I've hit a wall sharpening

H

holmsie12

Joined
Mar 23, 2011
Messages
101
Alright, so i have a couple of things to sharpen, a Smith's Tri-hone (coarse, medium, fine) stone, and a 10 dollar double sided diamond sharpener (220/600 grit). I can sharpen all my knives to a point of about roughly shaving arm hair, or push-cutting paper. I cannot get it any sharper, none of my knives will shave clean or whittle hair, etc. So I'd like to hear what people think. Should I buy a better, finer grit stone to finish my knives on? is my 30 dollar setup enough and I am not doing it right?
 
I use the smiths tri-hone as well. I then use an extra-fine lansky hone to finish. Then I strop with newspaper. When I get done, my knives are shaving sharp, which is good enough for my uses. You will get a ton of different answers, but the common ground that you will find is that whatever works for you is what matters. You don't need to spend 300 hundred dollars to get a sharp knife.
 
buy or make your self a strop and get some buffing compound.

With hand sharpening, I started convexing my edges, and it is so much easier than sharpening on stones or sticks to me!

I find that the strop makes the edges much sharper, and is much quicker to maintain an edge with a strop.
 
you should get a clean shave from a 600 grit hone, i mean not face shaving but it should shave arms hair cleanly.

whittle hair i don't know i've never tried it with a coarse-ish edge but i doubt.
 
The best edges I've been able to get, have come by working an orderly range of grits, using one specific method/technique, in only one abrasive type, such as all diamond, or all silicon carbide (wet/dry sandpaper). It's difficult to produce predictable results by jumping from a 'coarse-medium-fine' stone (who knows what the abrasive or actual grit size is?), to a '220/600' grit diamond hone (or vice-versa). Grit numbers usually won't translate across abrasive types, sometimes not even across different brands of the same abrasive type. If you're looking to get a different sharpener/system, get something with at least 3, and preferably more stages, all in the same type/make of abrasive. A relatively simple and inexpensive way to test this strategy, would be to get some wet/dry sandpaper in a grit sequence of (for example) 220/320/400/800/1000/2000. Cut pieces of the sandpaper to fit on top of your existing hones (your Tri-Hone, for example). In this manner, you'd still be utilizing your same skill set, using an apparatus that you're familiar with. Only difference would be the abrasive at work. BUT, since it's all the same type/brand of abrasive, in an orderly grit sequence, the transition from one to the next will produce much more consistent and predictable results. If your technique is good enough to produce a shaving edge now (with the tools you're currently using), you should see very good results quickly. As with all sharpening, focus on the fundamentals of consistent angle and light pressure, and INSPECT the edge closely (good magnification and bright light), as you go.
 
i dont think your getting to the actual edge and i think your stones are taking too long/are too slow for you so your missing out on getting that wire edge before you move up to polishing that edge. I would highly suggest moving up to a belt system or a paper wheel system (I'm partial to the paper wheel system as its so very cheap and easy to use.). Either way, a motorized system will really speed things up for you.

oh and have you tried using a sharpie marker to see what exactly you are taking off?
 
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