AFAustin
Gold Member
- Joined
- Jun 8, 2004
- Messages
- 2,496
I have owned and thoroughly enjoyed my Work Sharp KO for quite a while now---it is a fabulous tool. One thing which has given me problems, though, is wharncliffe blades---specifically maintaining a straight edge at the last few millimeters before the tip. I have a tendency, in trying to apex that last portion of the edge, to grind a little too much and "lift" the tip. That is, instead of being straight across at the tip, my edge would lift up just slightly, making for a "semi-wharncliffe" shape instead of a completely straight edge. In truth I really like semi-wharncliffe blade shapes and have a few knives which sport them, but I don't want one where it's not intended!
So I set about to study up a little and to borrow the wisdom of some pros. The main persons I relied on for advice were two "Dan"s: the first is known around here as Komitadjie, who I know to be an expert belt sharpener, as well as the guy who brought us the invaluable "Grand Unified Grit Chart": http://www.bladeforums.com/forums/showthread.php/856708-The-Grand-Unified-Grit-Chart The other is Dan Dovel, the engineer at Darex (manufacturer of the Work Sharp) who was one of the main players in designing and developing the Work Sharp, and who has been a huge help to me in learning about this great tool.
I wanted to take whatever I learned and distill it down to a few simple rules or guidelines which I could use to do a better job with the WSKO on my wharnies. Before getting to them, though, let me list 3 guidelines I've been using recently with all my knife sharpening on the WSKO. I should mention that what I'm usually sharpening are traditional folders with small, thin blades, so these guidelines are for them---not for that huge chopper you're setting out to re-profile!
1) Use a sharpie on every belt, for the usual reasons---to see where I'm grinding and to make sure I'm hitting the very edge along the entire blade. The only exception is that I don't use sharpie before doing a final polish with the Micro Mesh 6000 belt because I find that in trying to remove all the marker at the very tip, the thin and extremely flexible 6000 belt will wrap around just a bit and dull my tip.
2) Start with as fine a grit as I think might do the job. If things then go too slowly, I can always move up to the next coarsest grit. In other words, be as conservative as possible with steel removal and progress slowly so you can see what's happening in small increments with your blade .
3) Start with a slow speed, maybe 3 or 4 clicks off the slowest setting. This likewise minimizes metal removal and gives you more control over what you're doing. I find that the very slowest speeds make for some jerkiness in how the belt rotates, and a few clicks up makes for a smoother ride.
As for my "Wharnie Guidelines", here's what I came up with. Some apply to any blade sharpening with the WSKO but are even more important with wharnies, and others are specific to wharnie sharpening:
1) Use the stiff "X" weight Norax belts. These flex a bit less than the stock WSKO belts.
2) Draw the tip no more than 1/3 of the way across the belt, and maybe even less with a thin and delicate tip.
3) Maintain a light touch---very little pressure on the belt.
4) As the tip contacts the belt, release the power trigger and quickly pull the blade through and off the belt.
5) Sharpen close to the pulleys where there is less flexing of the belt.
6) Don't lift the handle (as you would do with a knife with a belly) but rather keep your wrist straight and pull the blade straight across the belt (parallel to the ground).
7) For final polishing, DO NOT USE the Micro-Mesh 6000, or any other MM belt. They are just too flimsy and very likely to fold around a wharnie tip.
So, having (finally) sat down and put this in writing, I thought I'd put the guidelines to the test and do a wharnie sharpening. I found some great guinea pigs for this experiment at Wally World---these have got to be about the cheapest knives you can buy, something like $1 or $2 for a pack of 4, IIRC, and they have a sheepsfoot shaped blade:
This is about wharnies, though, so I reground them accordingly. As you can imagine, they were dull as butter knives out of the package, so now it's time to sharpen one--hopefully while maintaining a very pointy tip and a straight edge leading up to it. I should mention that I almost always use the WSKO freehand (without the guide) and that's what I did here.
