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What am I doing wrong!?

N

NOREAT

Joined
Dec 17, 2011
Messages
95
So I have a 30 year old whetstone. After about 30 minutes of sharpening a Gerber Mini-Paraframe 2 I hadn't achived much. Ten minutes with my Benchmade 551 did nothing. Is this a technique issue or a worn-out whetstone?
 
Maybe it is too fine a grit for your dull(?) knives? It could easily be a technique issue if you haven't got your angles right.
 
What kind of whetstone is it - natural, silicon carbide, other?

Clean it up real good and if that doesn't help it may be too fine a grit or it may be glazed and need to be lapped with wet/dry sandpaper. Another option if possible would be to buy a Norton silicon carbide stone from Home Depot and see what that does - they're about 6-7 bucks I think. Well worth it. If that does a better job, maybe you can use your old whetstone to do a final honing if its a finer grit.
 
I have sharpened a few of the Paraframe and Mini-Paraframes. They were so dull (even out of the box) they were probably best described as "defective." The angles were off-center and steep and it took a lot of time and effort to sharpen them. I'd guess you are probably just encountering a really stubborn challenge that should probably be tossed in the trash (don't throw your stones away).
Good sharpening,
Dave
 
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