Sandpaper and mousepad sharpening technique

mfaster7 said:
Ayway for anyone using sandpaper it is a good idea to tape up your blade. It will protect it from scratching when you are reprofiling the shoulders of the convex edge. Just a thought
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Darnit, I coulda used that advice a week ago! :p
 
If you have even a slight bit of ink at the edge of your blade you are not honing the edge at all. If you want an acute edge that shaves well you should keep your current angle and expect to spend a long time honing. If you are losing patience try using a slightly higher honing angle. This should start improving your edge's cutting performance. If it doesn't give you the performance that you want go back to honing at a lower angle.
 
Wow.

Great advice from the Busse Brotherhood. Very helpful.

Enjoyed reading this thread. Maybe I will finally get the courage to try "to improve" the edge on one of my Busse's because a "Real Man" knows how to sharpen his blade.
 
I finally achieved success (mostly!) I ended up going down to 220 grit and increased my angle a bit, and that seemed to bring things around. I got it just starting to shave at 320, and then 600/1500 is where it started shaving nicely. I can't however begin to slice hairs held between my fingers like some others here, but maybe with some more practice and refinement.

Thanks to everyone for their advice!
 
P J 234 said:
I finally achieved success (mostly!) I ended up going down to 220 grit and increased my angle a bit, and that seemed to bring things around. I got it just starting to shave at 320, and then 600/1500 is where it started shaving nicely. I can't however begin to slice hairs held between my fingers like some others here, but maybe with some more practice and refinement.

Thanks to everyone for their advice!
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Congratulations :thumbup::thumbup::thumbup:

Did you jump from 600 right to 1500? If so, did you get all the scratches out from the 600? I would put at least one, maybe two intermediates in if you want the finest edge. Like 800 and 1200.

On the other hand, sometimes I do that jump myself, to get a good toothy-polished edge - makes a great slicer but not quite so good at push-cutting as a finer finish.

The hair whittling (for me anyway) comes after a good stropping. You really need a finely polished edge for it,

The real trick is to not just push-cut through the hair, but to split it lengthways or slice curls into it like a feather stick! Takes a steady hand and good eyesight as well as a sharp knife.

A little practice and stropping and you'll be making feather-hairs in no time!
 
foxyrick said:
Congratulations :thumbup::thumbup::thumbup:

Did you jump from 600 right to 1500? If so, did you get all the scratches out from the 600? I would put at least one, maybe two intermediates in if you want the finest edge. Like 800 and 1200.

On the other hand, sometimes I do that jump myself, to get a good toothy-polished edge - makes a great slicer but not quite so good at push-cutting as a finer finish.

The hair whittling (for me anyway) comes after a good stropping. You really need a finely polished edge for it,

The real trick is to not just push-cut through the hair, but to split it lengthways or slice curls into it like a feather stick! Takes a steady hand and good eyesight as well as a sharp knife.

A little practice and stropping and you'll be making feather-hairs in no time!
Click to expand...

Yes, those were the only grits available locally to me. It seems to have removed most of the scratches, but to be honest I ddin't pay that much attention. I stropped a little bit on cardboard with Flitz (don't have a real strop), but no go yet on the hair whittlin'.
 
Cardboard is almost as good, don't worry about that, and I'm probably a bit over-fussy about the intermediate grades. I think it's just a case of keep practicing with what you have - you'll get there!
 
I think that for your final finish you should use old 1500 grit paper. The paper gets smoother with use.
 
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