Hone compund and leather question

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learnme

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Oct 30, 2009
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Is it possible to remove chromium oxide from the leather hone you put it on? If so, how? Just a random question.
 
lolz, shoulda known to just ask you. anyway, i was meaning to ask, can your blades pass the hanging hair test?
 
yeaaaap, thats the haning hair test. SICK stuff. care to share the details of how your to achieve this?
 
Set my bevel, work through the stones, finish with the DMT EEF then strop. BTW it can be achieved at 1 micron.
 
DMT EEF? then strop...not hone? also, i guess its ok to post for the other topic, "geeting frustrated with sharpening" on here as its kinda going off his topic... i asked, plain? or with slurry? If with slurry, what micron.... 1?

knifenut1013 said:
The wool should be used between stones and just before the start of stropping, its a de-burring tool.
Click to expand...
 
The DMT EEF is a 3 micron 8000 mesh diamond hone, I had a thread a few days ago about it. I use the 1 micron on my felt, truthfully I don't use it much unless I have a blade with a PITA burr. Diamond stones cut clean enough that Burrs are not usually a problem though.
 
what would you say is your average laps as per micron or what would you reccomend for me? I start with the diamond side of the DC4 and go about 25 25 10 10 5 5 3 3 1 1 and continue with 1 1 until all the burrs are gone. Next i do the same but up the laps to 50 50 25 25 10 10 etc and give the 1 1 laps about 10-15 rounds. (I have no idea from this point on when to move up...thats why I'm asking) Next is 50 50 25 25 etc on the 1 micron, 50 50 25 25 etc on 0.5 chro ox, then finally 50 50 25 25 etc on 0.25. Now I will start with the hard wool if I get any burrs from the honing (1 micron to 0.25). I dont strop :( dont have one.
 
No strop? you have leather right? I sharpen until the scratch pattern has equaled out, with stropping its a little harder to tell so you must go by feel. By the time your finished with 1 micron the edge should be completely burr free and hair splitting sharp.
 
ooook, i think im confused with stropping and honing. I though stropping was taking a piece of leather, attaching one end of it to like a wall, pulling on the other end and ...well... stropping the blade....and honing is taking leather, sticking it onto a hard surface with some glue on a block of wood, adding some abrasive, then honing the edge...

What does it mean if I get burrs after 1 micron, say. at 0.5. ?Cuz that seems to be what is happening. BTW, thanx for being so patient with all my noob questions. I REALLY appreciate it.
 
Check your email, it will be much easier that way.
 
To cut out a little confusion forget about the terms for a minute and think of everything as sharpening. The bull leather you have should be mounted to a flat piece of wood to start, if you want to use it dry then that is your choice but I use mine with the diamond spray and really like the results. The main reason I use leather for stropping (stropping relates to action your perform with the leather and compound or honing film, edge trailing) is because of the "give" the surface has. When you sharpen by hand your bevel is naturally convex simply because you cannot hold a perfect angle, the leather conforms to the slightly convexed bevel and blends it in a single stroke rather than multiple strokes across a flat surface, this also adds to the convex shape of the edge and breaks the shoulder of the bevel.

I like to think of honing and sharpening as the same thing (ie. using a stone) and stropping is the edge trailing method used with leather, wood, honing film, and micro abrasives. Before you even get to the point of stropping the edge of your knife must be refined and already have a acceptable level of polish, the burr must be minimal and the edge itself in proper alignment. The burr will be easiest to detect if you strop/edge trailing the top of your finger nail, if their is a burr even a very small one it will scrape the surface of your nail. You will be able to detect the size of the burr by how much it scrapes the surface also. Once you feel that the burr is small enough make about 10-20 passes per side on the wool pad before moving on to the leather or honing film, this will help to "break" the burr before you move to the leather and honing film, if the burr is too large it can actually damage your strop.

When you start with the 1 micron spray you will instantly notice within the first few strokes that the knife gets much sharper and becomes almost burr free. You could stop at this point but the only thing you have done is align the burr straight and not really removed it, from your count it seems as though you are doing enough strokes but you might not have the edge to the proper point before moving to the strop. When you are getting close to finishing up on the 1 micron and get ready to move to 0.5 the edge should be burr free and very sharp, though once you start with the 0.5 micron compound the burr will probably pop back up. This happens for the same reason it happens on a stone, by changing grit/mesh your starting a new scratch pattern and as you work-in the 0.5 scratch pattern the burr will go away again. If your edge is not mirror like, smooth/sticky when you touch the edge, and sharp as a razor by the time you finish with the 1 micron compound then you have done something wrong.

I hope this helps a little.

P.S. Instead of 50 this side and 50 that side try alternating 1 stroke per side.
 
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Magic! thanx. I will keep all this in mind and get back to you...too bad you dont have a vid cam....;p thanx again and off to practice sharpening now ;p
 
Magic! thanx. I will keep all this in mind and get back to you...too bad you dont have a vid cam....;p thanx again and off to practice sharpening now ;p
 
oook, i dont know what is going on. I decided to go back to the diamond side of the DC4 till all the burr was knocked off. After it was all gone, i moved on to the ceramic side. A few new one popped up but with more time I got rid of those too. Next, I moved on to the hard wool felt with 1 micron diamond sprayed on it. I was on it for a loong time. No burrs. I am no on the .5 micron on the horse leather and it is really very sharp. I can make killer curls on paper, and I can curl hair. I cant do it quite like you, i have to bend the hair over the edge so it catches first then i can slice/curl a long very fine strand. Whats more is the edge will NOT shave hairs off my arm! Any thoughts?
 
If it curls/whittles hair then it should without a doubt shave. Will it shave on both sides?
 
wont shave period! either side wont... But like I said though, i have to fold the hair over the edge first for it to catch, I cant just hold it up then curl off sections like in your video. It does take a lot of skin off though...
 
Hows your scratch pattern look? look very close under bright light and see if you have any small secondary bevels at the edge.

If your bevel is good it should look a little like this

ZDP-189011.jpg


ZDP-189012.jpg
 
from what i can see, the edge and scratch pattern fits the bill. It is real small though because I am working on a swiss army blade and I cant get a decent shot of it. The blade is sharper then its ever been yet I cant figure out why it wont shave... It does curls off hair, makes super fine curls of paper with nice clean cuts, push cutting is too easy.

Could it be the equipment? Now before you spit on the screen from shock or fall back in your seat hear me out. I have not used the scrubbed bull leather yet. The only time i ever used it was plain and not stuck to a block of wood. Now the horse leather, I sprayed one with .25m and the other has the .5m chro ox....neither is stuck to a block. I just lay it out on my desk and strop/hone away. could this be the reason why? What do you think?
 
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