- Joined
- Jan 15, 2019
- Messages
- 6
Last December I decided to buy a knife and some sharpening stones because I stumbled across a Youtube video of a guy whittling hair. I decided I wanted to be able to do that, mainly because the process didn't look that hard. Needless to say, I had no clue what I was doing. It took me two days before I could sharpen a knife that would slice paper. I accidentally whittled a hair after several weeks of constant research and practice. After a month or so I could reliably sharpen most knives into what I considered very sharp--may whittle hair or would be right there on the verge.
As with most things in life, I wish I knew then what I know now, mainly because it would have saved me lots of money figuring everything out. I don't use any of the stones or stropping supplies that I originally purchased, and I've grinded my Para3 M390 down to the bone. I now exclusively use Venev diamond stones, beginning with the F80 or F150 grits and finishing on the OCB F1200. I strop on sanded balsa glued to basswood blocks, with Jende 1 micron poly diamond down to Jende 0.1 micron poly diamond. I am convinced that, for the money, there are no better stones and stropping compounds than Venev and Jende. They will always be as good as you are.
Anyways, late yesterday I was sharpening a knife (CPM 154) I hadn't sharpened in a while, and I started working the blade differently than I usually do. I usually sharpen with the blade perpendicular to the stone, but, while holding the same angle obviously, I started sharpening at both open and closed angles (see pic below for reference). I noticed that this seemed to really buff out all of the scratches from the previous stone, so I kept doing it. On the F1200 stone I really made a conscious effort to spend a lot of time working the blade with these different angles. Before going to strops I could tell the entire bevel looked different than it usually does. Both sides were extremely clean, and I knew that the knife was going to be really sharp. Stropping confirmed this. It was the first time I could whittle hair on each pass from the tip all the way to the bottom of the blade. The knife would pull 5-6 layers off of the hair before melting it. This was the first time I had ever been able to do anything like this. I immediately sharpened another knife (S30V) with the same technique to make sure it wasn't a mistake! Luckily I reached the same result.
Anyways, I thought I would share that with you guys. Let me know if any of y'all have discovered new tricks along the way that seemed to make a profound difference in your results.
As with most things in life, I wish I knew then what I know now, mainly because it would have saved me lots of money figuring everything out. I don't use any of the stones or stropping supplies that I originally purchased, and I've grinded my Para3 M390 down to the bone. I now exclusively use Venev diamond stones, beginning with the F80 or F150 grits and finishing on the OCB F1200. I strop on sanded balsa glued to basswood blocks, with Jende 1 micron poly diamond down to Jende 0.1 micron poly diamond. I am convinced that, for the money, there are no better stones and stropping compounds than Venev and Jende. They will always be as good as you are.
Anyways, late yesterday I was sharpening a knife (CPM 154) I hadn't sharpened in a while, and I started working the blade differently than I usually do. I usually sharpen with the blade perpendicular to the stone, but, while holding the same angle obviously, I started sharpening at both open and closed angles (see pic below for reference). I noticed that this seemed to really buff out all of the scratches from the previous stone, so I kept doing it. On the F1200 stone I really made a conscious effort to spend a lot of time working the blade with these different angles. Before going to strops I could tell the entire bevel looked different than it usually does. Both sides were extremely clean, and I knew that the knife was going to be really sharp. Stropping confirmed this. It was the first time I could whittle hair on each pass from the tip all the way to the bottom of the blade. The knife would pull 5-6 layers off of the hair before melting it. This was the first time I had ever been able to do anything like this. I immediately sharpened another knife (S30V) with the same technique to make sure it wasn't a mistake! Luckily I reached the same result.
Anyways, I thought I would share that with you guys. Let me know if any of y'all have discovered new tricks along the way that seemed to make a profound difference in your results.
that I no longer even glance at. Three or four stones and done.