What kind of blade steel are you using it on? You might try pushing the stone AWAY from the edge instead of into it. lightly of course.
Anything from 94 cent walmart knives to full hard M2. I hadn't thought to try the away stroke. Whats your theory behind that?
I don't know about you,but I go from shaving sharp to,hair popping sharp after I use the sapphire.And I use a fair bit of pressure to get that great shine too.
IMO the sapphire stone is the cat's a$$ for the Lansky system.
Sorry to hear your having problem with it,it must be something else other then the stone.
I typically bring it up to pretty high sharpness with the UF hone before I even attempt to go finer- it will dig into a free hanging head hair (~50um thick) at least a couple times before I move on.
After playing around with the sapphire hone more, I got an edge that was 'hair popping sharp' and actually whittling a few hairs. The problem is that it was still a *decrease* in sharpness. I guess it's not that big of a deal if I'm going to polish it out from there on, but I can't even get this much consistently. On other attempts the edge won't even shave after. I'm not even sure what I'm doing differently those times.
By saying 'microbevel', are you talking about increasing the angle setting slightly (say, from the 17 degree setting to the 20 degree setting) after initial sharpening?
Yep. Just for a few strokes on each side.
I'm not an expert, but I'm wondering if putting a microbevel on the already 'hair whittling' edge is even necessary? My inclination would be to use the sapphire hone at the same angle setting as the previous sharpening steps...
In most cases it's not necessary, though it does help to really polish the edge quickly, as well as making the final edge more stable. The big reason I want to do it is so I have a real fine hone for my straight razor (with a microbevel). As it is now, I wouldn't dare risk my straights edge on that thing.
I'm a fan of the Lansky system also. I've not yet tried the sapphire hone (but I am thinking about buying one). Up to this point, I've been finishing with the 'standard' ultra-fine (white ceramic in yellow holder) hone. I'm thrilled with the results I get with that.
Well, you know what advice follows from *my* experience =\. Try upping the angle one setting and doing another 5-10 strokes per side very very lightly with your UF if you want to see if you can get more out of it.
I guess if you're adding a microbevel (at a slightly more obtuse angle) to make the finished edge a bit more stout/durable, I would expect there would be some trade-off in sharpness. If, on the other hand, you're using the sapphire to try to make the edge that much sharper & smoother, then I'd leave it at the same angle setting as previous steps.
The thing is that the microbevel is so tiny (maybe a quarter the thickness of a human hair) that the cutting ability isn't effected much, and the force required to initiate the cut probably isn't that much different either. I've found that its actually much easier to get sharp edges on a 35 degree microbevel on 65HRC M2 than it is to get one on my 15.5 degree dovo straight razor. I think the reason is that with more steel behind the very edge it better resists deformation and you don't have to be as insanely light with your touch.
Since most initial dulling is due to deformation rather than wear, the increased edge angle should (and seems to) help.
