Removing burr

MikeC

MikeC

Joined
Sep 16, 2005
Messages
1,364
Ok, I posted recetnly about sharpmaker and how many passess, well I finally got the knife under some good light and low and behold I have a burr, now I know what you guys have been talking about. I feel like I just gained access to some kinda secret club. Anyway, now that I have it, how do I remove it, cause the sharp maker can't take it off. The knife is sharp now but not quite like factory, so I'm assuming once the burr is properly removed it will be shaving sharp.

So how do I remove that sucker?
 
I do it by stropping.

I take a piece of cardboard and turn it on it's edge and use either Flitz or green compound to "fill" the little zig zags on the edge of the cardboard.

Then, I take the knife and draw away from the edge at a similar angle to what I was sharpening at. One side and then the other. Usually doesn't take all that long to get a shaving sharp edge.
 
You can do it by repeated alternating sides on the sharpmaker. As the burr flops back and forth it will eventually break off. You can strop which will help pull the burr off. You can cut into a piece of wood to try and break it off. And you can also take some light passes at a greatly increased angle to try and remove it.

What steel is it? Some steels can form burrs that are just a huge pain to remove while others barely form and then come right off.
 
I've done any one (or several) of the following to help remove/straighten a burr:

1. Strop (with edge trailing motion) the burr side of the edge on the rod/stone, using LIGHT strokes. Take only one or two strokes at a time, then check/inspect for the burr.

2. Cut into a piece of wood (as if whittling), or stiff leather. I've found this actually does work to remove/break off or straighten some burrs.

3. Sometimes, stropping on a piece of fairly hard wood will work. The wood will be a little more forgiving than stropping on a stone, if you use a little more pressure to break off the burr.

Whatever method you use, it helps greatly to use a magnifier (at least 5x - 10x) to inspect your edge closely, to see where the 'work' is being done. It'll help to clarify where exactly the burr is, and if what you're doing is fixing it or not.
 
Have you had any luck with it? I would suggest starting off by going back to the sharpmaker and doing another 50 passes per side alternating from side to side and progressively going lighter on the pressure until you finish with just the weight of the blade.

Do you have a strop? If not just get a piece of cardboard and use the rough brown surface as a strop and do edge trailing motions alternating sides and see if that helps. If that doesn't do it try cutting into the edge of a pine 2x4 and pulling the edge through the wood and see if that helps. It might dull it but shouldn't be bad and then touch it up with light strokes on the sharpmaker to prevent another burr.

The first time I sharpened my Spyderco Native I had a pretty bad burr that took a while to get rid of but haven't had one again. I have read of others having troubles with burrs on S30V. Good luck and let us know how you progress.
 
After sharpening on the highest grit stone, the burr should be small. Strop on leather with chromium oxide and that should fully remove it.
 
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