convex help!! i can get it sharp at the belly but not near the choil

[TheSnakeman]

hey guys
i need some help
i just got my rodent solution in the mail yesterday and tried to sharpen it to hair shaving sharp i was able to archive that on the belly but not near the choil
what am i doing wrong and what can fix it?
thanks,
Thomas
added note: i am able to get a burr on the belly and tip easily but i am not able to get the edge near the choil nearly as easy

 

[HwangJino]

Near the choil or heel, is usually grounded too deep, so that part of the knife will take time to reach.

ive seen people grind blades and usually when starting they get too much momentum at the heel and digs deep.

when I was at the fine cutlery shop, few sebenzas had that signature deep heel which tells me a new guy was grinding that blade.

 

[Jason B.]

Because the contact area becomes smaller in the belly you will remove more steel faster thus making it sharpen easier. Basically you are not controlling your pressure evenly and need to lighten up as you transition to the belly and tip.

 

[HeavyHanded]

Because the contact area becomes smaller in the belly you will remove more steel faster thus making it sharpen easier. Basically you are not controlling your pressure evenly and need to lighten up as you transition to the belly and tip.

^This - another thought - put your fingertips from the support hand right on the spot you need to grind. On an average knife I spend about 2x the time working near the heel than I spend on the entire rest of the edge - the contact area is much larger. Believe your eyes, if you haven't raised a burr, you haven't ground a fresh cutting edge yet.

 

[Obsessed with Edges]

The rear of the blade, near the choil, is almost always more thickly-ground by the manufacturer. This usually means the edge grind there is much more obtuse, and therefore the edge won't make contact at the same sharpening angle as used on the rest of the blade. Add to that, the radiused (curved) transition between the cutting edge and the ricasso (your knife won't have this, since yours has the sharpening choil), which means the blade won't lay flush to the stone when contacting that radiused portion near the ricasso; the curved portion will 'lift' the blade away from the stone. You'll see this, if you look edge-on at the gap between edge and stone, when the ricasso is at/near the edge of the hone. All of these factors in tandem will make the existing edge duller, and grinding much, much slower in the rearward portion of the blade's edge. Only way to 'fix it' is to keep grinding away, until the edge angle is thinned out and falls in line with the rest of the cutting edge. Takes a long time, so patience is key.


David