Hair splitting sharpness - confession

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preventec47

Joined
Nov 25, 2007
Messages
58
All my life I've only ever used sharpening stones of various grits and
I've never been able to actually sharpen a knife that would shave the
hair on my arm. Some of the knives I've bought when new when tested
would shave my hair with the factory edge but I've never been able to
duplicate the sharpness. So if figure it must be my technique or tools
and not the blade since they came new sharp enough to shave.

This may all change now as I just bought this 1200 grit diamond
stone card at Eknifeworks.com
http://eknifeworks.com/webapp/eComm...chText=&Mode=Cat&PriceStart=&Brand=&SKU=EL200

I plan to carry it in my wallet amazingly and hope I can improve my sharpening
skills.

I've never really used ceramic rods or steels and or the leather strops
that barbers use and was wondering if those are requirements for "sharp
enough to cut hair"
Thanks
 
Slow learner? Let’s see if we can find the right forum this time …
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Hi preventec47 - I think many people have trouble getting their knives to acceptable sharpness. But it takes ball bearings to say so.

IMO, hair shaving should be a minimum requirement of sharpening. If the blade can't, at least, shave arm hair, it's not sharp enough.

Some of the key factors in sharpening are determining the correct angle and keeping it. Jigs like the Spyderco Sharpmaker or Edge Pro do this for you. You are almost guaranteed hair shaving sharpness, at least. Add a strop and you can get sharper than that!

You can use your diamond card/stone alone for excellent results using techniques found in other threads of this subforum. For example, the thread "Sharpening users", currently, on this page. Reading through the sharpening posts on this subforum is like getting an education in the different routes people take to get great edges.
 
It looks like a handy thing to have in your wallet, but I don't understand why you could sharpen with this all of a sudden and not with a stone.

There's no appreciable difference in this product than in any other stone, that I can see. They're both abrasive and they're both flat. Not saying it's not a good sharpener; just saying if someone can sharpen on this someone should be able to sharpen on any stone. Maybe you just finally got the feeling and are a good sharpener now. I've found good sharpeners are people and not products. I can sharpen well on nearly any abrasive surface, even beach stones. When I couldn't, before I got the hang of it, I couldn't have raised a good edge on anything but a draw-through style sharpener.
 
I still have my good days and bad days with sharpening. On the good days I can keep a consistent angle and easily achieve shaving sharpness with a red DMT stone (600 grit I think?) and on the bad days I can take a knife that's got a just barely shaving or "scraping" edge and manage to make it duller. You don't need a super fine stone or strops or ceramics to get a shaving sharp edge. You just need to find the right angle and hold it.

Edited to add: This may help you out. I forget who posted this link but I bookmarked it so I'd have it handy. . .

http://knives.mylamb.com/calc.htm
 
Keep at it and you'll get it. A 1200 grit diamond works wonders with practice and intent. I remember the first time I got a hair-popping edge with a 600 grit diamond. I was good at using sharpening aids (Sharpmaker, EdgePro...), but it was my first free-hand edge that was sharp from tip to ricasso that didn't look like it lost a fight with the pavement.
 
A technique that's helped my freehand most recently is practicing on the back of a legal pad or notebook. Place the blade on the cardboard and "act" like you're sharpening on a stone. Edge leading, slowly lower the edge until it catches on the cardboard. that's the exact angle you need to maintain the blade on a stone in order to ensure that you're actually reaching the edge. I learned that from a post from one of the veterans on here, unfortunately I'm not sure which one to give credit to.
 
just this past week I got a knife to split a hair, that is a good feeling when you know you knife is that sharp
 
The thing that made the biggest difference for me was buying a cheap "microscope" from Lee Valley Tools. Unfortunately, they don't seem to have them now. Anyway, it was a hand held 60-100X and even had little light on a swivel for illumination.

The mistakes that you eventually learn to detect by feel or sight and eliminate with practice became very obvious. Getting to see what I was doing made it very clear that it was not what I thought I was doing. My mistakes were all the ones that good sharpeners say to avoid, and seeing them made the difference.

- Not holding a constant angle. Almost any angle will shave hair if it's done right. A swipe or two at a larger angle requires repair. Also, changing the angle as you move to finer stones can be a very bad thing.
- I wasn't getting the same angle on both sides. Not as critical but easy to see.
- Not getting rid of a wire edge or other screwup at the edge.

Dave

PS - I may be the model for the sharpening challenged but this was all learned on a sharpmaker, where angle control is supposed to be easier.
 
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