What Did You Sharpen Today?

[bdaabat]

Latest before and after video. Customer dropped off a very nice custom made knife and matching leather sheath. He found it in a pawn shop looking rough. he cleaned up the rust and asked for some assistance in getting an edge onto it. Absolutely!!

Bruce

 

[SOLEIL]

in the last hour a Kershaw 7150BLUBLK in CPM154, a titanium handled Kizer splinter in S35VN, Kershaw 1812OCLB in CPMD2, and a Kershaw 1600CKT. i like all of my daily tools shaving sharp so they get touched up after daily use.

 

[me2]

Kitchen knives are the order of the day. Spyderco Santoku, Tojiro Petty, Misuzu Bunka, and Kiwi Large Bunka. I threw my Cold Steel Voyager in there while I was at it. I’m all in favor of guided sharpening now. I use a DMT Aligner clamp with Naniwa Superstones, then strop.

 

[Jarrett Voyzey]

Did this Strider SMF freehand today. Atoma diamond stones followed by Spyderco ceramic stones and finished on sharpal strops with jende diamond emulsion up to .025 micron.

 

[Khromo]

This M390 blade was hard, all right. I used bonded diamond stones at 1,200/2,200/3,000/8,000 to get the edge in shape, then I stropped a few swipes on some 3 micron lapping film. This was all done freehand.

This is a good utility knife, narrow enough for the hand-held jobs and a little longer than a paring knife. Low maintenance and sharp.

 

[Gary W. Graley]

An inexpensive folder my daughter bought me 3 years ago, fairly inexpensive, but a great letter opener.

Untitled by GaryWGraley, on Flickr

Lately I have change to a slightly higher angle when holding the blade to the stone. Doing that I feel brings a faster edge and a sharper one quickly. But in any case, I have noticed a mark change in how my edges are, makes me happy lol
G2

 

[me2]

My old school Cold Steel Barong with the old style Kraton handle. I clamped it with a DMT Aligner and used a Norton Economy stone and a 4000 grit King water stone. This knife is about 15 years old and will need a good refurbishment soon, including a new handle.

 

[Boattale]

This, with Ken Onion WS. Went through all the belts and it's sharp enough for me.

 

[Gottagofishn]

This M390 blade was hard, all right. I used bonded diamond stones at 1,200/2,200/3,000/8,000 to get the edge in shape, then I stropped a few swipes on some 3 micron lapping film. This was all done freehand.

This is a good utility knife, narrow enough for the hand-held jobs and a little longer than a paring knife. Low maintenance and sharp.

Couldn’t help but notice you’re using the clips with your BESS tester. If you check, you will find the test clips about 20 grams easier to cut than the spool of media…
Doesn’t matter as long as you are aware of the difference.

 

[Gottagofishn]

An inexpensive folder my daughter bought me 3 years ago, fairly inexpensive, but a great letter opener.

Untitled by GaryWGraley, on Flickr

Lately I have change to a slightly higher angle when holding the blade to the stone. Doing that I feel brings a faster edge and a sharper one quickly. But in any case, I have noticed a mark change in how my edges are, makes me happy lol
G2

You are the only person that matter’s to your knife… I like the design. Your daughter has good taste, IMHO

 

[Khromo]

Couldn’t help but notice you’re using the clips with your BESS tester. If you check, you will find the test clips about 20 grams easier to cut than the spool of media…
Doesn’t matter as long as you are aware of the difference.

I think the rubber boot thing on the bottom of my spool dispenser doesn't fit in the gap on top of the tester. I can't get consistent measurements because the boot binds on the walls of the cavity, and completely skews the process. It is just too wide. Combine that with the vagaries of dropping the blade by hand, and using the spools are pretty useless, for me.

After using the tester for a few years, I am not impressed. It can help track progress to a degree, but I've sat down with two other operators and we all get different averages with the same blade. The guy with the quicker hand gets lower scores. I think BESS tests are not very useful for the guy looking for a working edge, as the highly polished edges that get the best BESS scores often can't cut fibrous materials, tomatos, brown onion skins, etc. nearly as well as a more aggressive edge. It's a useful tool, but not nearly as useful or illustrative as I had hoped!

Chasing those bright, shiny bevels was a real detour on my journey to effective sharpening. I got dazzled by the bright lights, and wasted a lot of time polishing edges that looked impressive but were much less useful for most of the tasks I use a knife for.

 

[Gottagofishn]

I think the rubber boot thing on the bottom of my spool dispenser doesn't fit in the gap on top of the tester. I can't get consistent measurements because the boot binds on the walls of the cavity, and completely skews the process. It is just too wide. Combine that with the vagaries of dropping the blade by hand, and using the spools are pretty useless, for me.

After using the tester for a few years, I am not impressed. It can help track progress to a degree, but I've sat down with two other operators and we all get different averages with the same blade. The guy with the quicker hand gets lower scores. I think BESS tests are not very useful for the guy looking for a working edge, as the highly polished edges that get the best BESS scores often can't cut fibrous materials, tomatos, brown onion skins, etc. nearly as well as a more aggressive edge. It's a useful tool, but not nearly as useful or illustrative as I had hoped!

Chasing those bright, shiny bevels was a real detour on my journey to effective sharpening. I got dazzled by the bright lights, and wasted a lot of time polishing edges that looked impressive but were much less useful for most of the tasks I use a knife for.

