Smith's Tri-hone stones?

Not to distract....
Stay away from pull through sharpeners.
Click to expand...

I used the Edgemaker Pro pull through set of 4 stages of rods, which are great for kitchen knives, but I tried it on one of my good Benchmade blades to get a very small bevel (it's probably 20*) and then to put a fatter micro bevel over it.

(Their website says they work on BM and Spyderco)

Things went very well for a bit, then on one of the pulls, the rods chattered and put three small, ugly chips in my blade edge. One was deep!

It took approx. four to five hours of honing on my Spyderco sharpmaker - including the diamond rods, to get the blade back to normal again.

I learned my lesson the hard way. Never - Ever Again!
 
For finding a burr, I found that if I run the knife edge trailing (stropping) down the back of my head or along the back of my arm, I can feel a burr easily, as it snags the hair.

I've used a microbevel for years now. Dr. Verhoeven has a paper on sharpening that is floating around the internet. In his work, edges sharpened at an angle of around 40* (20* per side) and then given a final honing or stropping at an increased angle of 5* per side were sharper than those finished at lower angle increases of 2* or 3* per side. He does not attempt to explain this.

Most people dont have a way of telling angles accurately. If you have the little 23* plastic guide that the Smiths stones come with, give that a try. If you want to try a microbevel, sharpen at an estimated 15 to 20 degree angle (anything less than 23* is what you're trying for), then add a microbevel using the 23* Smith's guide. Establish the lower bevel on the coarse stone, then add the micro bevel on the medium and/or fine stones. Just a few strokes on the finer stones will do the trick, maybe 10 strokes per side at medium then repeat at fine, alternating each stroke. The microbevel will be very small, almost invisible unless you look closely with good light. Forming a burr isnt really required, but if you dont have magnification to look at the edge, then its one of the surest ways to make sure you've reached the actual edge and are ready to switch. Bigger burrs are not better. Smaller burrs are easier to remove and dont flop around as much.

Here is my procedure. I learned the Sharpmaker burr removal trick from Jeff Clark here on BFC. I use a stand that holds my bench stone at 15* from vertical, like a Sharpmaker. I do 20-30 strokes per side until I get a burr on one side then the other. This is done on a 250 grit water stone. Then I switch to the 1000 grit side and do the same thing, 20-30 strokes per side until the burr is back on one side, then the other. Then I move to the Sharpmaker medium stones at 20 degrees per side for the final microbevel. I do 40 strokes, alternating sides with each one so I get 20 strokes per side. For this I use the flats of the stones, not the corners. Then I move to the flats of the white stones and repeat. Sometimes a burr will still be present after the medium or white stones. I do 1 or 2 very light, high angle passes on each side to get rid of it. By high angle I mean 30* or 40* per side. Then I go back and do 5 to 10 more strokes per side at the regular angle. After this, the knife will usually whittle hair from my wife's hair brush.
 
Ok, now what all did you just say ? Back and forth coarse to fine ? then back to med . then what ? O-doesn't matter . DM
 
Start with 250 grit waterstone and do 20-30 strokes on one side of the blade, then check for a burr. Then do the other side of the blade and check for a burr. When a burr forms on each side, move to the 1000 grit waterstone and repeat. Then move to the Sharpmaker at a slightly increased angle. A 5 degree increase has been found to be optimal. I use about 40 alternating strokes on the flat sides of the medium grit stones, then repeat using the fine grit stones. Before moving to the fine grit, I check for a burr. If one is present, I do a couple of high angle passes with very light pressure to remove it, followed by a dozen or so regular passes. I check for a burr when I'm done on the white stones, and if its there, repeat the high angle passes followed by a dozen or so regular ones.
 
i just got my dmt aligner kit and sharpened one of my cheap blades..i got it slightly sharper than freehand (im sure it could get sharper..gotta be a user error!).. any suggestions on using this tool?

i used the 6th setting.. started with the blue coarse then went to red then went to green.. any usefull tips for this kit that i could try?

i ordered the eef for it as well but it wont be in for a week.

also..if i want to touch up my cat with the ef or eef should i use the 6th setting? or would 5 or 7 be the appropriate setting?
 
He was wanting the setting numbers for the DMT aligner and in a earlier post Nut told someone use #5 and 6 . Doing Too much, thus its too hard for me to isolate the problem . So, lets put stropping away for now . Get a black magic marker and mark the entire bevel on both sides then go back to your ceramic sticks and stroke the knife as usual one stroke and stop and look at the bevel using your magnifier and see where the stone is rubbing the knifes bevel . Then do the other side using one stroke . If the removal is away from the bevel's edge then your not taking metal off where it needs to be . DM
 
I just got my BM 940 Osborne right, needed the ceramics scrubbed with scouring powder, then lots more lighter strokes.

I wet my arm and shaved it smooth. I got a long hair out of my wife's brush & peeled a curly-q on the edge of the hair with each side. :eek:

I'm good and will butt out now.

Thanks, K.K. & D.M. you guys and a couple others here are very patient men and pass this art along to us new guys with no strings attached.

I tip my hat and wish you guys a Happy New Year!
 
CZ, Thank you and your welcome . We help many here and some like yourself return to thank us which is about all we get out of it and I really appreciate that . Feliz Navidad ! DM
 
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