I sharpened an m390 knife and the results are good enough but the heel area is driving me crazy. Firstly it doesn't seem to be as sharp and snags paper. Secondly it's always dark when the rest of the edge is illuminated, like it's at a different angle. But when I sharpen the stone removes sharpie marks evenly at the heel. So is the edge just thinner or thicker at the heel? I don't know what to do about it. When I go to finer stones and go into the edge I hit the heel first and the stone may not land completely flat - could that be a problem when done repeatedly? Is the heel just messed up from the factory? The problem is that I don't know what is going on exactly, so I can't fix it. The tip was also problematic, but I'm more or less fine with it now. Thanks
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Help with sharpening
- Thread starter ibrow
- Start date
- Joined
- Oct 30, 2018
- Messages
- 219
Sounds like you answered you’re own question, the heel is at a different angle (whether it’s technique or factory grind doesn’t matter). You’re either not raising a burr at the heel end (too narrow) or hitting the apex but not removing the burr (too steep).
Re applying the sharpie as required after every stroke stropping on the stone will give you an idea about what to change.
Re applying the sharpie as required after every stroke stropping on the stone will give you an idea about what to change.
I raised a burr along the entire edge, paid close attention to it. Both visualized it and felt it. Then did the same on the other side, then removed it and went with higher grits. But the heel looks like more (or less?!) steel is missing because the light doesn't reflect off it like it does on the rest of the straight part of the edge. It seems to cut worse as well and I can't figure it out. Looks like the edge may be thinner at the heel, but it doesn't make sense since it the sharpie gets removed. The factory grind was inconsistent at the tip especially, where the angle was greater than elsewhere. I had to work the tip for a while with a coarse stone. I'm afraid to keep resharpening with coarse diamonds in order to figure it out because I've already removed a fair bit of metal and it's an expensive knife. It doesn't really impact the performance as I almost never use that tiny bit at the heel but it bothers me. -.-