For me, the tester was invaluable in learning how and what produces the results I was trying to achieve, especially when stropping. 5, 10 or 20 passes on a strop, aluminum oxide or diamonds… or both, rough or smooth side, little pressure, a lot of pressure, leather or wood, what angle? These and more were so much easier for me to quantify the results from when I could actually measure it. Cutting a piece of paper was… you know. I can cut paper with a pretty dull knife. I use the tester on every knife, multiple times often. I believe the machine gives me consistent results and have used it 1000’s of times.
I have noticed the comment that the machine gives inconsistent results based on a few variables. While that is true to some extent, the BESS gives results close enough to draw conclusions and good enough for practical use.
I use it on toothy and smooth edges. It still gives me a number that I can reproduce, and that is what I need… a target.
I said all that to say, It works for me.

Too bad about the boot. Sounds like it doesn’t matter! I’ve tested several clips, around 20 grams less pressure, so +20. The score is mostly a comparison tool for me. Do I get better scores from this or that?

 

[Khromo]

For me, the tester was invaluable in learning how and what produces the results I was trying to achieve, especially when stropping. 5, 10 or 20 passes on a strop, aluminum oxide or diamonds… or both, rough or smooth side, little pressure, a lot of pressure, leather or wood, what angle? These and more were so much easier for me to quantify the results from when I could actually measure it. Cutting a piece of paper was… you know. I can cut paper with a pretty dull knife. I use the tester on every knife, multiple times often. I believe the machine gives me consistent results and have used it 1000’s of times.
I have noticed the comment that the machine gives inconsistent results based on a few variables. While that is true to some extent, the BESS gives results close enough to draw conclusions and good enough for practical use.
I use it on toothy and smooth edges. It still gives me a number that I can reproduce, and that is what I need… a target.
I said all that to say, It works for me.

Too bad about the boot. Sounds like it doesn’t matter! I’ve tested several clips, around 20 grams less pressure, so +20. The score is mostly a comparison tool for me. Do I get better scores from this or that?

The BESS was definitely useful for me as well, for the same reasons you stated. I had to avoid the urge to get lower and lower scores, though! I sometimes found it hard to stop! I finally found my comfort zone at about 110-140 for working knives, and a little lower for kitchen knives.

After I got somewhat competent, paper was a low bar and not especially useful, and by that time I had run out of hair on my arms and legs!

I used the spool dispenser without the boot a couple of times, but it was a pain to reload the medium because the spool kept falling out and unraveling. It finally dawned on me this morning that I could just put a piece of tape across the bottom of the dispenser and it worked perfectly. I can't explain why it took me so long to figure that out!

 

[Gottagofishn]

I have chased the spool as well...

 

[Mike22]

I sharpened my Big Idea Design Lookout Ti. This was the first time I have sharpened since purchasing back in June. Small fixed blade with the best little sheath for pocket carry I have found. Steel was M390. I used DMT diamond coarse, medium, extra fine, and a quick touch on the ceramic stone an she was done.

Mike22

 

[bmo419]

I feel like where I am currently with freehanding I can finally get even bevels. I could get extremely sharp edges freehanding, but the bevels were always uneven in various places so that always bugged me being slightly OCD. If it was dull enough, I've been going back and evening out the bevels on knives I sharpened previously, like on this Spyderco Manix 2 LW in SPY27. Used a 400gr vitrified diamond stone initially, but decided to switch to Spyderco's CBN 400gr plate as that cuts a bit faster. Weakened the burr on the 400gr vitrified, then a few more deburring passes on a 40um resin bonded diamond stone. Stropped a few passes each with 8, 3, 1um diamond paste on leather.

 

[lonelyronin]

Those bevels look great. Especially near the ricasso. That part is always the hardest for me (and often looks like shit)

 

[bmo419]

Those bevels look great. Especially near the ricasso. That part is always the hardest for me (and often looks like shit)

Thanks! The little unsharpened part near the ricasso is always the first thing I remove on any Spyderco. I find that a diamond/cbn plate works best for removing those since they're generally dead flat so it's easier to blend with the already established bevel.

 

[Khromo]

This is a LionSteel modern Barlow sheepsfoot, with a sweet straight blade of M390. I sat down at the kitchen table with minimal tools and gadgets.

I recently sharpened another M390 blade on Naniwa's Chosera ceramic waterstones. The results were very good but not great, and the progress was slow. I tried again a few days later using DMT diamond plates, and the results were noticeably better, so I went straight to the DMT fine at about 600 and extra fine at about 1,200 for this blade. The M390 is a little too hard for the waterstones.

I lubed with soapy water, and used the blue plastic angle guide to set a roughly 18 degree per side edge. I use the angle guide for the first few strokes on each side, then proceed using just the feel of the bevel on the stone. Watching Ricky/Burrfection's videos really helped me to get my freehand skills together.

I only break out a Wicked Edge guided system for special occasions these days; an EDC pocket knife gets a freehand edge. This blade begs to be used, it is almost perfectly straight and it is one of the most useful knives I've ever carried! As totally cool as a slipjoint gets!

The 600/fine had it shaving in no more than ten strokes per side, and the 1,200 didn't take much longer to get a smooth, even scratch pattern. I stuck with my typical process of using only one stropping stage, and I used 5 micron AO lapping film on glass for this one. The lapping film is a little more expensive than other stropping solutions, but I get much better results with the lapping film (or Jende Nanocloth) than anything else.

It is starting to whittle hairs, and it cuts smoothly through the most delicate paper I can find. I don't sharpen to much finer grits than this very often these days. I use these blades to cut things rather than to admire the shiny bevels, and I find the practical cutting power starts to fade rapidly at much beyond 2,000-3,000 grit.

 

[me2]

Tried to sharpen my new Kershaw Iridium. Evidently the edge angle from the factory was about 30 degrees per side.