Dumb waterstone question

T

thombrogan

Joined
Nov 16, 2002
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There are no dumb waterstones; only dumb questions about them.

Is the hand which touches the blade only there to hold the angle or is it also there to add pressure? I've been using mine for both (another possible reason why my D8XX cuts so well) and one of the foodie guys told me a trick which might keep me from needing my hand on the blade for angle control. I'm all for saving my fingertips, but thought part of a waterstone's fun involved bearing down as needed.

Thanks, everyone.
 
I don't know if I'd say its there to add pressure specifically, but to control pressure. Sometimes its good to have a decent amount, sometimes you want less.
 
Same here the second hand is used for control. Evens out the angle and pressure across the length of the blade. I'm not good enough to do it one handed. The second hand can also reduce pressure, go lighter than the weight of the blade, but then you get the stone burns on both thumbs. :)
 
Well I usually use the hand that holds the handle for angle control and with the other one I push with my fingertips onto the blade as close to the edge as possible. And yes, on the coarser stones, were I have a lot of work to do, I bear down as hard as needed. Though I find there is some trade-off. The harder I bear down the slower is the back and for motion. So if I want to remove a lot of steel I use substantial pressure, but not so much that it would prevent me from going back and forth pretty quickly. On the finer stones I use very little pressure.
 
Thanks for the views, guys!

Tried both ways using diamonds and cloth last night and saw that even when I wasn't using the hand on the blade to bear down, it aided in providing control. Tilted the diamonds and cloth at an angle ala Nozh2002/Ken123/NickOz/Joe_C and the results were better than my Vic Tinker has seen in almost a year.
 
thombrogan said:
Thanks for the views, guys!

Tried both ways using diamonds and cloth last night and saw that even when I wasn't using the hand on the blade to bear down, it aided in providing control. Tilted the diamonds and cloth at an angle ala Nozh2002/Ken123/NickOz/Joe_C and the results were better than my Vic Tinker has seen in almost a year.
Click to expand...

Mr. Brogan, can you please elaborate on this? I have gotten good results on stones using one hand only, but I am completely open to any suggestion that could improve my speed/accuracy/edge attained or any other improvements.
 
Sure. The best way would be to go to knifeforums and search out all posts started by Ken123 in the Keeping Sharp section, but here's the gist of it:

Take a Panavise (or other adjustable vise) and a level. Place your stone holder in the vise and adjust it to your chosen angle (verify with level - less important if only one stone is used - more important if other stones are used) and place your stone in the stone holder. By keeping your blade parallel to the ground, you'll be sharpening at your chosen angle without having to lift the blade when you reach the tip. It's like using a Sharpmaker, but sideways. Actually, you can also set up the Panavise so that you hold your edge perpendicular to the ground and use the stone just like a wider-stoned, infinitely adjustable Sharpmaker, too.

The polishing cloth, which might not be a fault of Ken123's, is like a 8.5" x 11" piece of Snuggle, but it has aluminum oxide abrasives on one side. Best used dry unlike lapping film which doesn't care if you use air, water, or oil as a lubricant, but polishing cloth is almost half the price of lapping film and is an excellent final touch after finishing on a Norton 8K.
 
This (tilting the stone) the way traditional japanese sword polishers work as well. Well they work on the ground, using their foot as a vice (any normal person would probably break their backs doing this, I know I would) but in principle the same.
 
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