How to sharpen the tip. Holding angle by sight?

[maximus83]

Guess I will just need to keep practicing with the cheap knives until I can feel the edge better. Currently I've been doing it mostly by sight. I visually try to start each slice or scrub at a consistent/correct angle, then just pay a lot of attention to KEEPING that angle. I considering getting one of the angle guide things that people have mentioned, but for various reasons I see there are drawbacks to that approach, it feels very limited and kind of a crutch that will block learning what you really need to know, so I'm skipping the whole angle guides thing.

 

[Obsessed with Edges]

I understand what you're saying conceptually, but....I'm having trouble even on a good 'feedback' stone like @FortyTwoBlades AF, to 'feel' the angle. I just can't feel it. This could be because of my neuropathy disorder that causes reduced feeling/numbness in hands and fingertips, not sure. But I still have around 60% sensitivity, so I can still feel pretty well and I don't believe it's keeping me from sharpening as I've managed to get some good results on several blades now. Always have on my DMT as well, but as I've said elsewhere, the DMT provide much worse (like "bumpy") feedback to me, and so even though they get good results, I'm not that fond of using them. My challenge is, when I have a blade resting on the stone at the bevel angle, and rock it back and forth to visually flat, or too high, or too low of an angle, I really cannot feel much difference. Even less so when I'm in the midst of a sharpening slice. Suggestions on this? (Not about the neuropathy issue , but is there something that I should do to kind of train myself to feel the edge on the stone better?).

Maybe a combination of a couple of things might help. Use a Sharpie to darken the bevels, first. Then, when placing the blade to the stone, use a fingertip to apply some pressure right above the shoulder of the bevel, in the portion making contact on the stone. When I do this, I sort of allow the tip of my finger to somewhat overlap the edge of the blade, so that I can also feel some light contact of my fingertip directly on the stone in front of the blade's edge. You apply some pressure with that fingertip to pivot the edge down into the stone (in effect, 'rocking' over the fulcrum of the bevel's shoulder), and you should allow the spine of the blade to rise until it stops, which (hopefully) will be when the bevel has become flush to the stone's surface. When you think it has become flush to the surface, give it a small, slow & steady sweep on the stone; maybe just an inch or two of travel. Then, check the Sharpie ink on the bevel, and see where it's coming off. If the bevel was flush, it should remove ink across the bevel's full width (edge to shoulder). If it's not flush, you'll see some ink come off the shoulder (angle too low), or just adjacent to the apex itself (angle too high). Keep testing your positioning of the edge against the stone like this, until hopefully, you'll start to get the feel for it.

The above is what I've done at times, when I've had a little trouble otherwise feeling that flush contact. Using the Sharpie ink and testing my approach that way, usually helps in getting my touch back in the 'zone'. And if it helps, I'll sometimes keep that fingertip positioned as such near the edge while I'm sharpening. The little bit of feedback afforded by my fingertip grazing the stone just in front of the blade's edge is sometimes helpful in keeping the angle set where I want it to be. Obviously, you don't want to get too careless or aggressive with your sharpening passes that way, so you don't scrub your fingertip off on the stone or cut yourself with the blade's edge; but, it can be a good motivator to stay focused on what you're doing.


David