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The BladeForums.com 2024 Traditional Knife is ready to order! See this thread for details: https://www.bladeforums.com/threads/bladeforums-2024-traditional-knife.2003187/
Price is$300$250 ea (shipped within CONUS). If you live outside the US, I will contact you after your order for extra shipping charges.
Order here: https://www.bladeforums.com/help/2024-traditional/ - Order as many as you like, we have plenty.
Sharpenning is hard, but delicate work
- Thread starter Astrodada
- Start date
- Joined
- Oct 18, 2001
- Messages
- 20,978
LMAO!!! 
The topic for today's class (Kami Appreciation 101) will be:
Evaluating "grind marks" - How to spot them, How to avoid them and How to remove them.
The topic for today's class (Kami Appreciation 101) will be:
Evaluating "grind marks" - How to spot them, How to avoid them and How to remove them.
I think sharpening is a damn Zen paradox; less means more, more means less, etc etc. It can be frustrating and fullfilling. It's an Art and it's a Job.
The time spent can be wonderful moments alone with the Self, or irritable time with disassociated anger.
Or not.
It's amazing a simple tool like a knife has so much 'depth' to it while a seemingly complicated tool like a firearm is actually rather simple.
munk
The time spent can be wonderful moments alone with the Self, or irritable time with disassociated anger.
Or not.
It's amazing a simple tool like a knife has so much 'depth' to it while a seemingly complicated tool like a firearm is actually rather simple.
munk
- Joined
- Oct 18, 2001
- Messages
- 20,978
carbon steels sharpen differently than stainless....and also different than crucible (powder) steels...
Then there's convex vs. flat bevels
and straight vs. curved blades
thin edge vs. thick edge
In the beginning, I devoured everything I could get my hands on...books, videos, tutorials, micro-photographs of edges, etc. and talked with some of the brightest minds amongst knifemakers.
I started out on a stone, just like everybody else. Went through probably 6 versions of stones....also picked up some ceramic rods, diamond rods, etc.
I struggled on the first two dozen or so knives I sharpened. Partly because they were (mostly) crappy knives...partly because I didn't really know what I was doing....and partly because the stones themselves were crappy too.
Eventually I did start making sense of the sharpening idea - even bought a strop and began polishing my edges.
My conversations with Ed Fowler and Bill Moran led me to the convex edge. I knew about it and had attempted it semi-successfully with files and stones, but it wasn't until I bought the Delta belt sander that I really began to understand the convex edge.
At first I used it just to start the grind, and then I would sharpen the rest of the knife by hand using a padded block with sandpaper wrapped around it. Now, when I sharpen freehand, I just use a piece of sandpaper and literally "sharpen it by hand". Every once in a while, I'll get distracted and end up with a lil' cut...but it's much easier this way, and using my fingers instead of a block gives me feedback in realtime. More efficient for me.
But most of my sharpening nowadays is done like this:
2x72 belt sander
1 - set bevel with 120 grit
2 - semi-polish with 300-400 grit (whatever's handy)
1x42 belt sander
3 - 800 grit Trizac belt
4 - Fine micron belt w/ polishing compound
5 - leather belt (power-stropping)
All along the way I am building up a wire edge that flips back and forth as I go from one side to the other. When I get to the micron belt, it usually pops off....if it hasn't, then I'll run it along a piece of wood to knock the wire edge off. Then some hard/fast stropping on the leather belt and I'm finished.
I'm still learning...
Then there's convex vs. flat bevels
and straight vs. curved blades
thin edge vs. thick edge
In the beginning, I devoured everything I could get my hands on...books, videos, tutorials, micro-photographs of edges, etc. and talked with some of the brightest minds amongst knifemakers.
I started out on a stone, just like everybody else. Went through probably 6 versions of stones....also picked up some ceramic rods, diamond rods, etc.
I struggled on the first two dozen or so knives I sharpened. Partly because they were (mostly) crappy knives...partly because I didn't really know what I was doing....and partly because the stones themselves were crappy too.
Eventually I did start making sense of the sharpening idea - even bought a strop and began polishing my edges.
My conversations with Ed Fowler and Bill Moran led me to the convex edge. I knew about it and had attempted it semi-successfully with files and stones, but it wasn't until I bought the Delta belt sander that I really began to understand the convex edge.
At first I used it just to start the grind, and then I would sharpen the rest of the knife by hand using a padded block with sandpaper wrapped around it. Now, when I sharpen freehand, I just use a piece of sandpaper and literally "sharpen it by hand". Every once in a while, I'll get distracted and end up with a lil' cut...but it's much easier this way, and using my fingers instead of a block gives me feedback in realtime. More efficient for me.
But most of my sharpening nowadays is done like this:
2x72 belt sander
1 - set bevel with 120 grit
2 - semi-polish with 300-400 grit (whatever's handy)
1x42 belt sander
3 - 800 grit Trizac belt
4 - Fine micron belt w/ polishing compound
5 - leather belt (power-stropping)
All along the way I am building up a wire edge that flips back and forth as I go from one side to the other. When I get to the micron belt, it usually pops off....if it hasn't, then I'll run it along a piece of wood to knock the wire edge off. Then some hard/fast stropping on the leather belt and I'm finished.
I'm still learning...