First off, per my general guideline #1, apply some sharpie:
The steel is undoubtedly soft, so in keeping with general guideline #2, I decided to start with the stiff Norax belt #22 (22 micron):
After a number of passes, though, I wasn't happy with my rate of progress, so I switched out for the next coarsest of the stiff Norax belts, a #45:
The #45 did the trick and soon reached the edge on both sides, as shown by the sharpie. You can see that there is still some sharpie near the heel on one side. This was a small problem area but since the purpose of this little experiment was to sharpen the knife while maintaining the tip and a straight bevel leading up to it, I didn't spend any more time on getting the heel fully sharpened.
Next it was back to the #22 belt, and then on to the finest grit in the stiff Norax series, a #5:
After the #5, I had a nice sharp edge, and low and behold--- success: the tip remained pointy and the edge leading up to it remained wharncliffe straight:
I then went ahead and did a final polishing with the 6000 belt (no sharpie), and I was very careful with it as I approached the tip. The caution paid off and the polish was accomplished without rounding or lifting the tip.
Update: See new guideline #7 added above. I was lucky using the Micro-Mesh 6000 belt here, but I now think they are just too treacherous to risk using on a wharnie. They are so flimsy and flexible that there is a huge risk that they will fold around and blunt and lift a beautiful wharnie tip. This was brought home to me today as I was sharpening a wharnie blade on a beautiful GEC folder. Things were going great as I followed my guidelines and my wharnie tip was very straight and with a needle point. I polished with the Norax 5x belt, and then further with a worn Norax 4x (which is not from the set of stiffer Noraxes, but still quite firm). I should've stopped there but I went ahead and tried a final polish on a worn 6000 belt. Honestly, this belt barely abrades metal at all and I really didn't think there was much risk in using it on my wharnie. And I was careful, as I approached the tip just barely touching it. But when I finished and inspected the tip---Bam! The 6000 had slightly rounded and lifted my tip.
I spent some time with fine sandpaper and reconstructed the tip and it looks good again, but I learned my lesson---no more 6000 (or any flexible belts) on my wharnies!
I found that as I got into it, I didn't follow the guidelines religiously (except for the sixth one about not lifting the handle), but used them as, well, guidelines, and adjusted as needed as I got a feel for the blade. An example is the fifth one about using the part of the belt closer to the pulley. I did that to some extent but found that simply maintaining a very light touch was more important.
In sum, this was a fun little test, and I was happy to finally try out the guidelines I'd put together thanks to my expert advisors, the two Dans. And the result is that while this little knife is without doubt still the proverbial piece of you-know-what, it's now at least a very sharp, straight, and pointy one!
Thanks for reading and looking.
Andrew
So I set about to study up a little and to borrow the wisdom of some pros. The main persons I relied on for advice were two "Dan"s: the first is known around here as Komitadjie, who I know to be an expert belt sharpener, as well as the guy who brought us the invaluable "Grand Unified Grit Chart": http://www.bladeforums.com/forums/showthread.php/856708-The-Grand-Unified-Grit-Chart The other is Dan Dovel, the engineer at Darex (manufacturer of the Work Sharp) who was one of the main players in designing and developing the Work Sharp, and who has been a huge help to me in learning about this great tool.
I wanted to take whatever I learned and distill it down to a few simple rules or guidelines which I could use to do a better job with the WSKO on my wharnies. Before getting to them, though, let me list 3 guidelines I've been using recently with all my knife sharpening on the WSKO. I should mention that what I'm usually sharpening are traditional folders with small, thin blades, so these guidelines are for them---not for that huge chopper you're setting out to re-profile!
1) Use a sharpie on every belt, for the usual reasons---to see where I'm grinding and to make sure I'm hitting the very edge along the entire blade. The only exception is that I don't use sharpie before doing a final polish with the Micro Mesh 6000 belt because I find that in trying to remove all the marker at the very tip, the thin and extremely flexible 6000 belt will wrap around just a bit and dull my tip.
2) Start with as fine a grit as I think might do the job. If things then go too slowly, I can always move up to the next coarsest grit. In other words, be as conservative as possible with steel removal and progress slowly so you can see what's happening in small increments with your blade .
3) Start with a slow speed, maybe 3 or 4 clicks off the slowest setting. This likewise minimizes metal removal and gives you more control over what you're doing. I find that the very slowest speeds make for some jerkiness in how the belt rotates, and a few clicks up makes for a smoother ride.
