!!!HELP!!! Thought I Was Good At Sharpening: I Can't Knock Off Burrs

B

B.F.U

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Jan 1, 2013
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I've been sharpening my knives free hand for a while. I seemed to be able to get them very sharp, shaving hair and push cutting receipt paper. I recently looked at an edge with a flashlight and realized there was a small but consistent burr across the presentation side. I then looked at the rest of my knives and every single one but one or two had this burr. In the past few days I've read as much as I could on sharpening and knocking burrs off. I've spent hours trying to get this nagging burr off of my knives. No matter what I do, no matter what steel (s30v, vg10, 1095, Vic. stainless, etc.) the burr just seems to flip and flip.

Please, what can I do? I would absolutely appreciate any help. I will try to take pictures or videos if it will help.


This is to the point where I'm so disgusted that I've considered selling all of my knives except gifts and collection pieces and just buying a Rexford RUT or one of those folding razor blade knives. I'm not a dumb guy, and my hands aren't shaky or anything like that, so I don't know why this is so persistent a problem. It's really turning me off of the whole sharpening thing.

Again, I appreciate any help.

Thanks,
ALLHSS
 
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Knock it off with a ceramic rod... or by making a slightly more obtuse angle on your last pass through, gently, on a high grit stone with one or two sweeps.

Or do what I do... use an Edgepro :) or send them to Albert at Seattle Edge...
 
I feel your pain. I have struggled with sharpening and have reconsidered my hobby and collection over this. I feel ridiculous owning $300+ knives that I know full well I can't sharpen them to the razor edges they deserve. And I use all my knives.
Nothing on the forums impresses me more than these guys cutting hairs in half and the perfect mirror edges. That honestly is my grail now in this hobby. Not a knife, but to REALLY be able to sharpen. Don't give up, sounds like your further along then me.
 
Don't freak out, I went through the same situation. What you have is not a burr but a wire edge since you are able to cut and shave with the blade. Try running the blade through a piece of wood a couple of times at different angles, if that doesn't work try going to a fine stone and do alternating passes with REALLY light pressure, that should take care of the problem. Most important, be patient and keep practicing.
 
First of all, what stones are you using? Second, most guys who are not too experienced with sharpening tend to use too much pressure, and that will almost without fail cause burr or wire edge issues. Even on your very first roughing/coarse stone you need to get your work done with pressure if you need to, then on the same stone, once the bevel is fully set, gradually lighten up to just enough pressure to keep the knife in contact with the stone. Say 20 - 30 more strokes with gradually reducing pressure, maybe more maybe less depending on the steel and the size (surface area) of the bevel. At that point you're ready to move to the next grit and do the same, repeating the process until you reach your final stone at very little pressure.
 
magicblade said:
Don't freak out, I went through the same situation. What you have is not a burr but a wire edge since you are able to cut and shave with the blade. Try running the blade through a piece of wood a couple of times at different angles, if that doesn't work try going to a fine stone and do alternating passes with REALLY light pressure, that should take care of the problem. Most important, be patient and keep practicing.
Click to expand...

I agree, if it works well for you and cut, I don't see any problem.
if you can post some close up pictures it will help.

Sometime people tend to "oversharp" their blades (remove a lot of steel or trying to get a super thin razor edge).
Those wire edges can't hold for long and they fold.

And as suggested, try running the blade through a piece of wet wood, after you honed it (the blade).
 
I just want to thank all of you for your posts before going to sleep, I think I've gotten some great info already. I will reply in full, with more info on my methods/set up/pics tomorrow or this weekend.
 
One of the easiest ways to remove wire edges, no matter what sharpening angle is used is this simple tool. It adjust from 12 to 40 degrees inclusive. In my experience it takes but two or three passes to remove a wire edge and
it leaves a beautiful polished edge in the process. When I set edges on knives I make, this is the tool I finish with. Fast simple and accurate.
Fred
5rf_q4UbI1IyEyDp9ersZqj_-x4qkb7Tv9OCxzgzbeQ=w656-h614-no
 
This is a current thread on the topic - do a search, there's a ton of info on the site about this. Basically you need to use enough pressure that the abrasive can grind off the burr, but less pressure than it takes to flip the burr. The more they flip, the easier they flip - sometimes one is better off starting the job all over. If the stone you're using is not in good shape, or a poor choice for the steel, it might have trouble operating in the range needed, so make sure your stones are not plugged or glazed.

Formation and removal of the burr is the essence of sharpening, don't give up, just study more.



http://www.bladeforums.com/forums/showthread.php/1235495-Thoughts-on-short-stroke-burr-removal
 
No need to go and buy expensive gimmicks to remove a burr when a simple stropping on your hand could solve the problem. Yep, you can srtop on your hand, t-shirt, jeans, or a belt to help you remove the burr but more importantly is making sure your work on the stone is good. You can strip off about any size burr with stropping/polishing but the edge will suffer from all the excessive stropping, polishing, or over grinding on the stone. You want to reduce the burr size as much as possible while still on the stone, shorter strokes and lighter pressure can both help.


I made myself a denim strop that I really like for burr removal and one I have applied Mothers Mag Polish to and it works very fast. Both remove tiny burrs very fast and without much disruption to the stone ground edge. I do a lot of burr removal on the stones though and my use of Japanese waterstones helps because they produce much smaller burrs.

More than anything though, refining your technique will be your biggest help.
 
I use a leather strop I made from a leather welding glove glued to a small flat board ~3x5" and green aluminum oxide polishing compound rubbed on the leather. Pull the blade backwards across the leather with light pressure alternating sides, at a slightly larger angle than what you sharpened at, ( the leather will have some give) As mentioned above Japanese water stones are really nice, I have found that over stroping the edge begins to give a nice mirror finsh but looses the flat stone edge, so less is more on the strop, does work well kindof like a glass edge not rough but polished sharp.
 
Fred's ERU will work consistently. If you can't get rid of the burr, get that.

You can also try *greatly* increasing the angle of the knife on the stone, and gently drawing it across. I'm talking like double the angle, and gently means whisking it across with barely the weight of the blade. You can also strop the burr off, or put your knife straight down on a 2x4 and drawing it across twice, using only the weight of the knife. All techniques used by folks on this and other forums.
 
I use a knives plus strop. couple strokes per side. does the trick for me. I was just writing in a thread on another forum about how even the ultrafines on a sharpmaker will still leave a wire burr. Stropping is still required IMO
 
Try the lightest stroke along the edge with a very slight edge leading motion. Especially with modern stainless it may take some time. You should abrade that burr, not flip it. If that happens without reducing it pressure was to high, or grit to low.
In the factory they use buffering wheels. Often it weakens the edge because of the high temperature. A far better home alternative: a very light pass with an electric toothbrush, @45 degree, 1cm/second. Repeat a few times until the edge is clean. No pressure please.
 
After the toothbrush procedure, a few very light edge trailing strokes on your finest stone may be helpful. Make sure not to create a new burr.
 
Learning to remove the burr on your final stone is the best practice. Other methods such as stropping etc can work. But the simple solution is this.

Extremely light , alternating , edge leading strokes. Leaves you a crisp edge with no residual burr. Works every single time. Free hand. Jig. Whatever. It works guranteed.
 
Run the edge through a piece of cork or the end grain of a piece of wood a few times, then do some honing passes edge-leading on a fine stone. Then strop with alternating strokes on a length of flat bare wood (with some pressure) before moving to a leather strop.

Just one of a number of methods to solve this common issue. :)
 
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