Sharpening with Tri-angle

O

OmegaA

Joined
Feb 13, 2004
Messages
282
Hello, everybody!
I have Spyderco Tri-angle sharpener for about 1 year now. It sharpens fine provided the blade is not too dull. However, I cannot return the rezor sharpness to my knives on Tri-angle. I sharpen on 40 degrees, as Spyderco Video recommended, but no razor sharpness. I do not know if I should change the angle to 30 degrees because then I change the cutting angle of the edge from and I will have to remove a lot of metal on electric grinder first and then finish on Tri-angle, but I still do not have the grinder. What should I do?
The other question is how dull the knife should be before returning it back to razor sharp condition?
I sharpen Spyderco Delica (steels VG-10 and ATS-55), Muela (440), Victorinox (I do not know the steel), one russian handmade knife and kitchen knives.
Regards,

OmegaA
 
Yes, you need to backbevel the blade so the true sharpness can return. The edge may be very sharp, but there is so much blade behind the edge it will harm cutting due to resistance. I generally back bevel after every 6-10 normal sharpenings.

You may wish to consider other factors, such as:

1. Are the sticks cleaned after each use with scourer and abrasive cleaner?
2. Have you formed the wire edge and then removed it?
3. Are you using the flat sides of the white stones for the final polish? Otherwise it can be harder to get a razor edge.
4. Do you know how to check for edge symetry and check which side of the edge has the wire edge if any?
 
Sorry, I am not native English speaker. What is backbevelling? Here are the answers:
1. I do clean sticks after every use, but I use washing liquid for dishes only. As I remember, it is not allowed to use anything else. I do not use any oil or anything else during the sharpening either. In reality, I stuck to the instructions I received with the sharpener.
2. What is the wire edge?
3. Yes, I use flat sides of the white stones.
4. No, I do not know anything about it.
 
I used on-line translator and it translated “backbevelling” as removing excessive metal near the cutting edge by reducing the angle under which the knife is getting sharpened. Is this what you mean? Could you tell me how to do it? Simply by changing for a short time the angle from 40 to 30 degrees and then use 40 degrees again to finish sharpening?
I forgot to mention that I cannot have the blade razor sharp even after the first sharpening, I do not think there should be backbevelling problem on the first sharpening procedure.
Regards,
 
The only thing I can think to add is to use a very light touch once you are using the flats of the white rods.
 
Ok, I will try my best to help! :D

You got the backbeveling spot on, so we will leave that for now.

Firstly, you need to clean the sticks using a green scouring pad and an abrasive powder pan cleaner like Ajax or similar. Washing up liquid will not be enough! You can't hurt the sticks this way, they are far too hard!

Secondly, perhaps you sticks have not been... broken in. Once you have cleaned them, gently rub them together for a few mins, this will allow them to cut better. From new this is a good thing to do. You only need to do this the once.

If you think of a blade in its most simple form think of a triangle. The base of the triangle is the spine of the blade and the tip of the triangle is the edge. Well with steel if you sharpen one side of the edge and one side only you will remove metal from this side. Simple right? Well at some point you will remove so much metal that the other side of the edge will have nothing to support it and will 'curl' over like a wood shaving. This is the 'wire edge' it means you have removed too much metal from one side. To fix this you simply remove metal from the other side until the wire forms again, but on the other side. Now you know the knife blade is ready to be finished off.

Doing it this way makes sure you have both sides at the same angle BTW. With practice you can spot a wire edge forming from feel and visually before it is very noticable. We will leave that to another time.

Once you have formed a wire edge on one side and then the other, you want to go to the flat sides of the white stone and gently go back to the other side of the blade, now sharpen away this wire edge, gently. Once its gone completly, move back to the other side and gently sharpen 2-3 times alternating sides. Be VERY gentle. At this point you ought to be able to evenly shave arm hair using either side of the blade. If one side is weak at shaving, then sharpen that side 5-6 more times and try again. This is a good way of spotting if a tiny wire edge has formed or if the edge is not symetrical.

This is overly anal as in fairness as long as the wire edge has been formed and removed and the blade is evenly sharpened, you edge will be 100% better than it is now. I hope this helps, I could show you this in seconds, but it is very hard to explain in writing. :o
 
Just a thought, make sure you start with the corners of the grey stones (quickest steel removal) if a lot of metal needs to be removed, then go to the flats of the grey, then the corners of the white and finally the flat whites for finishing off!

If the stones are not clean before you start, they get clogged with steel and can NOT cut the metal. Thus they would be useless until cleaned.
 
Hello again,
Thank you for reply. Yesterday I gave my Tri-Angle to my friend to sharpen his knives. Well, he did exactly according to instructions I gave him: 20 times each side on edges of grey stone, then 20 times on flat parts, 20 times on edges of white stone and then 20 time on flat. Result: all his knives became razor sharp! I tested myself. In fact, I reminded that I could sharpen my Sheffield steel knives until razor sharp condition, but my problem was with Spyderco ATS-55 steel – it never wanted to become razor sharp!
We got curious why his knives got razor sharp (German and Swedish make) while mine did not. I gave him one of my knives (some handmade knife from Uzbekistan) and he tried. According to him, he could feel on his knives the sharpener grinded steel off the knife while my knife simply slid from the sharpener without removing much of the metal. Could you explain, why is that? May be, my knives have too hard metal? What should I do then? It seems to me that if my friend from my instructions could sharpen his knives well, then there is nothing wrong with my technique and sharpener, but something else.
Regards,
 
I haven't used my sharpener in ages and found the same problem that you have... what i found out ages ago, but forgot that time is that (4 me anyway) on the left stone tilt the knife to the right so it dosn't look straight. It actually is but i found when it 'looked' right it wasn't and more was being taken off the left side creating wire edge...hope this helps. Also if my knife needs razor sharp, i dont use the grey. You can normally use the white stones 3-4 times before having to use grey again to touch it up to be a razor as long as it hasn't ben fully blunted by using it on carboard or hard rope or something. Also i used to be obsessed with it being razor like your were, if it catches, cuts skin easy enuff it should be fine, dont get too obsessed...it will stress you out, like it did me. Check ur blade...see if more off one side than the other.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top