grinding down the shoulder.

Y

yillin

Joined
Jul 14, 2007
Messages
5
I have a sharpmaker with the sticks that came with it. The browns and the whites. I'm very positive that the factory angle is 40 degrees (20 per side, but you knew that of course). Im trying to take the shoulder off with the 30 degree angle setting first and since I'm very new to sharpening still, I'm not seeing very good results if any at all.

The steel is 440C. How long do you think it would take to get the shoulder off of the bevel and work it down to a 30 degree angle because I've been trying for a little while now and Im not sure if the shoulder is still there because I can't ever tell if I can feel a burr or not. I try the rubbing the thumb over the edge method and the fingernail method and am never sure if what I am feeling is a burr.


edit**

This also just popped into my head. When I'm sharpening with the sharpmaker. The feeling I get is a resistance. Like running something over sand. Other times it just feels slippery and the blade just slides right down the bar. What's that about?
 
When those stones in your Sharpmaker start feeling slippery you probably need to clean per the instructions that came with your Sharpmaker. Ajax, Comet, BarKeepers Friend and stiff brush or a 3M scrub pad.
Since you are basicly trying to reprofile the edge it is going to take a while with the Sharpmaker. You need to be using a coarse stone. The Sharpamker is great for keeping a sharp edge sharp but not much for reprofiling jobs.
You can get it done with the Sharpmaker but it is going to take a while.
 
Just to reinforce what Whitedog said, re-profiling on the Sharpmaker is a slow and arduous task. Because of the design of the Sharpmaker, the natural tendancy is to allow the tip of the blade to slide off the SM stones at the bottom of stroke. This will round off the tip of the blade, requiring more re-profiling. A $$$ enconomic solution would be a coarse benchstone. Better yet, a guided system such as the Edge Pro.
 
I just posted this in another thread, but it works just as well in this one.

What I would suggest would be to take your brown rods, wrap them in low-grit sandpaper (I've used ~200, but the coarser the better) and clip them in place using a binder clip. Voila, a 200 grit sharpmaker rod (I'd suggest using the flats, most abrasive don't do well when used on the edges) which will massively speed up the reprofiling, for under $10, less than $5 each for a small tin of binder's clips and a five-pack of wet-dry sandpaper in appropriate grit.
 
The new brown stones may have a smooth surface on them that will wear off in time as they break in. This can be accelerated by rubbing the stones together. They will have a more consistent feel after that. And as stated, they need to be cleaned regularly to keep their bite. But they still won't reprofile quickly without the sand paper trick (use wet/dry paper).
 
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