Regarding the last step in sharpening using your last stone in your chosen progression. Do you folks just use sweeping lateral movements across the burr until it disappears? Or is there another method. You do use the same grit you are finishing with to knock off burr, right? I am watching too many YouTube Video's.
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Knocking off the burr
- Thread starter Rhodies
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There's a ton of useful guidance about burr management during sharpening in this thread:
https://bladeforums.com/threads/best-ways-to-manage-burrs-during-sharpening.1523428/
https://bladeforums.com/threads/best-ways-to-manage-burrs-during-sharpening.1523428/
Jason B.
Knifemaker / Craftsman / Service Provider
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You reduce the burr by reducing pressure as you finish up on your final stone. The burr can be difficult to remove using just a stone at times so I would also recommend a strop. Something as simple as denim stretched over a board works rather well for removing small burrs.
Probably a can of worms, but I can't help asking.
Do you ever see it as a good idea to do super light backhoning strokes on a finishing stone for quick burr removal? I discussed this some with HH in some other threads. There, the take was that it can work, but it's more prone to user error and messing up your edge, versus just using a strop.
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I've always recommended using leading strokes to remove the sharpening burr.
Reserve the backhoning for finish work and maintenance. Some stone compositions do a great job of NOT raising a burr at this step, but in most cases a leading pass works best for actual removal, at a higher angle to start.
Reserve the backhoning for finish work and maintenance. Some stone compositions do a great job of NOT raising a burr at this step, but in most cases a leading pass works best for actual removal, at a higher angle to start.
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On a stone, I'd also recommend edge-leading to remove burrs. I've not had much luck, the vast majority of the time, in trying a trailing (stropping) stroke for this, on a hard stone. It'll either fail to remove it, just flipping it to the other side, or actually makes it worse. The hardness of the stone's surface, plus the aggressiveness of the abrasive cutting the steel, tends to just draw more thin steel out to the apex, making new burrs, even as existing burrs get scrubbed away.
For edge-trailing burr removal, an aggressive strop of hard-backed denim with compound is much better at abrading away the fragile burrs at the edge, or even tougher & thicker burrs, without also creating more burring by drawing more steel out toward the apex from behind the edge.
David
For edge-trailing burr removal, an aggressive strop of hard-backed denim with compound is much better at abrading away the fragile burrs at the edge, or even tougher & thicker burrs, without also creating more burring by drawing more steel out toward the apex from behind the edge.
David
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So overall: is it fair to say there's consensus that best method of burr removal is lighter leading strokes on final stone? And then can use strop for final small burr removal?
This is what I've actually been doing in practice, seems to work pretty well and actually works whether I strop on plain basswood or on paper-wrapped-stone using compound, works either way.
ETA: just saw David's comment, I haven't gotten around to trying the denim approach on the strop yet.
This is what I've actually been doing in practice, seems to work pretty well and actually works whether I strop on plain basswood or on paper-wrapped-stone using compound, works either way.
ETA: just saw David's comment, I haven't gotten around to trying the denim approach on the strop yet.
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For me, the best approach is always doing as much burr removal on the stones as is possible, edge-leading. At the very least, after doing so, the burrs should then be thin & fragile enough to be stripped away by stropping on a surface capable of snagging them (this is where denim excels, or linen/canvas, etc; sueded leather also works most of the time). Even the bare stropping surface, without compound, is often enough. But, if burrs are heavier/thicker/tougher, then an aggressive polishing compound used on the denim will get rid of heavy burrs quickly.
David
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I’ve heard the word “back honing” that I understood is stropping motion with sharpening pressure on a stone before finish.
I believe that if you finish the blade with trailing stroke, but back honing method, I mean a few steps before you stop sharpening, on a softer stone maybe 10 passes each side also would help.
Maybe Heavy Handed or David could explain this method mor accurate than me.
I believe that if you finish the blade with trailing stroke, but back honing method, I mean a few steps before you stop sharpening, on a softer stone maybe 10 passes each side also would help.
Maybe Heavy Handed or David could explain this method mor accurate than me.
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Backhoning on a stone as a finishing technique is dependent on the type of stone. Some surfaces like diamond plates, ceramics, Arkansas stones have abrasives that are too fixed to allow for a backhone pass without a high likelihood of raising a new burr.
Many of the polishing grade waterstones, wet/dry, slurry on glass or hardwood can make good use of this to finesse out a little extra quality or to touchup a slightly worn edge. On softer stones it is the best way to finish the edge off, in many cases making a much better edge than one can eke out with a leading pass in these cases.
In general this is not a good strategy for burr removal, though works well if the burr is gone or 90% gone anyway. I also make it the very last step if used, or maybe a quick stropping pass on plain paper or lightly on a loaded strop of some sort.
I distinguish it from stropping by the opinion that stropping involves abrasive applied to a surface that has no real abrasive qualities and some amount of give, making it extremely difficult to generate a burr as it removes steel. This is just a convenience definition though, some materials/strategies are not easily classified.
Thanks for the advice, for one reason or another I never thought about using my strop, I am literally a work in progress. I have both a leather and felt strop and I load the felt side with the Green Chromium Paste and leave the smooth leather side bare.
Jason B.
Knifemaker / Craftsman / Service Provider
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Probably a can of worms, but I can't help asking.
I use edge trailing strokes on waterstones to finish up because I feel it produces the best edge but it really has nothing to do with the burr. Like HH mentioned it is a bit dependent on the stone too as I will use edge leading on harder Alox or ceramic stones and Diamond plates. I control the burr through pressure, the direction of stroke is all dependent on the stone.
I highly recommend against the felt... especially coated in compound. I've never found it to do anything but round the edge.
For stropping, I'm having good success with something you suggested a while back, just a sanded basswood block. I put compound on one side, plain on the other. Both seem to work really well, although compound works faster. HH's approach of compound on a paper-wrapped stone works equally well. The great thing is, all of these allow really light honing, small burr removal, don't remove much metal, and also don't round the edges at all.
Understood your comment about the felt. I will say after reading your post regarding stropping the burr to remove it I gave it a try on my leather strop and yep, it knocked the burr right off my Spyderco, this is after progressing to about 5000gr (rough est). Thanks again...