Razor sharp edge above 30 degree angle?

When I was building and setting carbide punches, one of the tests we would do to check the clearances was to split 2 ply kleenex, put it into the die set and index it by hand, then look at the cuts under 25x. We were looking for zero strands in the cut, we wanted to see a clean line.

I've been trying to think of a way to do a similar test with a knife blade but haven't been successful. The closest I've come is to fold a stranded type of paper towel or kleenex over the blade like a letter opener, and pull the blade through, but I'm not certain that's telling me anything useful. I also don't have a 25x scope on my workbench any more.
 
Jerry Fisk MS just started a 1 min video series on his IG - fisk_knives
learn from a Master :)
 
Oh my God. I am so happy to learn about that Verhoeven sharpening paper. Just scanning it for a minute shows how brilliant it is.
 
Sounds like a fair endorsement of the Tormek system. The company says that you don't have to use the strop wheel if you have the water stone, but the article seems to say that if you use both, things end up mo' betta' Also, they say that when you "dress" they 220 wheel with the fine side of the dressing tool, you effectively have a 1000 grit surface.
 
It cements my personal feeling about stropping with plain leather. I'll definitely give the entire thing a read.
 
@knifenut said:
I have a tormek t7 that I have been using to sharpen various type of knives. This machine can do razor sharp edges on knives with angles 30 degrees and below, but when it is around 30 degrees and above, it can't do a razor sharp edge anymore. I made a 35 degree cutting edge on this D2 steel 1/4 thick hunting knife. It's sharp when I do the thumb test, but cant pass the paper cut test. Any advise is greatly appreciated.
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D2 is very hard metal and can be sharpened easily on Tormek with either SG-250 or the more suitable for hard metals the SB-250. But when it comes to the honing it's different for different metals. I say this after experience. 2 weeks ago I had to sharpen a D2 knife and got the same experience as you. Very sharp but fails in the paper test, which I do always with newspaper. So I got frustrated and didn't give up. Looking for details what is different I came to the conclusion that with D2 and alike metals you should raise the honing angle little compared to the regular "soft" metals and the micro burr that almost can't be seen or felt, the burr that prevent you to make the paper test will be smoothened. The D2 is so hard you hardly be "destroying" the sharpening you made.

Pls. try it and post your experience. You may also ask in the Tormek dedicated forum.

Good luck
 
@knifenut said:
I have a tormek t7 that I have been using to sharpen various type of knives. This machine can do razor sharp edges on knives with angles 30 degrees and below, but when it is around 30 degrees and above, it can't do a razor sharp edge anymore. I made a 35 degree cutting edge on this D2 steel 1/4 thick hunting knife. It's sharp when I do the thumb test, but cant pass the paper cut test. Any advise is greatly appreciated.
Click to expand...

i know it defeats the purpose of having a tormek, but get a good diamond stone and finish the edge with that. do you really need a shaving sharp edge on a 1/4" thick hunting knife? match the final edge to the main task
scott
 
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