de-burring a dodo

[Michael Cook]

:spyder: Perhaps I need to use my knives more or sharpen them less :o Either way my dodo feels very sharp on one side of the blade, much less so on the other. This is a burr, right?
What's the best way to remove this and get my dodo back to scary sharp?
By far and away this is my most challenging spyder to sharpen. Still, ya gotta love this awesome lil' knife! :spyder:

[The Deacon]

Generally speaking, the way to remove a burr is by either stropping or steeling. Simply put, in doing so you are bending the burr back and forth, from one side to the other, until it breaks off. Not sure how well the reverse S shape of the Dodo blade lends itself to stropping, so if you have a good steel in you kitchen, a couple dozen passes on it, left-right-left-right and so on, might be the easiest solution. Sharpmaker white stones, used the same way, with very light pressure may also work fine.

[STR]

I would use some polish paste, jewelers rouge or aluminum oxide powder and strop it to remove that burr if that is what the problem is. If one side of the blade has a steeper angle on it than the other you may need to even them up with a reprofile on your sharpmaker or diamond sharpener. Once they even up each side will have equal strength and not roll so easy. At least that has been my experience.

It just seems to work better to have both sides on the same page, so to speak so that when they meet at the apex or cutting edge they are pretty much evened up to a proper peak. Once you have that established it is just a matter of stropping it an even number of times on each side.

Sometimes for a particularly stubborn burr that is hard to get rid of I've found, depending on the steel and the edge profile that it helps to have a block of wood nearby to slice into after stropping. This also helps to remove the burr. Then strop it again after making a small pile of shavings and see if it isn't a lot better. Some knives are not profiled to slice or whittle wood real well though so wood may not be the right choice. In these cases a thin card board works for me. Then strop it again a few times with light pressure and you should notice a diff.

[dragn_flame]

Never tried stropping before, but it sure is getting a lot of discusion lately
Don't know how ya gonna get a belt on a dodo or cricket blade, but I heard a good leather boot lace will work
tom

[Joe Talmadge]

I haven't tried stropping a reverse-s curve either, but leather bootlace sounds like a fine idea. Surely a regular strop wouldn't work.

My first resort in removing a burr is to do a light double-grind. Go back to the stone, raise the angle a couple of degrees, and take a few light swipes on each side, alternating sides.

[JD Spydo]

I pretty much only sharpen my Dodos with my "Cat's Eye" stones which are part of my Spyderco "Galley V" sharpening system. The contour of that stone seems to really accomodate the "reverse S" blade that the Dodo has. I even use the "Cat's Eye" stone to even steel it from time to time. I find it more controllable than the tri-angle stones on the 204. As much as I love the 204 Sharpmaker I find it challenging to do the Dodo on it with any consistent results.

IF nothing else I wish they would bring back the stones out of that old Galley V kit. Also if you are lucky enough to have a Cat's eye Stone to do your Dodo or Hawkbills with just remember to stop before the tip goes off the stone. It tends to round off the tip if you do it that way. Good Luck :spyder:

[Michael Cook]

:spyder: Hmmm...I only have a sharpmaker so I guess I'll just cut it off with the medium stones and work my way back up with a lighter touch. does this seem viable? :spyder:

[STR]

Stropping a Dodo may be a bit more challenging but it can be done. For example: many of my wood carving knives are odd shaped so I made a wood block with the shape I needed to get to the edge. For the V groove a V cut out with a router in wood of the same size and you coat that. But for the the Dodo just a dowel rod with some polish paste could do the tip and the rest could most likely be done on the flat strop part.

[thombrogan]

Get a rotary tool, such as a Dremel, and felt polishing disks. Order some 0.5 micron CrO/AO buffing compound from some place like Lee Valley or Toolsforworkingwood.com and you can power strop everything on creation.

[thom lambert]

I like thombrogan's idea of using a dremel. I use two things to strop my Dodo. The first is a strop that I made - leather glued to a 1/2x2"x12" piece of wood. I sanded the corners off one long edge of the small board so that it is "round" along one edge. I glued the leather so that it wraps around the "round" edge - great for stropping all kinds of curved blades.

The other thing I have done is to wrap 2000 grit sandpaper around a dowel rod and strop with that.

If you don't like to strop, a couple of passes on a sharpening rod, at a slightly higher angle, will usually remove that burr.

Thom