Under the microscope...

[clmayfield]

I bought a microscope at Radio Shack for $10 and boy is it illuminating. I have been trying to restore the factory edge to my Shun Classic knives. Luckily, my boning knife is near-factory condition so I have a comparison to make. I know that I am not quite getting it to factory sharpness because my boning knife will grab hairs above my skin while my other knives won't (at least not to the degree that the factory edge does).

Under the microscope, I notice that there are a few gaps in the blade that I have been using on my Sharpmaker. These might be chips or something else. it is just little areas where it looks like the edge has been torn off.

Of course, all of this is overkill and non-utilitarian because for a chef's knife, this blade is ideal in that it is both sharp and aggressive, but I want a "vanity edge" that scares hairs off my arm.

I have been using the Sharpmaker set with the added Ultra Fine stone. I am waiting for a Lee Valley strop and compound in the mail. Will the strop take these gaps out or do I need to start from the beginning removing metal and building a burr all over again? What am I doing wrong?

 

[TedGamble]

As you progress from each S/M rod to the next, examine the edge under your microscope. Each S/M rod has it's own unique scratch pattern. The overall goal is that the next rod either removes, or more correctly, makes the scratch pattern from the previous rod more fine-grained.

So, starting with the brown rods, get your edge satisfactory. Examine it with the microscope. Then go to the white "fine" rods. Make 5 strokes and take a look. You'll should begin to see the coarse scratches being replace with finer scratches. Continue on the same rod until you see no further improvement in the scratch pattern. The go to the white "ultra fine" rods and repeat the process. Using your "microscope", you will definitely see a refinement in the scratches as you go from brown to ultra-fine white.

 

[Cliff Stamp]

No the strop won't take them out, unless you spent a *LONG* time. Examine the edge after the medium rods, the edge should be *uniform* in roughness. If there are points where it is more coarse, this indicates damage and you need to keep going. Only refine to the fine stones when the edge looks the same everywhere.

-Cliff