Edge Envy

[r8shell]

So I went ahead and got the Sharpmaker. A week later I got the diamond Sharpmaker rods that I should have just got at the same time and saved the postage. Live and learn.

I can put an edge on my s30v vantage that will shave arm hair, but not treetop it. It will slice little slivers off newspaper with the grain, but still catches a bit against the grain. Someone please tell me to stop, already! The knife is sharper than I need for any actual use I might have for it, and now I'm just getting obsessed! I've been reading too many posts with pictures of perfectly polished edges.

I have one question, though. When I'm using the sides (not the corners) of the rods, and I'm holding the blade straight up and down, parallel with the base, the blade doesnt seem quite flat against the stone, This gets more so as I get towards the tip. This would be because the blade is tapered toward the tip, right? If I angle the blade toward the tip, but still keep it straight up and down, would this mess up my sharpening angle? Does that make sense?

It's great to be able to ask you guys who have so much more experience with obsessive angle analysis.

 

[unit]

It is a hobby. Explore, improve, settle, strive, whatever.

If your knife really is sharper than you need, chill out...on the other hand, if it is a hobby, there is nothing wrong with trying to split atoms for no reason other than it is a goal you have not yet achieved. People do dumber things all the time for the sake of hobby/craft/fun.

Regarding the edge on the stones...this is covered in the video. The knife blade should remain vertical, but the imaginary line connecting the tip of the knife and the far end of the handle needs to pitch up and down as you stroke it down the stone according to the curve of the edge. Generally a negative curve (like a hawk bill) will have you lowering your hand faster than the blade drops. By contrast a positive curve (like most EDC blades and skinning blades) will require you to potentially raise your hand as the blade strokes down the stone. Finally a Wharnecliffe blade (straight edge) will have your hand moving down at the exact same pace as the blade.

Put on a clean white rod on the flat and take a single stroke. There (in most cases) will be a single silver/gray line where the knife contacted the rod as you stroked it....make your goal to keep that gray line going straight down the CENTER of the rod. This will require you to keep the blade vertical, but you will have to pitch the handle up and down depending on the curve of the edge. I hope this helps.

 

[Jameson]

Keep at it with the sharpmaker. I can get a tree topping edge with good technique on the brown stones alone with most steels and since I strop some knives find the ultrafine stones unnecessary. The normal white stones are really great final stones for slicing edge knives that will push cut and treetop at the same time. The uf will near mirror the bevels with some work.

I would like to add that i never use the corners of the rods, only the flats ever. I do not use the diamond sm rods either, I use a diamond rod that is about 240-320 grit that I prop in the groove on the sm rods it prifiles perfect even bevels without scratching sides of blades, again, with proper technique.

Jc

 

[r8shell]

Thanks for the tips. I was just joking about being stressed out, but it can be a little frustrating.

I read the instruction book, and started sharpening. Forgot about that dvd that came with it.

Today I found an old United-Boker jack folder to practice with. Had it for years, but never cared too much for it. I thought the thin blade would be fun and relatively easy to put a razor's edge on. I don't know what the steel is, but it's harder to remove than s30v! When I get it done, it's gonna be sweet! (I just need more patience)

 

[ssblood]

Make sure you are keeping those brown stones clean, every 80 strokes or so (I do them in sets of 20) per corner, after that clean them. Else the ceramic will be loaded and you will be removing nothing. Took me a while to even get shaving sharp using them, someday I'll advance to the stage of tree topping with the browns

 

[lamesalegend]

Agreed keep the stones cleaned frequently. I use Barkeepers Friend instead of Comet. It seems to work better. Also just keep at it. On my sebenza S30V it got to the next level of sharp after I keep at it for a billion strokes. Then you'll treetop. I didn't think it would ever get this sharp but I just used it every night when I got home and after time it just seemed to go to that next level. I also find that faster/light strokes are better. Don't worry about the technique its fool proof, just takes a long time. Now the tip of my knife is closer to 50 degrees, so it was what took the longest to get there but now that you have the diamond rods it should go faster.