I hate the final sharpening - Is it just me?

Maelstrom78 said:
I just did my first couple blades all ground post HT with a mist set up. It's a game changer to not have to constantly dip, or burn your finger when you just need 3 more seconds in a spot!
Click to expand...
You burn your fingers when you try to sharpen finished knife or when you grind blade ??
 
Does anyone utilize paper wheels for sharpening? I remember reading a post on it by Richard J a long time ago.
 
I tried them and felt they had far too much surface speed for sharpening. Burning the eedge is very easy at that speed. I know some folks love them, but they don't seem metallurgically a good idea to me.
 
I can get a knife stupid sharp using paper wheels, but after doing it for a while in my personal knives I found that edge deteriorated quicker than one done on stones. Whether it's because I was micro tempering the edge or because the hollow geometry was too weak I don't know but I quit using them.
 
It's both a power strip and a high grit finish. I agree with kulkarni that the edges don't hold up.i know that understanding stroping was a huge step for me. Once you learn it it changes the way you sharpen as well as taking the mystery out of it.
 
J. Keeton said:
Does anyone utilize paper wheels for sharpening? I remember reading a post on it by Richard J a long time ago.
Click to expand...

I have a set, but the only one I use now is the stropping wheel. I use it to polish and remove burrs. I use my 2x72 to grind in my edges and raise a burr. Being a flat surface, it’s just a lot more consistent. I clamp my blade to a piece of angle iron, welded to a square of flat steel, set the desired edge angle on my flat platen, and then run the belt backwards.
 
10-4, you guys just answered the bulk of questions I had on paper wheels! Thanks! I was contemplating them, but I'll go the EZE-LAP route instead.
 
I don't find that I need to power strop. Once you have the edge its pretty easy to remove the burr. I do no more than 6 light passes per side on a spyderco bench stone. You can also take a few slices through a cork, soft pine, rubber whatever. After that its 30 seconds on a loaded strop. I find that I like a hard strop best and just use a piece of soft wood. Leather works but it's easy to put to much pressure on it and start rounding the edge. If there are any spots on your edge that need to be touched up they should be easy to find.

The hole sharpening thing is pretty easy. I feel like there is a lot of mystery built up around it and a lot of it comes from using soft steel and natural abrasives. I have a theory that as of right now I have no way to prove. I feel that there is a line between sharpening and burnishing. I think when we are sharpening a a razor that is made from a simple steel that there are a lot of gains to be made with ultra fine polishing of the edge. I think at a point this ultra fine grit is burnishing much more than it cuts. It's like the discussion about full ceramic belts working as a finger grit. They do produce a finer scratch pattern but do not have the clean cutting of a new belt. We already know that natural stones often cut much finer than diamonds do to dulling and grit breaking down. To put it in a nut shell, yes finer grit and polished edges are sharper to a degree and are useful for some things like shaving. But care must be taken because past a point the burnishing action could be causing fatigue and removing support from carbides. This will cause that super sharp edge to degrade much faster than a edge that was left at a lower grit where the abrasive was still cutting cleanly.

I know not everyone cares a lot for Ankersons testing but the low grit sharpness and edge retention was a pattern that really showed up. I found it upped my game and my edges do last pretty well now.
 
If you use paper wheels properly, they won't burn your edges. It took me a while to get use to them. The slotted paper wheel blows air to cool the edge. If for some reason I was only able to use one method for sharpening it would be the Paper Wheels. The edge lasts longer, in my experience.
 
Rick Marchand said:
If you use paper wheels properly, they won't burn your edges. It took me a while to get use to them. The slotted paper wheel blows air to cool the edge. If for some reason I was only able to use one method for sharpening it would be the Paper Wheels. The edge lasts longer, in my experience.
Click to expand...

I thought you might post. I may very well have been doing it to myself.

I like being able to set the angle to X degrees and put that on the card I include with my knives as a lot of my customers have Edge Pros or Wicked Edges, so that has some impact on my decision as well.
 
That is true. If you are wanting a set angle, the paper wheel is hard pressed to provide that. Even with a guide, you are still sharpening on a tangent. I mostly use the slotted wheel to polish an already established convex edge.
 
I'm new to this but I go through the grits on some stones and then for a final edge I clamp the knife and use a Dremel with some very fine buffing compound on a cloth wheel. This is probably not the fastest way but seems to work well.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top