As for my "Wharnie Guidelines", here's what I came up with. Some apply to any blade sharpening with the WSKO but are even more important with wharnies, and others are specific to wharnie sharpening:
1) Use the stiff "X" weight Norax belts. These flex a bit less than the stock WSKO belts.
2) Draw the tip no more than 1/3 of the way across the belt, and maybe even less with a thin and delicate tip.
3) Maintain a light touch---very little pressure on the belt.
4) As the tip contacts the belt, release the power trigger and quickly pull the blade through and off the belt.
5) Sharpen close to the pulleys where there is less flexing of the belt.
6) Don't lift the handle (as you would do with a knife with a belly) but rather keep your wrist straight and pull the blade straight across the belt (parallel to the ground).
7) For final polishing, DO NOT USE the Micro-Mesh 6000, or any other MM belt. They are just too flimsy and very likely to fold around a wharnie tip.
So, having (finally) sat down and put this in writing, I thought I'd put the guidelines to the test and do a wharnie sharpening. I found some great guinea pigs for this experiment at Wally World---these have got to be about the cheapest knives you can buy, something like $1 or $2 for a pack of 4, IIRC, and they have a sheepsfoot shaped blade:
This is about wharnies, though, so I reground them accordingly. As you can imagine, they were dull as butter knives out of the package, so now it's time to sharpen one--hopefully while maintaining a very pointy tip and a straight edge leading up to it. I should mention that I almost always use the WSKO freehand (without the guide) and that's what I did here.
First off, per my general guideline #1, apply some sharpie:
The steel is undoubtedly soft, so in keeping with general guideline #2, I decided to start with the stiff Norax belt #22 (22 micron):
After a number of passes, though, I wasn't happy with my rate of progress, so I switched out for the next coarsest of the stiff Norax belts, a #45:
The #45 did the trick and soon reached the edge on both sides, as shown by the sharpie. You can see that there is still some sharpie near the heel on one side. This was a small problem area but since the purpose of this little experiment was to sharpen the knife while maintaining the tip and a straight bevel leading up to it, I didn't spend any more time on getting the heel fully sharpened.
Next it was back to the #22 belt, and then on to the finest grit in the stiff Norax series, a #5:
After the #5, I had a nice sharp edge, and low and behold--- success: the tip remained pointy and the edge leading up to it remained wharncliffe straight:
I then went ahead and did a final polishing with the 6000 belt (no sharpie), and I was very careful with it as I approached the tip. The caution paid off and the polish was accomplished without rounding or lifting the tip.
Update: See new guideline #7 added above. I was lucky using the Micro-Mesh 6000 belt here, but I now think they are just too treacherous to risk using on a wharnie. They are so flimsy and flexible that there is a huge risk that they will fold around and blunt and lift a beautiful wharnie tip. This was brought home to me today as I was sharpening a wharnie blade on a beautiful GEC folder. Things were going great as I followed my guidelines and my wharnie tip was very straight and with a needle point. I polished with the Norax 5x belt, and then further with a worn Norax 4x (which is not from the set of stiffer Noraxes, but still quite firm). I should've stopped there but I went ahead and tried a final polish on a worn 6000 belt. Honestly, this belt barely abrades metal at all and I really didn't think there was much risk in using it on my wharnie. And I was careful, as I approached the tip just barely touching it. But when I finished and inspected the tip---Bam! The 6000 had slightly rounded and lifted my tip.
I spent some time with fine sandpaper and reconstructed the tip and it looks good again, but I learned my lesson---no more 6000 (or any flexible belts) on my wharnies!I found that as I got into it, I didn't follow the guidelines religiously (except for the sixth one about not lifting the handle), but used them as, well, guidelines, and adjusted as needed as I got a feel for the blade. An example is the fifth one about using the part of the belt closer to the pulley. I did that to some extent but found that simply maintaining a very light touch was more important.
In sum, this was a fun little test, and I was happy to finally try out the guidelines I'd put together thanks to my expert advisors, the two Dans. And the result is that while this little knife is without doubt still the proverbial piece of you-know-what, it's now at least a very sharp, straight, and pointy one!
Thanks for reading and looking.
Andrew
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