Need Help Reprofiling an Endura 3 on the Sharpmaker

[gunmike1]

Last night I started reprofiling my Endura 3 to 10 degrees per side on the sharpmaker. I put a notebook under one side and went to town on the corners of the medium rods. After about 250 strokes per side it looks like 1/2 to 2/3 of the edge is done, but I still have a good deal of work left. My first question is about the tip. I'm being careful trying to not round the tip, but I'm not doing much to reprofile it. I'm thinking of putting the two stones in the back of the unit and using it like a benchstone to do the tip. Any suggestions on holding the right angle for a novice to benchstone sharpening? My next question is when I have the whole edge set to 10 degrees per side, when I move to the different grits of stone how many strokes should I do on each side before flipping the unit around to hit the other side (remember I have a notebook propped unter it to get the different angle)? Alternating with every stroke would probably help minimize the burr, but it is a pain when you have to flip the unit every time. Also, I plan on doing a micro-bevel at 15 degrees, does that seem right?

Thanks for your help.

Mike

 

[DGG]

I would tape the knife good when working on the tip so you don't scratch it up. Isn't reprofiling fun! You angles sound okay. If you get too acute you will start to see chipping sometimes.

 

[Cliff Stamp]

I'm thinking of putting the two stones in the back of the unit and using it like a benchstone to do the tip. Any suggestions on holding the right angle for a novice to benchstone sharpening?

Since you are just shaping the edge it doesn't matter significantly. You generally only want high precision in the final honing. 10 degrees is very low, that is close to the primary grind on sabre-ground blades, you will be almost flat to the stone. I would strongly recommend you get a more coarse stone though, you could have been done long ago with a cheap x-coarse stone from a hardware store.

Alternating with every stroke would probably help minimize the burr, but it is a pain when you have to flip the unit every time.

Until the burr is formed, flipping the knife to the other side doesn't do anything significant to effect its formation. Once the burr is formed and you keep honing on that side it just gets worse, so just check the edge and stop once it forms, or starts to form and then flip to the other side and work it down. Remove the burr on the coarse stones before you micro-bevel at your finishing grit.

Also, I plan on doing a micro-bevel at 15 degrees, does that seem right?

Seems reasonable to me for a general use knife which sees harder use.

-Cliff

 

[cbwx34]

Yea... get a coarse stone to do the prelim. work... there's no advantage to trying to do it on a Sharpmaker. It's too fine an abrasive. It's going to take even longer to do the rest, because the width of the edge is going to get wider (more metal to remove).

You can just lift the stone slightly, and use your thumb as a guide to hold a consistent angle. Good enough for prelimimary work.

cbw

 

[gunmike1]

Thanks for the help, it is great to have a resource like bladeforums to gain knowledge on my new addiction. I haven't scratched the blade yet, but I will tape it, that seems like a very good idea. I was digging through some stuff and found a cheap, coarse benchstone I bought a while ago, I will give that a try to save time and tendonitis. As for removing the burr, should I run it at a high angle over the medium stones once per side, then use the fine stones for the micro bevel? Up to now I was just going at a high angle over the fine stones then proceeding to the micro bevel (I have been doing 15/20 degrees to this point), but it usually took a few hits to get rid of the burr completely (it would shave like a mach 3 on one side, but have trouble shaving on the other side). I probably wouldn't have had that trouble if I just got rid of the burr before using the fine stones.

 

[db]

When you are doing your coarse work I'd still switch sides before getting a burr just to make sure you keep the edge centered. Since you found a coarse stone lets say 50 strokes per side then switch to the other side. Keep that up until the burr forums.

 

[Cliff Stamp]

I probably wouldn't have had that trouble if I just got rid of the burr before using the fine stones.

Exactly right, generally it is more efficient to remove the burr with the abrasive that formed it.

-Cliff