- Joined
- Apr 7, 2013
- Messages
- 600
Hey Folks,
While I am no newbie at sharpening, I am still far from an expert at the craft. I have no problem putting edges on any of my kitchen knives, but I've been struggling with folding knives and certain fixed blades. There are two blades that I am struggling with as of late, a Mora Classic No.2 (Scandi Grind) in Carbon and an Emerson CQC-7 folding knife.
Here is a list of my stones that I use:
Starting with the Mora Classic No. 2
1. How is it possible to put a perfect finish on the bevels of a Scandi grind, which is basically a single bevel on each side. The scratch pattern I get is insane and ugly. The knife gets shaving sharp and at the end of the day that is all that is important, but I would like to continue my development in sharpening. I feel the next step is an even finish along the blade road, how do you guys manage it? Do I need to bust out sand paper and a flat stick or finger stones? Since there is only one bevel on each side, how do I prevent damaging the edge with the sand paper/finger stones after the knife has been sharpened?
Here's a couple of pics, which will show you the uneven scratch patterns I am getting. Keep in mind I'm not talking about the flats, just the blade road on the bevel.
2. Why is it that I can never really feel where the burr is on my Mora when I am sharpening. When I am sharpening, I have a hard time detecting a burr and I typically feel it on both side of the blade, is this a Scandi thing or am I missing something obvious? I use sharpie to make sure I am hitting the entire bevel and use that as a guide when sharpening. This is only the second time I've sharpened it, but I had an issue just recently with what I think was the edge rolling. I first used the knife up in Michigan for 3 days straight batoning large amounts of wood for our fires by the lake along with general bushcraft-esque duties and the edge held up with no damage. I sharpened it when I got home and yesterday was the first day that I really used it hard and I battened one small 1' long slab of 2x4 into some kindling and I noticed then that the edge rolled. Was this because the 2x4 is hard or could this have been a wire edge?
I sharpened it again to remove the damage to the edge and she's shaving sharp again, even though I could never really feel the burr properly like I can with my kitchen knives. I put just the slightest micro bevel on it as one might ever so gently on a yanagiba. I will test it out tomorrow on 2x4's to see if that helps out.
Emerson CQC-7 Tanto in 154CM
1. A friend of mine at work after seeing a few knives that I had sharpened for our other coworkers handed me his Emerson to sharpen. There was no edge damage to the knife so I started with my Gesshin 2k stone, which cuts plenty fast and I could not raise a burr to save my life. I checked with sharpie and was astounded to see just how large of an angle I had to use to hit the edge. Is my failure to raise a burr a product of the steel they use or am I just failing at basic sharpening. Should I have started with the 400 grit when dealing with 154CM?
Lastly, free hand sharpening on small folding knives/fixed blades is incredibly more difficult to me than a 10" gyuto. I would have thought differently, but I guess it is because the majority of my sharpening happens on chef style knives.
Cheers and thanks in advance for any help,
Pete
While I am no newbie at sharpening, I am still far from an expert at the craft. I have no problem putting edges on any of my kitchen knives, but I've been struggling with folding knives and certain fixed blades. There are two blades that I am struggling with as of late, a Mora Classic No.2 (Scandi Grind) in Carbon and an Emerson CQC-7 folding knife.
Here is a list of my stones that I use:
- Gesshin 400
- Gesshin 2k
- Gesshin 4k
- Felt and Leather Strop
Starting with the Mora Classic No. 2
1. How is it possible to put a perfect finish on the bevels of a Scandi grind, which is basically a single bevel on each side. The scratch pattern I get is insane and ugly. The knife gets shaving sharp and at the end of the day that is all that is important, but I would like to continue my development in sharpening. I feel the next step is an even finish along the blade road, how do you guys manage it? Do I need to bust out sand paper and a flat stick or finger stones? Since there is only one bevel on each side, how do I prevent damaging the edge with the sand paper/finger stones after the knife has been sharpened?
Here's a couple of pics, which will show you the uneven scratch patterns I am getting. Keep in mind I'm not talking about the flats, just the blade road on the bevel.
2. Why is it that I can never really feel where the burr is on my Mora when I am sharpening. When I am sharpening, I have a hard time detecting a burr and I typically feel it on both side of the blade, is this a Scandi thing or am I missing something obvious? I use sharpie to make sure I am hitting the entire bevel and use that as a guide when sharpening. This is only the second time I've sharpened it, but I had an issue just recently with what I think was the edge rolling. I first used the knife up in Michigan for 3 days straight batoning large amounts of wood for our fires by the lake along with general bushcraft-esque duties and the edge held up with no damage. I sharpened it when I got home and yesterday was the first day that I really used it hard and I battened one small 1' long slab of 2x4 into some kindling and I noticed then that the edge rolled. Was this because the 2x4 is hard or could this have been a wire edge?
I sharpened it again to remove the damage to the edge and she's shaving sharp again, even though I could never really feel the burr properly like I can with my kitchen knives. I put just the slightest micro bevel on it as one might ever so gently on a yanagiba. I will test it out tomorrow on 2x4's to see if that helps out.
Emerson CQC-7 Tanto in 154CM
1. A friend of mine at work after seeing a few knives that I had sharpened for our other coworkers handed me his Emerson to sharpen. There was no edge damage to the knife so I started with my Gesshin 2k stone, which cuts plenty fast and I could not raise a burr to save my life. I checked with sharpie and was astounded to see just how large of an angle I had to use to hit the edge. Is my failure to raise a burr a product of the steel they use or am I just failing at basic sharpening. Should I have started with the 400 grit when dealing with 154CM?
Lastly, free hand sharpening on small folding knives/fixed blades is incredibly more difficult to me than a 10" gyuto. I would have thought differently, but I guess it is because the majority of my sharpening happens on chef style knives.
Cheers and thanks in advance for any help,
Pete
