KO Work Sharp with blade grinder attach- relief edge and removing scratches

[uilleann]

I have a KME and have found it to be easy to get great polished sharp edges. But lately, because I had sharpened every knife in the house, I wanted to put a relief on my knives. Something like 15 for relief and 20 for the edge.

We to put the relief angle on the blades took a lot of work. Even using the beast 50 diamond grit. Many of my knives have hard good quality steel and it was taking 500 or more strokes to get it from the original 20 down to 15. It actually started to cause my shoulder bursitis to flare up.

So I have ordered the KO WS with blade grind attachment. My thought was to just use the course belt to get the 15 degrees and then go back to the kme to finish the knife off. I had another idea about using the WS to re-finish the blade sides as I had put some scratches on them using the kme incorrectly.

While waiting for the work sharp to arrive I figured I would read through the manuals and watch more of the YouTube videos. And then I saw that due to the nature of using a belt that I would end up with a convex edge. I could work with that as I do have A convex sharpening arm on the KME. But that would mean giving up on the bi-edge or micro bevel that I was going for.

I guess my question is, with a convex edge from the work sharp would I still be facing a lot of kme work to get to a straight 15degree edge?

my second question is since the belt moves inward as you put pressure on it does that mean it would not be a good grinder or sander for removing scratches on the face of the blade. In my mind I am thinking it would wear down the two edges of the flat portion with less sanding in the center is that true.

 

[cbwx34]

There are two "settings" for the convex portion (by moving the wheels closer together or farther apart)... the close setting is a pretty small convex, if you don't use too much pressure.

There is also a little platen you can work off of that might work for removing scratches. Gary W. Graley's thread where he added a piece of leather might make it effective for cleaning up a blade, and removing some scratches. I'd definitely try this on something you didn't care about first... might take a bit of practice to get a finish you like.

 

[uilleann]

Great idea.... I was thinking of something like that myself but now that I see that someone is using this.... I have to make one... Perfect.... Thanks!!

 

[Mo2]

i tried to use the work sharp KO to remove scratches. didnt work. just got a huge gash in the blade and a crappy finish. i wouldnt do it, get a grinder for that. or at least practice on some really cheap butter knives.

 

[Rey HRH]

I have come to believe that to use the BGA properly, one needs to just keep the knife surface just in contact with the belt and let the spinning belt do the work. Any pressure means that you're rounding the knife on two lines: 1) where the belt first comes into contact with the blade and 2) if you're holding the knife properly as in level to the ground, then you're rounding the knife edge.

Doing it with the minimum contact / pressure takes a lot longer than bearing down with any force but you end up with a nicer result.