First off, good work. Very nice to see you applying new tech as you go, and mechanically you seem quite sound. This go round I made some notes while I watched since you're paying uncomfortably close attention to what I'm saying...
First, thanks for the compliment.
I do pride myself on my sharpening but am always looking to improve! Oh, and I pay attention to your write-ups because you've proven to me that know your stuff. Plan and simple. You alaso win major brownie points for making a vid (something that not every self-professed sharpening expert here is willing to do).
Some of what I throw out there might not apply, because I really can't tell what you're doing off camera, or what the real lighting situation is ... Probably the only important thing I'd mention is the need for more observation and perhaps better tools to do so. By this I mean only a few things - strong lighting. If at all possible there should be at least one powerful overhead light source, maybe just a trouble light or similar.
Whenever you or knifenut bring up a point, it always hits home. And in most cases, it's usually something I've already noticed... but just didn't act on. The light!! Yes! My kitchen isn't super bright. As a result, I've set up a desk lamp next to my camera, but it's the coffee table kind with a weak incandescent bulb. Every now and then, I remind myself that I need to get a proper light source for my sharpening station, probably a nice, bright LED or Hal lamp, but then it slips my mind again. Now you've brought the issue front and center, and I really shouldn't put it off any longer. I'll try to get one today.
(on camera it looks like you're only checking the heel - off camera you might be checking the whole thing). Being able to identify where the burr is forming will allow you to target only those areas - I get a bit nervous every time you do full sweeps with a shallow or nearly parallel grind path as feedback really diminishes with that technique and soo easy to broaden the apex. When backhoning on a stone check frequently, maybe every couple of passes. Its possible to remove a burr and nicely refine the edge backhoning, but if you miss the apex a couple of times on one side or even in one area, the imbalance in grinding can be tough to overcome. You can easily generate a burr that will be hard to remove backhoning, or round the apex and not even realize it, undoing a lot of prior set -up.
I am checking the whole bevel with my fingers. Yeah, it's a camera angle thing. You'll notice that when I'm slicing newsprint, too. A lot of it is out of frame, unfortunately. I'll keep your thoughts on backhoning in mind next time I'm working a knife. I agree 100% that it is easy to make mistakes with edge-trailing.
Next are where i do things a little differently. Coming off a coarse stone and moving to a backhoning stroke is when I like some mud. A little loose abrasive on the stone will help with burr removal should any have survived the 1k stone (or whatever stone you're using to set the bevel). Then after I'm reasonably sure the burr is gone I'll rinse the stone and finish backhonming on a clean stone. Granted, this is what I do with a King stone. With the Norton WS I don't use extra mud at any stage so this may or may not be worth trying on your polishing stone. On any waterstone, I try to eliminate the burr before moving to the polishing stone. In my experience the finer grades of JWS do not remove burrs well with a trailing stroke even as they do a fantastic job of refining (this could simply be an issue with my technique but something to think about). Might want to try blotting the stone dry and then strop on newspaper - dry paper has a bit more Umpff to remove the burr and refine the edge a bit. Will also disproportionately shine any burs faster than the rest of the bevel and make them really stand out, and this will also help identify any regions/technique that need more work
I've gotten pretty comfortable using the finishing stone clean with lots of water for my final edge-trailing strokes. I've found the biggest issue I've had has been using the right amount of pressure. The ultralight pressure at the end seems to work for me to knock the burr off. That said, I can always experiment, and I'll try a light mud next time. As you say, it depends on the stone. I also agree with knocking the burr off before moving from the 1k to the 6k, although I don't think it's necessary to get it perfect, as I demonstrate in my vid. I've heard that the dry paper works a bit better than wet paper. Next time, I'll blot my stone first and use the newspaper dry. Thanks!
We're a weird bunch. We enjoy making vids of sharpening knives and enjoy watching other people sharpen their knives even more. I'm sure this stuff would bore some people to tears, but I'll make a bowl of popcorn to watch a good sharpening vid.
