Wait...that's it?? Cliff Curry Belt method

B

bdaabat

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Jul 2, 2025
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As a noob, I'm feeling like I'm drinking from a firehose. There is SOOOOOOO much content available! Boatloads of folks talking about how they do things to get a great edge.

I just stumbled onto this video from Cliff Curry:

He takes a typical kitchen knife from dull to hair shaving sharp in under a minute of time on the grinder. It's only a two step process (plus strop): 120 grit then 600 grit. That's it! And, the 600 grit belt was only a couple light, rapid passes.

He showed the edge under the microscope before, during, and after.

And, this isn't just a video that he did for clicks and then he uses a totally different process for his customers. I watched a video of him sharpening at a farmers market. He follows this process for his customers.

Is that really it?

I just ordered a bunch of different belt grits from him!!! :eek:

I'm going to need to do a bit more practice with the lower grit belts and see if I can replicate this.

Bruce
 
Second the vote for Cliff, he's a great contributor on one of the FB groups and he's a big belt sander guy and there plenty of trash talk about why belt sanders or buy but Cliff doesn't participate in all the arguing back and forth he just does his sharpening thing and let the results show for themselves.
 
Cliff discussed apexing in one of these videos where he makes alternates passes on the coarse grit belts. His logic seems sound (do alternating passes rather than doing a bunch on one side, then a equal number on the other side...doing a bunch on one side then the other will remove more metal). This is different from what a lot of other instruction says to do (including the WS instructions and videos).

Sooooo...I'm going be practicing later today.

BTW: This practicing stuff is HARD! Well, not the practice part. The intentionally dulling a keen knife edge part so that you can practice. It just seems so wrong! Bah! It must be done.

Bruce
 
Bit the bullet and dragged one of my backup knives across the concrete patio. That was...unpleasant.

As I was getting ready to sharpen, I realized that with all of the different belts that I've been trying, I don't have a 1 X 18 belt that's 600 grit. Used a 1000 grit. Went through the process that Cliff outlines in the video above. Finished with a 1 micron diamond spray and leather strop. Wasn't ideal. Took a look under the magnifier. Realized there were still some uneven areas that appeared OK to just my eyeballs, but upon closer inspection, were not OK. Still had some deflections.

Started over again, paying closer attention to what was happening on the blade by looking under the magnifier throughout the process.

It works. Two belts plus strop (and, not relying just on my unmagnified eyes) = shaved my arm hair.

For me at this stage of my sharpening journey, I'll take it!

The gooder news? I have a better idea of what I'm looking for visually. I almost feel like I'm starting to get it!

Bruce
 
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