Am I sharpening correctly?

[Caffeinepirate]

This is what I use:

- Coarse diamond stone
- Fine diamond stone
- Ceramic stone
-. Back of legal pad for stropping

First I sharpen one side of the blade with the coarse diamond until I feel a burr across the majority of the blade. Then I flip the blade over and do the same thing.

Then with the fine stone, I'll hit one side for 10 licks, then do the other side. Then I do five licks per each side, then 2 licks, then one. After that I do the same thing with the ceramic stone and the legal pad.

1. When starting with the coarse diamond stone, should I immediately flip to the other side of the blade and do the same thing once I get a burr? Or should I use a fine stone/pad to hone off the burr before hitting the other side with the coarse diamond?

2. Should I try to form a burr on each side with the fine diamond stone and/or ceramic stones as well? Or should I just use those as I have been?

3. Any other suggestions about my technique would be appreciated.


Thanks guys

 

[THG]

First I sharpen one side of the blade with the coarse diamond until I feel a burr across the majority of the blade. Then I flip the blade over and do the same thing.

You can't really "form a burr" on the second side. Once you've got a burr, you've got one burr on the edge... Then when you start doing the other side to "form the second burr" (which, again, doesn't really exist), you're just knocking that burr to the other side.

For this reason, I recommend doing a symmetric number of passes per side until you get the burr, or else you'll end up grinding away one side a lot more than the other, and your edge won't be centered (which really isn't a huge deal, but still...)

1. When starting with the coarse diamond stone, should I immediately flip to the other side of the blade and do the same thing once I get a burr? Or should I use a fine stone/pad to hone off the burr before hitting the other side with the coarse diamond?

When I'm using my XC stone, I usually do my best to remove the burr with that stone (by doing one pass per side.) Then I move onto my finer stones doing one pass per side.

2. Should I try to form a burr on each side with the fine diamond stone and/or ceramic stones as well? Or should I just use those as I have been?

No, when you want to remove the burr and you're finishing up your edge, you do one pass per side from then on. If you do multiple passes per side, you'll be pushing up a burr.

Do one pass per side when moving onto your finer stones.

 

[Caffeinepirate]

Thanks for helping me on this, THG. After reading your responses, I have a few more questions.

1. When I'm using the coarse stone to form a burr: If a burr is forming on the left side of the blade, then I flip it over to do the right side, will that push the burr down, making it hard to feel for it, or even know that I formed a burr? This is primarily why I have sharpened with the coarse the way I have up until this point. I am worried I won't be able to feel for the burr because switching sides constantly will push it down.

2. When using the coarse stones, how many passes do you recommend before I flip the blade over to do the other side?

3. What kind of indicators should I look for to tell me that it's time to switch from the coarse to the fine, to the ceramic, and to the strop?

 

[THG]

1. When I'm using the coarse stone to form a burr: If a burr is forming on the left side of the blade, then I flip it over to do the right side, will that push the burr down, making it hard to feel for it, or even know that I formed a burr? This is primarily why I have sharpened with the coarse the way I have up until this point. I am worried I won't be able to feel for the burr because switching sides constantly will push it down.

Well once you have a burr formed on the "left side," then when you flip and do one pass on the other side, the burr flips to the next side. Here's a pic I found:

So in that picture, the burr is on our right side. Now when you go to do a pass on that side, it's going to flip to the next side. Then when you go to the other side, it's going to flip again and so on and so forth. If you keep doing 1 pass per side, eventually (ideally), it should go away and you'll be left with a solid piece of metal for an edge.

Also, I don't really recommend "feeling" for a burr. If you can feel a burr, you can see it. But vice-versa is not true: you can't feel all burrs you can see.

Once a burr gets fine enough, you won't be able to feel it. But you might be able to see it if you look under bright light (yes, it has to be bright). Look at one side of your blade and look at the edge. Rotate it around a little bit under the light. If you can see a highlight along the edge, then you've got a burr. Of course, you should check the other side, too. This has been the best method to find a burr for me, anyway.

2. When using the coarse stones, how many passes do you recommend before I flip the blade over to do the other side?

Do you mean before or after forming a burr?

3. What kind of indicators should I look for to tell me that it's time to switch from the coarse to the fine, to the ceramic, and to the strop?

Once the scratch pattern is uniform for whatever grit you're using, you can switch to the next stone.

I also want to say: the only time you really have to form a burr is if you've got severe edge damage/dullness. If you're just touching up an edge, you should just do one pass per side all throughout in order to avoid burring.

 

[Caffeinepirate]

Do you mean before or after forming a burr?

Before forming a burr, how many passes should I do on one side before I flip it over to work on the other side?


EDIT: Oh, and when I sharpen I always push the edge into the stone (as though I'm cutting a thin slice off the top of it) as opposed to pulling/dragging the edge along the stone. The exception being when I get to the strop, because pushing the edge into it tends to cut it. Do you do the same?

 

[THG]

Before forming a burr, how many passes should I do on one side before I flip it over to work on the other side?

It's up to you. There's no specific number set in stone. It's just that if you do one side all the way to the edge, then there's nothing left to do on the other side, and then you've kinda "moved" your edge to one side, if you see what I mean.

I usually do 20 passes or so. When I start getting closer, then I cut it down.

For all of this, I'm talking about reprofiling the edge, though, where you're trying to cut the angle down. If you're just talking about getting an edge back from being dull, then you really don't need to do that much. Again, you should avoid getting a burr if you're just touching up an edge (as opposed to reprofiling or repairing an edge.)

Here, I'll break down my personal style:

1. For reprofiling an edge, I usually do 20 passes per side or so (until I start nearing the edge)

2. For getting an edge back on a severely dulled knife, I usually do 5-10 passes per side or so.

3. For sharpening an edge, I do strictly 1 pass per side. I try to NOT get a burr if possible. For the past 3 months, I've been sharpening only ZDP-189 steel. It's a hard steel, so the burr comes off pretty easily. I just got a VG-10 knife a week ago, and I'm actually finding it harder to sharpen because the burr on this soft steel tends to flop back and forth rather than come off. So what I have to do is cut vertically into my sharpening stone (the finest one I have, and VERY lightly) to destroy the burr, and then continue doing 1 pass per side again.

EDIT: Oh, and when I sharpen I always push the edge into the stone (as though I'm cutting a thin slice off the top of it) as opposed to pulling/dragging the edge along the stone. The exception being when I get to the strop, because pushing the edge into it tends to cut it. Do you do the same?

Yeah, that's what I do (except I don't happen to strop; I don't have the equipment )

Feel free to experiment and find what works best for you. I've been doing this for a couple years now, and I'm still learning, still changing my methods. I started out sharpening by pushing the knife away from myself. Then I learned a combo of pull and push so that I could use my right hand only (I thought it would give me better control), but I could never get that push stroke correct... So then I did all pull strokes. Just a couple hours ago I was trying to do the push+pull method again, and I found out I still suck at it lol

Whatever you choose to do, it takes a LOT of practice...