of the blade, and allow only the weight of the blade (or lighter) and pull the full length of the edge.

No more burr.

And this is a technique.
I use the same, but instead of brass rod I am using fine stone, which I put under sharpmaker base and tilt base to one side. Do couple of very light strokes on the flats of medium. Than tilt base to the opposite side. Do couple strokes on opposite rod. After that remove rod from under base and do 10-15 alternating strokes.

[setldown]

If I recall correctly, doesn't Sal run the edge softly on the plastic base of the Sharpmaker in the video to eliminate the burr.

[vampyrewolf]

I've posted a few times on my sharpening method, I don't feel like searching right now. I sharpen freehand, and have picked up tricks and slightly modified my methods over the years. Given about 5-10min I can teach just about anyone to sharpen.

Here's the cole's notes version:
progress through your stones from roughest to finest, at a given angle, sharpening until you cannot refine the scratch pattern on that grit. You want to use less pressure as you get to the finer grits, so that your last grit has little more than the weight of the blade holding it down. Of course less pressure means more strokes.
If you didn't decrease your pressure as you went through the stones, you'll have a large burr here. If you controlled your angle and pressure, you should end up with a polished edge with a minor burr. Strop it for 10-12 strokes. ANY smooth surface will do here... jeans, boots, belt, strop, edge of shelf... you don't want to scratch the bevel.
Now, return to the finest grit at the same angle, and LIGHTLY polish as far as you can. Take that edge to a stone in the middle of your set (IE 80-2k grit, use 800) and increase the angle ~5 degrees, make 3-4 LIGHT strokes to scratch up the cutting edge only.


You'll end up with a polished bevel, no burr, and a cutting edge that will shave and pushcut just as well as it slices. My strop is loaded with veritas green (0.5 micron, ~8k grit IIRC) on the smooth side.

[The General]

I tend to do a couple of passes at a slightly increased angle to remove a burr. Then strop on cardboard loaded with Flitz polish.

I find at the point where you cannot feel the burr with your fingers, I arm hair shave to test where the micro burr is. If I shave better on the downstroke, it tells me I need to polish the upper visible edge. If it shaves better on the up stroke, then I need to polish the upper visible edge on that side.

Hard to describe on screen, but easy to show in person. What I am looking for is the edge that has the burr folded over. This tends to shave better. Its an edge weakness as the burr will shave brilliantly but break off with any serious use. So I want to set the edge perfectly with no burr.

So if I determine the edge that shaves best, I know to remove the burr from that side.

[Slick]

Correct use of an Edge Pro will give you whatever edge you tried for. My favorite use is to use my Edge Pro as I need the edge but then the last few strop stokes are done on my Levies. A bit of titanium dioxide goes a long way on the pant leg.

My pants are always available when sharpening and the Edge Pro edge is almost clean when done. I never sharpen pantless as that would be too weird even for me.

The exception is a truely razor edge which will need stropped beyond the Edge Pro and my pant leg. I never need a hair spliting edge except for fun and then stropping with black/green goop on leather is appropriate.

BTW, be cautious stopping a sharp knife on your pants. Edit: There is more than just yor leg in your pants.

I've heard of people (crazy people) stropping the last little bit on their arm but that sounds crazy. Been there done that and it works, but a piece of cardboard works about as well and the cardboard is not at risk of serious injury.

YMMV

Remember help is only a phone call away.

911

[MountainManJim]

I use the Ultrafine stones to deburr. The pressure needs to by very light.

Having written that, I must report that the UKPK FRN Gin 1 appears to be very burry (hey, a new word). I haven't solve this issue yet. If the Ultrafines don't do the job, I may strop the Gin 1.

Jim