Recommendation? DMT F vs DMT EF for general edge maintenance.

[chalby]

Laziness? Yes sir, 100%. I'm on vacations at the moment I write this.... no work for me till monday.

But, just to explain.....
a while ago (can't remember exactly when) I found Cliffs 'three step sharpening' video and watched it a few times. As first thing I very much liked his 'one stone' approach and also intrigued with his method to sharpen alternating from both sides till the edge just stopped reflecting light and then he did a micro bevel.
Later I found his explanation somewhere on the net.... the edge is about 15 to 10 microns wide when it stops reflecting light.
I don't know if you remember but not so while ago I mentioned his method somewhere here and most of forum members jumped on me how this is not possible.

Bill3152 used a very smal number of words and english is not my native language so.... let's say these days I'm not in a mood to solve some riddles and if someone is not willing to give me more thorough explanation then so be it.
Anyhow, I thought Bill has some other approach to 'no burr' sharpening.

I remember that thread. I don't think anyone said that Cliff Stamp approach wasn't possible, just that it is either described differently to what is likely going on in practice(as to whether a burr is being formed) or not practical in the time it would take to ensure a burr was not formed and also ensuring a clean apex was achieved at the same time.

What I took out of the discussion about the "Cliff Stamp" method was that it is more accurately described as a method that heavily prefers as small a burr as possible while making sure that the apex is almost or entirely formed, then micro beveling to not only finish the final apex but also deburr. This is obviously subject to debate.

 

[TheOne45]

I'm considering to replace my Fällkniven DC4 with something even lighter for general edge maintenance 'in the field' for my Victorinox SAK's. I can't decide between a Fine (red) and EF (green) DMT.

Why not just go for both and try which works better?
Or go for a DMT fine and also buy one of those cheap $5 one milimeter thick plates in #1000 or #1200 and glue it on the other side of DMT plate.
Which SAK do you have? One of thise with larger blade or smaller blade like Hiker for example?

 

[Obsessed with Edges]

I tend to believe so-called 'no burr sharpening' is often presented or misconstrued as something much more complicated or more mysterious than it really is. If an edge is fully apexed, i.e., thinned to a point beyond which it's no longer strong enough to be stable if it's made any thinner, there will very likely be a burr - even if it's essentially undetectable by the naked eye or by feel. If one were to deliberately sharpen to a point short of that, it's possible the edge will still be thin enough to perform well in 99% of normal cutting tasks in EDC use.

Cliff Stamp alluded to a certain familiarity with the blade he was sharpening in his video. He pointed out he's sharpened it enough times to recognize when it's essentially cutting as well as it can in typical tasks and he knows, if it's taken just a tiny bit further in honing, the burr will form. By doing some test cutting as one progresses in sharpening, it's pretty simple to see when the edge is as ready as you expect it to be, even if you haven't yet seen or otherwise detected the presence of an obvious burr on the edge.

If one is not yet familiar with how sharp an edge can get on a particular knife, then sharpening until an obvious burr is formed is a good thing. That's where you'll know for certain the apex is as narrow as it can be. At that point, so long as the edge is carefully de-burred, one can then test the edge in cutting tasks in paper, etc., to see just how sharp it is at a known fully-apexed condition, and if it meets expecations. After doing that multiple times and gaining familiarity with the particular blade and how the edge behaves, you won't necessarily need to take sharpening all the way to an obvious burr each and every time. You can begin to see the signs it's close enough to where you expect it to be, before the obvious burr forms. That's when you might begin to think of your process as 'no burr sharpening' - meaning, even if there may be a tiny bit of a burr there, it's small enough not to be a significant factor in sharpness or edge stability anymore. Forming of burrs can be minimized to an extent that they're going to be so small and so fragile and essentially undetectable, that even the first cut into anything afterward will strip their remnants away, and no further obstacles to sharpness or edge stability remain.