Shaving sharp

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Brutus013

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How long did it take you to be able to sharpen a knife to the point that it would shave leg/arm hair (freehand)? Today I got my first stones, Norton 2210/1000 and 4000/8000 water stones, and I'm not having much success. I got one knife to the point where it would whittle hair under tension, but it has a scandinavian grind, and that was on the 4000 grit stone (the 8000 I'm saving for tomorrow). The other knives, however, are not going so well. On the 1000 grit water stone, I can barely get them to slice paper or shave leg hair very well or consistently, nor are the edges themselves concistent in sharpness along it's length. I HAVE been doing the sharpie thing, and I'm sharpening at the right angles, but I just haven't been able to get them very sharp. Also, I can't seem to get a wire edge.

Were your experiences similair, or did you get your knives shaving sharp right off the bat?
 
It takes some time to learn how to sharpen properly. Don't push it, just keep trying. It took me quite some time, but over a couple of years my sharpening skills got quite good. Now it only takes me a few minutes to get a knife shaving sharp.
 
with 600 and then 1200 grit sandpaper i can get most knives shaving sharp, but not as sharp as with the sharpmaker

i could do that immediately after i bought those, but i have some previous experience with a sandstone of a much less fine grit, but i dont know what grit that stone is

only that it was cheap
 
A lot depends on the type of grind it has but the quality of the steel is a major factor also. I have no trouble getting my german paring knife to shave my arm but my budget made in China blades are impossible to sharpen or keep sharp. The coarse grain of the steel precludes obtaining a superfine edge. (I use 2000 wet&dry taped onto a piece of glass and finish off with a leather strop)

Suggest you practice on a cheaper blade, frequently checking the edge with a magnifying glass until you get your technique right
 
antonio_luiz said:
A lot depends on the type of grind it has but the quality of the steel is a major factor also. I have no trouble getting my german paring knife to shave my arm but my budget made in China blades are impossible to sharpen or keep sharp. The coarse grain of the steel precludes obtaining a superfine edge. (I use 2000 wet&dry taped onto a piece of glass and finish off with a leather strop)

Suggest you practice on a cheaper blade, frequently checking the edge with a magnifying glass until you get your technique right
Click to expand...

All I have is cheap blades. I have a pathetically small collection of knives for a person who knows so much about them (compared to the average person). I have, get this, THREE KNIVES. A finnish puukko, which is a no name model that couldn't have cost more then $10-$20 (gift), a $25 Byrd Cara Cara, and a $35 Junkyard Dog. I could ruin all three and not have too much money down the drain. Right now, though, I've been trying to get the Cara Cara as sharp as possible (and so far, that's not very sharp).
 
It did take a little time for me, too. Just keep trying, it will work eventually.
 
The sharpie pen is your best friend. Personally, I found that there was almost always an important difference between what I thought I was doing, and what was actually happening to the blade.
 
if you have an edge that will somewhat shave hair it wont take much to get it shaving sharp. back when i used to do all my sharpening by hand i used a ceramic stick to polish the edge so its shaving sharp. are you pushing or pulling the blade on your stones? sometimes that can make a difference in developing a wire edge. if you want to consistently get a shaving sharp edge check out the paper wheels. i have a link to the good ones at my website. these knives were sharpened with the wheels. http://www.myculpeper.com/richardj/MLNA0018.AVI http://www.myculpeper.com/richardj/MLNA0001a.AVI
 
It was when I was a child, maybe 7 or 8 years old. My father let me have my knife, a Japanese traditional once very popular cheap pocket knife Higonokami. It is cheap but it is not a toy, a real knife very well made having built to san-mai construction. It also suffered some rust and was not very sharp, so I come to think I should make it sharp. There was a natural water sharpening stone in my home, maybe #1000 or 2000 (not sure) which I could use. I tried, tried very hard and finally I got a large burr on the edge. At first, I didnt recognise what was that thing but while trying, I was gradually getting some idea.
I had no idea how sharp a knife can be made by human hand, but I had convinced that if the burr should removed very well, I should obtain a very sharp edge. As Higonokami has plain carbon steel edge, it is relatively easy to get razor sharp edge.

It took several months for me to be able to sharpen stainless steel blade to be razor sharp as traditional natural water stone is not always the best selection for western style two-stage construction edge that I had to find some other sharpening stone (I got small Arkansas stone).
 
I can't manage to get a wire edge. I just tried some more, but no luck. I'm assuming PUSHING the blade across the stone will develope a burr faster, so in a while I'll try to concentrate on pushing more then I have been. I don't get why I'm not getting a burr, which I need to get it past sort of getting sharp TO sharp. I'm using a sharpie, marking the edge, and when I sharpen the edge it wears away pretty evenly, but still no burr. Also, that video is very impressive.
 
its not that hard to get a knife shaving sharp. i can take a dull kitchen knife and a single ceramic stick and have it shaving sharp in minutes. i dont mind hand sharpening but that takes too long and is hard on my hands. send me your email addy and i'll send you some pictures that might help you. i'm showing a member how to finish putting a convex grind on a helle that had a scandi grind. i started the convex edge but i didnt want to take a lot of life out of the blade so i sent him some pad and abrasive cloth to touch the edge up as it gets dull. he can get a paper buffing wheel to remove the burr and polish the edge real quick or strop it by hand if he doesnt mind taking the time to finish the edge this way.
 
I realize it isn't that difficult, which is why I'm so confused as to why I'm not seemingly able to.
 
i'm sending you an email when i get it typed out, it might take me a while but i'm sure it will help you out. do you have a dremel tool?
 
No, but I DO have air compressor and a grinder/other attachments for it that are at least as good as one.
 
The trick is keeping a consistent angle and pressure on the stone. It won't get you to Carnegy Hall but practice, practice, practice.
 
Do you know if the surface of the stones are perfectly flat?

If you're using an even light touch and you're getting uneven results that might be worth checking.
 
AfterTFD said:
Do you know if the surface of the stones are perfectly flat?

If you're using an even light touch and you're getting uneven results that might be worth checking.
Click to expand...

I flattened them all with a flattening stone multiple times, so they're flat.
 
It took me about fifteen years to get to where I could consistently get my knives shaving sharp. Starting when I was six years old may have lengthened the time required a bit, since my fine motor control wasn't very well developed back then.;)

Work one side at a time. When you get to the edge, it will begin to create a burr. The more pressure you use, the faster the burr will form, but I don't really consider that to be a good thing, as light pressure will result in a finer edge. The burr forms when the steel at the edge gets too thin to resist the amount of pressure used and bends away from the stone. The lighter the pressure, the thinner the steel has to be.

If the bevels are set, when you flip the blade over and start on the other side, the first thing that will contact the stone is the burr. If you use too much pressure, the burr will simply bend the other way instead of being ground off by the abrasive action of the stone. Go back and forth a few times and the burr just breaks off, leaving a flat edge. Light pressure will abrade the burr away, giving you a clean edge.
 
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