Been usingy lansky set up for a coulple of months now and can get a great edge, but ive noticed on the blades ive sharpened im devoloping a slight recurve near the back of the blade(handle side) is this just the nature of the beadt or can it be avoided?
-
The BladeForums.com 2024 Traditional Knife is ready to order! See this thread for details: https://www.bladeforums.com/threads/bladeforums-2024-traditional-knife.2003187/
Price is$300$250 ea (shipped within CONUS). If you live outside the US, I will contact you after your order for extra shipping charges.
Order here: https://www.bladeforums.com/help/2024-traditional/ - Order as many as you like, we have plenty.
Lansky system question
- Thread starter Mike14_07
- Start date
traumkommode
Gold Member
- Joined
- Dec 3, 2015
- Messages
- 4,632
How much pressure are you using? Pressing with the stones is not good and can cause recurve, uneven bevels, etc. The stone should glide across the edge with the weight of gravity and not any more added downward pressure. If you're using the regular stones, expect re-profiling to take a little while. Also, I have taken to incorporating swiping along the edge and not just straight up - it helps to finesse a smooth edge.
I've been using a Lansky for almost 20 years now. While I disagree with Traumkommode about the pressure aspect, I think he hit the nail on the head about incorporating a diagonal swipe. I've done the recurve thing to a blade or two when I first started using the Lansky. It's just because you unintentionally spent too much time in that area. It will help if you'll make diagonal strokes. Also, what I do is this:
-Start on side 1 (tip pointing to the right), make a series of diagonal strokes (5-10), moving up and right, starting at the heel, moving towards the tip. I make each stroke overlap the previous one, moving down the blade towards the tip. It takes me roughly 5-10 strokes to cover the whole blade, depending on the knife size.
-Flip to side 2 (tip now pointing to the left), make a series of diagonal strokes (5-10), now moving up and left, starting at the heel, moving towards the tip. Same as before, just opposite.
That was half of a "cycle"
-Flip back to side 1 (tip right). Now make a series of 5-10 strokes, but moving diagonally up and LEFT this time, moving from tip to heel across the blade. Again, overlap strokes and move towards the heel.
-Flip to side 2 (tip left), 5-10 more strokes, diagonal up and right, tip to heel.
That was your second half of a "cycle", thus completing an entire "cycle". To be clear, my cycle consists of side one, heel to tip, side two heel to tip, side one tip to heel, side two tip to heel.
Doing this ensures that you cover all points of the blade, relatively equally. It also helps keep you from spending too much time near the heel, which you naturally do if you always start there. That's why I start at the heel on the first half of the cycle, then start at the tip on the other half of the cycle.
More tips:
-My favorite stones: extra coarse diamond (reprofiling), coarse diamond (light reprofiling), medium diamond (where I start with most blades), fine diamond, fine natural (with oil), super sapphire (with oil), leather strop. Don't use oil on the diamond hones.
-I use moderate pressure with the coarse stones if I'm reprofiling a blade, fixing nicks, or sharpening a knife for the first time and getting to the edge. If I have a lot of metal to remove, I use heavy pressure and a sawing motion to speed the cutting. ONLY use the sawing motion for reprofiling with the coarse stones.
-Use a sharpie to be able to see if you're getting to the edge
-Unless I'm stepping up to a steeper angle and doing a micro-bevel, I always use medium or coarser, moderate + pressure, and go until I can see or feel a burr all the way across the edge. You should get a burr on both sides, not just one. If you get a burr on one side and not the other, you're only down to the edge on one side.
-Stick to the cycles! The cycles I outlined above were the best thing I ever learned using a Lansky. If you go too far on one side and not enough on the other, you will get bad results. The best thing you can do is keep the sides relatively even. Don't get OCD and count strokes, just make your way from heel to tip, then flip. Just don't go crazy on one side. It's best to do a little, then flip, then a little, then flip, etc.
-Use less and less pressure with each finer grit stone. Once you get to the fine, extra fine, supper sapphire stones, you should just be using the weight of the stone. That is KEY to a razor sharp edge. Use more cycles to achieve a sharper blade, not more pressure.
-I usually use several cycles with the coarse stones (if necessary) to get to the edge and produce a burr. Once you have a burr (say with the coarse stone), do one more light pressure cycle to reduce/remove the burr. Then move on. From there, I usually use just one cycle per stone until I get to super sapphire, where I usually do 2-3 cycles.
-If you're doing a large knife (over 4" blade), mark a line on the blade perpendicular to the edge. Sharpen the heel side of the line first. Next, move to the tip side and sharpen it, SLIGHTLY overlapping the line. I've sharpened a machete like this (I was bored) with consistent, razor sharp results.
-The leather strop, especially with green paste, makes a huge difference.
