Waterstone questions

I wish I could attend on of those demonstrations. Yes, those alternate strokes I meant with "final passes". That means for me also, the finer the grid, the bigger the stone should be, because you are more likely to do finishing work on it, instead of roughing it in.

Of course, on the other hand the coarser grid stones tend to wear faster, so which ever way you look at it: larger is better.
 
yuzuha said:
fyi, though I notice a few of you also frequent other boards, for those that don't.... Fred has a nice review of a natural awase (6k grit) stone in one thread, and we have a good long rambling discussion going on in the "natural waterstones thread" in fred's cutlery forum over on foodieforums.com http://216.91.137.210/ubbthreads/postlist.php/Cat/0/Board/cutlery
Click to expand...

She doesn't know it yet, but my wife is going to be very PO'ed at you for giving me that link. LOL

WHAT A NEAT PLACE! All I've done so far is read that 'long rambling discussion' on the natural waterstones and I was hooked. I've already registered, just awaiting my temp password to get in.

I'm not a cook, but I play one in the kitchen! LOL

Just from the comments in that discussion, it looks like Shapton is going to be it. I bookmarked their site and that alone looks to be a good hour or 2 of reading. It's going to take a bit to digest just that thread with all the links and everything. Information overload! I love it!

THANKS!!

Rob
 
Jeff, why do you avoid the ends? I've been using my Spyderco benchstones end to end. (though my opinel tip is a bit messed up, while my Mora is fine)
 
GB, I sharpen a lot of really dull knives so I avoid hones that will slow down my work. For example I am still sitting at my desk at work and within the last 15 minutes a coworker came by to have his SAK sharpened. If I was touching up my own SAK this would take less than a minute. For Bill's SAK it took more than 5. I have to restore the edge using a medium grit hone. Then I polish the bevel using a waterstone. It is no problem to maintain a constant angle and use all of the hone if I go slow, but I don't want this to take 15 minutes. So I use rapid circular and back and forth strokes to restore the edge angle. Since these strokes are rapid I use the middle of the hone to avoid snagging an edge of the hone or dropping off.

When I finish the edge I use very light strokes on alternate sides of the blade. As I do the strokes I want a fine control on the honing angle. I have pretty good control of my honing angle as I put the blade in contact with the hone, the problem comes at the end of my stroke. If I get too close to the far end of the hone I find that I tend to tilt the spine of the blade up somewhat as I end my stroke (because I sort of get crowded). This adds an unintended rounding or convexing to the edge finish. Since I am alternating sides both ends of the hone are alternately the far end and less desireable. While I don't have as much trouble with holding my honing angle at the beginning of my stroke I do like to stay away from the near end to avoid snagging on that end of the hone.

Some of my preference also comes from years of sharpening knives for other people, sometimes for money. I am very reluctant to scratch the sides of blades that I am sharpening. I find the scratches commonly come from accidentally running off one end or the other of the hone. Using a long hone and working in the middle lets me do a better, neater job and work with faster strokes.
 
Thanks, I'll try sharpening away from the extreme ends. Maybe I won't screw up the tips this way. (you are the one who doesn't condone raising a burr then chasing it, right?)
 
I don't like to do that either, I like to keep the burr small. When roughing in the bevel a burr I find is practically unavoidable, and needs great care to remove it, but once I know I have a true edge (to meeting planes) I try to avoid burrs.

Another argument for long hones is that for the final strokes you want to have a very even stroke over as long an edge length as possible to set the micro teeth parallel. While at the beginning of going to a finer grit I would actually advice going "crosshatched" in order to remove the scratches from the previous hone, but for the finishing touches, I find long and very even strokes at constent angle (I am talking about the angle of the knife edge to the direction of travel of the stroke, not the angle with respect to the normal, how high you lift the spine) work best. They should set the microteeth that the final grit very evenly and aligned.
 
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