Raising a burr and stropping

C

cosine

Joined
Dec 13, 2005
Messages
706
How do you raise a burr when you sharpen a knife? I have a medium diamond stone (200-250 grit or something like that) and a fine Arkansas stone. (1000 grit) When I sharpen, I can't raise a burr with the medium stone, and the fine stone doesn't take any metal off the blade.

Finally, after you have raised a burr, how do you strop it off? Do you just stroke the knife blade along a piece of leather?
 
You just sharpen one side until you feel the edge folded over on the other side. You then repeat the process on the other side. In general it is not a good idea to ignore the burr and try to strop it off, this is both inefficient and frequently produces a very poor edge in regards to edge retention even if it is sharp. The best way to remove burrs has been described in detail by Jeff Clark which consists of periodic high angle honing to eliminate them. You also don't wait until you get to the final grit to do this, but take a few passes when you change grits to prevent the burr from getting too large. Ref :

http://www.bladeforums.com/forums/showthread.php?t=357720

-Cliff
 
Thanks for the link Cliff. I got some good info. I couldn't find it myself, darn search function doesn't work very well.
 
Thanks, all. I tried some of the techniques in the links freehand with my stones, and managed to get the blade on my SAK sharper than I have ever before. :thumbup: It still is not shaving sharp, but I'll work on that.
 
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