Using the 204

[Sal Glesser]

If Misque can venture into the "speed of dark", then I would like to know the "sound of sharp".

sal

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"There seems to be an amazing connection between what people do... and what happens to them"

 

[ELarson]

Longden,
As long they only sing they can stay out. The ones that tell me to do bad things get put away.

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E. Larson
Edmonds, WA

 

[Cliff Stamp]

Longden, there are many tests that can be done quickly to see if a blade is "sharp", however none of them are as conclusive as the burr test. If you form a burr then you know 100% that you have brought one side of the bevel down to meet the other side and once you grind it off by sharpening on the other side the edge is now %100 fresh metal.

I see blades all the time that pass many of the tests mentioned above (finger nail catch etc.) and were still not sharp in the sense that they would slice well because the edge was worn metal (rounded carbides). Now this is generally only a significant problem with certain steels, but with all blades you want fresh metal to get %100 performance. If you don't actually remove the old edge you will not get this.

Basically if you sharpen until the edge is thin, you can be leaving old metal along it. If you sharpen until a burr forms you have removed the worn steel. On high impact knives I go a bit further and sharpen for some time after a burr is formed to remove any cracks that might have started (not long, only say 50 strokes or so).

One reason that people have success with another method may simply be because it is different. If you try something for awhile and get no progress you can get frustrated and form a mental bias against it which will influence further work. I have seen people succeed with less functional methods in favor of the optimal ones because of this all the time. It could also be because of something unrelated. I usually tell people to sharpen for a set number of times for example before checking for a burr because I have found that they do more consistent strokes this way.

-Cliff

[This message has been edited by Cliff Stamp (edited 18 December 1999).]

 

[Longden]

Cliff, I know I'm beating a dead horse but this old vs new metal thing is a new one on me.

If "old metal" is a concern, maybe another suggestion to those sharpening a dull blade , would be to initially grind the edge itself (gasp!), literally with the plane of the blade perpendicular to the stone, as if trying to slice into the stone (maybe 5-10 strokes).

That way, there is should be no doubt that when you subsequently sharpen the bevel to your reach your edge (whether by burr or alternating strokes), there is only new metal left ... no nasty old codger carbides to worry about.

Maybe this initial step would help a few of those people with less than optimal methods.

The other thought is to use the alternating stroke method to take you to "almost there", according to whatever simple tests ... and then proceed to grind only one side to get a burr (which should happen quickly). This will probably be too much for the novice to grasp, but the experienced honer should be able to get "burr results" with relative bevel symmetry, vs an all-out attack on only one side of the bevel (or maybe that's how you do it already?).

I'm speaking from the theoretical, and only for the sake of discussion. Your sharpening experience (and Joe Talmadge's and Jeff Clark's) clearly eclipse my few attempts, so no one should take my suggestions as anything but hypotheticals.