zyhano
Gold Member
- Joined
- Dec 3, 2009
- Messages
- 1,593
Hey guys,
in the thread "sharpness levels defined" there was a good discussion about the nomenclature of sharpness.
While it was hard to find consensus on definitions there was a lot of useful information in that thread. Many people gave great contributions and there's loads of good stuff in there.
Some good descriptions of sharpness were given and some definitions were proposed.
I was impressed -among others- by the descriptions given by knifenut which you can read in the quote underneath. When analyzing what he stated I decided to try to reproduce the exact same levels of sharpness he described to see if they were a) correct and b) reproducable by me.
Of course, a failure of b) would not indicate a) being false.
His descriptions were detailed and specific for the diamond stones and products by dmt. Of course there was a little disclaimer about steels and angles but I thought I was ready for the challenge. I thought trying to reproduce his results would teach me something about the feeling of sharpness he described. Since he seems to know what he is doing, it's not a bad goal to try to emulate someone further up the learning scale than yourself
So far I have had luck whittling hair with 1 micron diapaste on a strop.
According to knifenut, it should be possible at 6 micron dmt diapaste (on balsa as he uses it). A definite challenge for me
the next quote is edited to make it more brief. nothing is changed in the descriptions but the extra info is removed.
The short version of my results:
I have attained all the results claimed by knifenut at the same level of abrasives used except for the .5 micron and .25 micron since I do not have those (yet).
stuff added in bold by me
What I really like about this little excercise is that I did better than I could do at that moment and that I have a new benchmark for me, just by having had an accurate description that was above what I had reached at that moment.
So in essence, this is something that we can all learn or use as a benchmark for ourselves, as long as data for your sharpening medium is known or stated here (as it was for dmt stones, which I have) with an accurate description.
It would be cool if other guys could make their own thread with descriptions like this for the edge pro, sharpmaker, waterstones etc.
the longer version of my results can be viewed by checking out the pictures and the descriptions that go along with it. enjoy guys.
little hairs from shaving on the blade. as you can see the tip needs some work. I went for a shallower angle at the tip and I'm not yet touching the edge there. by going for a shallower angle I had to take some metal away getting a larger relief edge at the tip.
I started with XC but went to XXC to be able to remove more metal (this is the other side btw). A sharp edge grind with an xtra coarse diamond stone. The diamonds give a nice scratch pattern. Even the XXC can rip hair and makes a mean slicer of a knife.
a little assymetry on the tip, more metal needs to be removed
xxc results, I'm finished on this stone and moving on to the coarse.
As you can see, clean cuts through paper, no burrs that catches paper...
light strokes when finishing the sharpening on the XXC and a light cut through wood gets rid of a burry edge. the 420HC didn't seem to give a lot of burrs anyway..
A little sharpie left near the heel of the blade. I did not sharpen all the way to the heel since there was just too much metal there because of the shape of the blade and the widening near the heel. I tried to do it as best I could and in the end it's still really sharp there (.3 inch), just not as nice as the rest of the finished edge, since it did not get an even amount of time on the different grits.
the XC stone. nothing to add. A sharp knife already.
in the thread "sharpness levels defined" there was a good discussion about the nomenclature of sharpness.
While it was hard to find consensus on definitions there was a lot of useful information in that thread. Many people gave great contributions and there's loads of good stuff in there.
Some good descriptions of sharpness were given and some definitions were proposed.
I was impressed -among others- by the descriptions given by knifenut which you can read in the quote underneath. When analyzing what he stated I decided to try to reproduce the exact same levels of sharpness he described to see if they were a) correct and b) reproducable by me.
Of course, a failure of b) would not indicate a) being false.
His descriptions were detailed and specific for the diamond stones and products by dmt. Of course there was a little disclaimer about steels and angles but I thought I was ready for the challenge. I thought trying to reproduce his results would teach me something about the feeling of sharpness he described. Since he seems to know what he is doing, it's not a bad goal to try to emulate someone further up the learning scale than yourself
So far I have had luck whittling hair with 1 micron diapaste on a strop.
According to knifenut, it should be possible at 6 micron dmt diapaste (on balsa as he uses it). A definite challenge for me
the next quote is edited to make it more brief. nothing is changed in the descriptions but the extra info is removed.
The short version of my results:
I have attained all the results claimed by knifenut at the same level of abrasives used except for the .5 micron and .25 micron since I do not have those (yet).
stuff added in bold by me
What I really like about this little excercise is that I did better than I could do at that moment and that I have a new benchmark for me, just by having had an accurate description that was above what I had reached at that moment.
So in essence, this is something that we can all learn or use as a benchmark for ourselves, as long as data for your sharpening medium is known or stated here (as it was for dmt stones, which I have) with an accurate description.
It would be cool if other guys could make their own thread with descriptions like this for the edge pro, sharpmaker, waterstones etc.
the longer version of my results can be viewed by checking out the pictures and the descriptions that go along with it. enjoy guys.
little hairs from shaving on the blade. as you can see the tip needs some work. I went for a shallower angle at the tip and I'm not yet touching the edge there. by going for a shallower angle I had to take some metal away getting a larger relief edge at the tip.
I started with XC but went to XXC to be able to remove more metal (this is the other side btw). A sharp edge grind with an xtra coarse diamond stone. The diamonds give a nice scratch pattern. Even the XXC can rip hair and makes a mean slicer of a knife.
a little assymetry on the tip, more metal needs to be removed
xxc results, I'm finished on this stone and moving on to the coarse.
As you can see, clean cuts through paper, no burrs that catches paper...
light strokes when finishing the sharpening on the XXC and a light cut through wood gets rid of a burry edge. the 420HC didn't seem to give a lot of burrs anyway..
A little sharpie left near the heel of the blade. I did not sharpen all the way to the heel since there was just too much metal there because of the shape of the blade and the widening near the heel. I tried to do it as best I could and in the end it's still really sharp there (.3 inch), just not as nice as the rest of the finished edge, since it did not get an even amount of time on the different grits.
the XC stone. nothing to add. A sharp knife already.
nah, I'll have to practice some more