Hey y'all, newbie here and I have some questions about sharpening....I have read many different sharpening things and it seems that everyone does things a little differently.. I just want a simple way to keep my knive razor sharp. I have a DMT 600 grit and 300 grit diamond stones. I am trying to learn how to use this and form a burr and then "hone" it off. What exactly does that mean. i never seem to feel a burr.... Also everyone seems to talk about if you just run the knife over a strop it will shave...is this right?? What exactly do I need?? Some people use a butchers steel??? Someone help me simplify this....!!! Thanks.
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Sharpening help
- Thread starter makey98
- Start date
- Joined
- Nov 13, 2004
- Messages
- 878
Welcome. This is the place to learn so keep visiting.
And as soon as it all makes sense to you, you'll read something new and get all confused again. Kind of the reason I have cancelled all of my subscriptions to golf magazines.
Sharpening is confusing as hell, yet simplistic in concept.
I'm an Edge Pro Guy and also have a Sharpmaker with UF stones, 2 leather strops a 1200 grit Edge Pro Ceramic Steel, and a smooth steel. Go figure !
I can't really speak to DMT or any free hand benchstones but I can talk conceptually.
You start with your coarsest stone and stay on one side until you feel the "burr". The burr will always form on the side facing the stone. Every 10 or so strokes take your fingernail and carefully run it from the spine to the edge. If you have formed a burr you will feel your nail catch a bit. Feel along the entire length and keep at it until the burr is the entire length of the blade. At that point, flip the knife over and do exactly the same thing until you have a burr the entire length. Everything after that would be with finer stones where you making the edge less "toothy" and the strop will polish it.
Simple, huh?
My suggestion to you is to read everything you can get your hands on about sharpening. There is an entire forum at knifeforums.com dedicated to sharpening. Most members here belong there as well.
Patience.
And as soon as it all makes sense to you, you'll read something new and get all confused again. Kind of the reason I have cancelled all of my subscriptions to golf magazines.
Sharpening is confusing as hell, yet simplistic in concept.
I'm an Edge Pro Guy and also have a Sharpmaker with UF stones, 2 leather strops a 1200 grit Edge Pro Ceramic Steel, and a smooth steel. Go figure !
I can't really speak to DMT or any free hand benchstones but I can talk conceptually.
You start with your coarsest stone and stay on one side until you feel the "burr". The burr will always form on the side facing the stone. Every 10 or so strokes take your fingernail and carefully run it from the spine to the edge. If you have formed a burr you will feel your nail catch a bit. Feel along the entire length and keep at it until the burr is the entire length of the blade. At that point, flip the knife over and do exactly the same thing until you have a burr the entire length. Everything after that would be with finer stones where you making the edge less "toothy" and the strop will polish it.
Simple, huh?
My suggestion to you is to read everything you can get your hands on about sharpening. There is an entire forum at knifeforums.com dedicated to sharpening. Most members here belong there as well.
Patience.
- Joined
- Apr 3, 2004
- Messages
- 879
"The burr will always form on the side facing the stone..."
It will form on the side facing away from the stone...i.e. on the opposite side of the side being honed.
It will form on the side facing away from the stone...i.e. on the opposite side of the side being honed.
Forming a burr means grinding on one side until the edge is so thin than it just folds over instead of being cut off. Ductile metals will burr to some degree when ground thin at angles less than, and sometimes including, 90 degrees. I learned the including 90 degrees part after tearing hunks out of a cloth lap wheel while polishing a metallography sample for lab in school. To feel the burr, I run the blade, edge trailing, down my arm or the back of my hair. If there is a burr, it will pull the hair and you can feel it. I can feel one this way when using my fingernail wont detect it. You can also run the blade edge trailing over a piece of felt or other fuzzy cloth. The burr will collect fuzz and you can see the fuzz on the edge. You can also see a burr under a pocket microscope from radio shack. I have one I use at work that goes from 30x to 100x, but I think 10x will do the trick. I love the DMT 300 grit stones for a finishing stone. I've make a little "jig" by cutting a 4x4 at a 17 degree angle and screwing it to a flat base. Then I just rest the stone against the block and hold the knife 90 degrees to the base (vertically in other words). Its pretty easy to judge a vertical blade by eye, and just hold a stone with a block or rest at an angle to vertical. Search around here and you'll see some pictures of what I'm talking about. I do 20-30 strokes at a time, alternating sides until I can feel a burr after each side is done. The books recommend doing only one side until a burr is formed, no matter how many strokes it takes, but IMHO this requires a great deal of honing on one side, w/o an equal amount on the other. This doesnt affect cutting ability, it just bothers me. I then freehand the burr removal stage by raising the angle and using LIGHT strokes to cut off the burr. If the stroke is too heavy, a new burr will form, or the old one will be pushed over. The 320 grit DMT gives a very agressive edge and is easy to touch up with just a few strokes every so often. If you want to carry just one stone in the field, the 320 will do the trick. If you want a finer edge then the 600 DMT will give an edge with aggression(sp?) and some fine push cutting ability as well, but not as aggresive as the 320. Put it this way, use the 320 on a piece of wood and it acts like a fine saw; dust will come out of the cut like sawdust. Use the 600 and it will act like a much finer saw, or may slide across w/o any dust. This may sound counter productive, but this finer edge will take smooth shavings off the wood, while the coarse edge almost needs the sawing action to be effective.