Sharpening w/All Grits on Each Side vs Swapping Sides Between Grits?

[PeteCress]

If I am starting from scratch. I will sharpen with 150, 240, 400, 800, 1200, and 1500 grit stones.

The naure of my Ruxin sharpener is that, when I flip the blade, the stone must be re-aligned to the desired sharpening angle.

Lacking a rack-and-pinion adjustment mechanism, those realignments take a few minutes.

That being the case, I am tempted to work through all six grits on one side of the knife, flip it over, and then work through all six grits on the other side - instead of flipping/re-aligning the blade between each grit.

Is there a flaw in this approach?

 

[91bravo]

I think you would get better success if you sharpen the edge as a whole. Both sides at a time. Sharpening through the grits on one side at a time doesn’t make sense to me, unless you have a guided system, in which you do.

Learn to freehand sharpen and you’ll never be tethered to a sharpening system ever again.

 

[DMG]

If I am starting from scratch. I will sharpen with 150, 240, 400, 800, 1200, and 1500 grit stones.

The naure of my Ruxin sharpener is that, when I flip the blade, the stone must be re-aligned to the desired sharpening angle.

Lacking a rack-and-pinion adjustment mechanism, those realignments take a few minutes.

That being the case, I am tempted to work through all six grits on one side of the knife, flip it over, and then work through all six grits on the other side - instead of flipping/re-aligning the blade between each grit.

Is there a flaw in this approach?

I suspect this will result in an uneven grind

 

[shane45-1911]

Learn to freehand sharpen and you’ll never be tethered to a sharpening system ever again.

This, absolutely this!!!!

I think back to the countless hours I used to spend with systems, checking and rechecking angles, swapping stones, etc. only to realize with a bit of practice I could achieve the exact same results with significantly less time by sharpening freehand.

 

[karnaknives]

If I am starting from scratch. I will sharpen with 150, 240, 400, 800, 1200, and 1500 grit stones.

The naure of my Ruxin sharpener is that, when I flip the blade, the stone must be re-aligned to the desired sharpening angle.

Lacking a rack-and-pinion adjustment mechanism, those realignments take a few minutes.

That being the case, I am tempted to work through all six grits on one side of the knife, flip it over, and then work through all six grits on the other side - instead of flipping/re-aligning the blade between each grit.

Is there a flaw in this approach?

I never thought of doing it this way, and I've not heard of anyone doing it this way....
I say try it, and let us know how it worked out.
Worst case scenario you have to sharpen it again, but then we'll all know!

 

[jmh33]

My thought is Mega burr.
John

 

[LimpCroissant]

I don't think it's a real good idea to do it that way because after making sure your apexed on each stone, you need to de-burr. On each stone progression the burr should get smaller and smaller. Like when I sharpen I start at 80 or 100 grit and get a pretty decent size burr. After getting a burr on both sides I reduce that burr to where it's almost gone to the eye, then start the next stone. And on each stone I do a deburring. That way when you get to the end you hardly have any burr to get rid of. If you did the whole progression on one side, and then did the whole progression of the other, you'd have a big ol' nasty burr on the first side that you'd have to go back and remove. It's possible I suppose, but just using the last stone in your progression to debur isn't optimal. Maybe if you did your whole plan, and then for de-burring you raised it up a couple degrees to put a microbevel on. But... I've never seen anyone do it, ya never know.

 

[ktataragasi]

As others have stated you will get a huge burr. If it's a thing thing you could also just skip some grits. Start at 150 then go to 800 then 1500 and call it done.

 

[Ourorboros]

Burrs can - and should - be removed.
The purpose of using coarser grits is to apex quickly. It also adds teeth to the blade.
Using a finer grit just means it takes longer to apex. But really apexing is apexing.

A knife would have to be really dull for me to need to use a 150. Given the time it takes to set up a new stone/blade side on your system, I'd start with the finest stone I could use to bring back the edge.