Edited to add:
-Make sure that your metal guide rods are bent properly. When I attach one to the stone I'm about to use, lay the whole stone/rod assembly on a flat table. Make sure the whole rod and stone is flat. If the rod is bent improperly, it will change the angle from one stone to the next.
-The most important aspect is to make sure you get a burr and are actually getting to the edge, otherwise, you're not doing anything.
I hope this helps!
-Start on side 1 (tip pointing to the right), make a series of diagonal strokes (5-10), moving up and right, starting at the heel, moving towards the tip. I make each stroke overlap the previous one, moving down the blade towards the tip. It takes me roughly 5-10 strokes to cover the whole blade, depending on the knife size.
-Flip to side 2 (tip now pointing to the left), make a series of diagonal strokes (5-10), now moving up and left, starting at the heel, moving towards the tip. Same as before, just opposite.
That was half of a "cycle"
-Flip back to side 1 (tip right). Now make a series of 5-10 strokes, but moving diagonally up and LEFT this time, moving from tip to heel across the blade. Again, overlap strokes and move towards the heel.
-Flip to side 2 (tip left), 5-10 more strokes, diagonal up and right, tip to heel.
That was your second half of a "cycle", thus completing an entire "cycle". To be clear, my cycle consists of side one, heel to tip, side two heel to tip, side one tip to heel, side two tip to heel.
Doing this ensures that you cover all points of the blade, relatively equally. It also helps keep you from spending too much time near the heel, which you naturally do if you always start there. That's why I start at the heel on the first half of the cycle, then start at the tip on the other half of the cycle.
More tips:
-My favorite stones: extra coarse diamond (reprofiling), coarse diamond (light reprofiling), medium diamond (where I start with most blades), fine diamond, fine natural (with oil), super sapphire (with oil), leather strop. Don't use oil on the diamond hones.
-I use moderate pressure with the coarse stones if I'm reprofiling a blade, fixing nicks, or sharpening a knife for the first time and getting to the edge. If I have a lot of metal to remove, I use heavy pressure and a sawing motion to speed the cutting. ONLY use the sawing motion for reprofiling with the coarse stones.
-Use a sharpie to be able to see if you're getting to the edge
-Unless I'm stepping up to a steeper angle and doing a micro-bevel, I always use medium or coarser, moderate + pressure, and go until I can see or feel a burr all the way across the edge. You should get a burr on both sides, not just one. If you get a burr on one side and not the other, you're only down to the edge on one side.
-Stick to the cycles! The cycles I outlined above were the best thing I ever learned using a Lansky. If you go too far on one side and not enough on the other, you will get bad results. The best thing you can do is keep the sides relatively even. Don't get OCD and count strokes, just make your way from heel to tip, then flip. Just don't go crazy on one side. It's best to do a little, then flip, then a little, then flip, etc.
-Use less and less pressure with each finer grit stone. Once you get to the fine, extra fine, supper sapphire stones, you should just be using the weight of the stone. That is KEY to a razor sharp edge. Use more cycles to achieve a sharper blade, not more pressure.
-I usually use several cycles with the coarse stones (if necessary) to get to the edge and produce a burr. Once you have a burr (say with the coarse stone), do one more light pressure cycle to reduce/remove the burr. Then move on. From there, I usually use just one cycle per stone until I get to super sapphire, where I usually do 2-3 cycles.
-If you're doing a large knife (over 4" blade), mark a line on the blade perpendicular to the edge. Sharpen the heel side of the line first. Next, move to the tip side and sharpen it, SLIGHTLY overlapping the line. I've sharpened a machete like this (I was bored) with consistent, razor sharp results.
-The leather strop, especially with green paste, makes a huge difference.
Edited to add:
-Make sure that your metal guide rods are bent properly. When I attach one to the stone I'm about to use, lay the whole stone/rod assembly on a flat table. Make sure the whole rod and stone is flat. If the rod is bent improperly, it will change the angle from one stone to the next.
-The most important aspect is to make sure you get a burr and are actually getting to the edge, otherwise, you're not doing anything.
I hope this helps!
Last edited:
I usually do an even stroke from heel to tip. 10 per side till i get a burr on both sides then swap stone all the way to fine. When i get a burr with the fine stone i drop to 5, then to 3 then to 1 swipe a few times and the deag the blade through a block of wood to take off and remaining burr. Quite possibly could be adding too much pressure. Ill give it a go with no pressure
sharp_edge
Gold Member
- Joined
- Jul 30, 2015
- Messages
- 5,937
It will take forever to sharpen knives with super steels if only relying on the weight of these little hones and not applying pressure. I think the key is to apply pressure evenly across the entire blade edge and of course less pressure should be applied when moving to finer hones. So what you said applies to the yellow extra fine stone and the blue saphire stone.