Forming a burr faster on one side?

D

dejhantulip

Joined
Mar 21, 2008
Messages
13
Dear community,

I have a quick question. I have been handsharpening with wetstones for over a year now and it has been an amazing experience! I have seen numerous videos online and my question regarding my actual experience is the following:

Whenever I get a quite dull knife, I start using my coarse stone (320 grit Suehiro Cerax or my 400 Gesshin) and I start sharpening on one side until I get a consistent burr on the entire length of the edge. This takes me around 5 minutes or so. Now, when i get this burr, I start sharpening the other side, but this time I form the burr in much less time (say around 2 minutes or so... you get the point, around 50% faster than on the first side).

The result of this is that I get a much more "defined" or "noticeable" bevel on the first side (I would assume because I spent more time grinding away metal in it).

So my questions are:

Is this something I should correct?

Should I be spending the same time in each side despite the fact that I am forming a burr faster on one side compares to the othee one?

Is this maybe affecting the level of sharpness I could obtain?

Thanks!!!


ORLANDO
 
I just did that on my hap delica. Thin stock. Didn't ruin it but to prevent it in the future I will work both sides alternately; check the edge under strong light and when the reflection starts to fade then raise a small burr on one side. Then flip it and raise a burr on the other side.
 
It won't have a negative effect on cutting to any degree you're liable to notice if the edge is just being pushed off center.

I would work on curbing this tendency anyway. The easiest fix when working a pretty dull knife is to grind for a little bit short of the edge, flip, grind the other side and then come back and finish in stages. You might find you have a smaller burr doing it this way.

Another test might be to begin on the side you normally do 2nd. If you still form a burr faster and with a smaller bevel it means you aren't just pushing the edge to one side, but that you normally work your 1st side more acute.
 
I use a sharpening system and I grind alternately on both sides until I get a small burr. I had a problem of getting a bigger bevel on one side not sure why but using this method I no longer have that problem.
 
My guess is when you get your initial burr then flip to the other side, you are just pushing the original burr back over to the other side. The burr is just folding back over. Essentially getting a false burr. Remove the first formed burr, then switch sides
 
Thank you everyone for your responses!! What 115italian mentions is really really interesting, I will try deburring with a cork or soft wood before switching to the other side.

Will report back with results!!
 
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