I want to whittle hair

J

jlouis976

Joined
Feb 25, 2008
Messages
396
I have a small ez pass diamond stone and a a multi surface stone as well. I can get my knives shaving sharp on them, but not hair whittling sharp. What am I doing wrong? Is it the steel of the blades or is it more than likely me? I start with the coarsest side of the multi surface stone, then I move all the way through to the ez pass stone. I finish by stropping them on a leather belt.

No matter what I do, they are still not as sharp as a factory edge on a Kershaw or Spyderco. Keep in mind i have really just been messing around with my CRKT M-16 (the cheapie) and my Ka-Bar's.

Should I consider a new system?
 
My guess is that if you keep practicing you will be great at sharpening just about the time you lose all your hair!! Continue to Google BF for more sharpening tips.
 
jlouis976 said:
I have a small ez pass diamond stone and a a multi surface stone as well. I can get my knives shaving sharp on them, but not hair whittling sharp. What am I doing wrong? Is it the steel of the blades or is it more than likely me? I start with the coarsest side of the multi surface stone, then I move all the way through to the ez pass stone. I finish by stropping them on a leather belt.

No matter what I do, they are still not as sharp as a factory edge on a Kershaw or Spyderco. Keep in mind i have really just been messing around with my CRKT M-16 (the cheapie) and my Ka-Bar's.

Should I consider a new system?
Click to expand...
You might be rolling the edge from stropping wrong, it's not the knife that is the problem, i've gotten cheap 3dollar knives to whittle hair, if the angle is too high, it won't work, i've only tried upto 20degrees per side and whittled hair.
 
For me the difference between shaving sharp and hair whittling sharp comes from using very light finishing strokes on the hones and very careful stropping with CrO compound taking care to glide precisely on the bevel and with very light pressure.

Here is a link describing the type of stropping that worked for me:
http://drsharpening.com/leatherhone.html

I think the method described is more important than the tool used. I strop on CrO loaded paper mounted on glass.
 
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It should be all in YouTube video comments.

I use DMT D8XX (Extra Extra Coarse 120 microns) then D11C (coarse 45 mcrons) then D11E (Extra Fine 9 microns). After this I use Green Rouge on leather and in some special cases diamond powder 100000mesh (0.15 microns).

It is pretty easy once you find how to do this, I am sharpening all my knifes to whittling hair as a routine sharpening. Most important is patience - think about this as kind of meditation, do not expect result right away, wait and you'll be rewarded...

I also recommend you to check this thread - turns out there is many way to sharpen to hair whittling sharpness.

http://www.bladeforums.com/forums/showthread.php?t=554632

Thanks, Vassili.
 
I sharpen hair whittling and never strop. pressure and consistency of your stroke are important. put the stone on a bench and hold your knife with your hands and move the knife using the large muscles of your legs. that way you will maintain your bevel and not round it.
 
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