Hi all,
I have been getting over being sick, so I had WAAY too much time on my hands. After knifenut has been helping me so much, I figure I ought to pay it forward in a way.
I have been working on this all day now, and it has been a real learning experience. I don't mean to convey that I am somehow special and trying to school everyone else, just showing the things that I have learned over the course of the last few days...
Do you ever wonder why your knife isn't sharp? Have you gone through the grits on your stones/system/etc., and just aren't there yet, even though the bevels look good?
Being the good little knifenut, you pull out your loupe, which you picked up at dealextreme for occasions just like this... and even at a large magnification, the edge looks OK. (ETA, I guess you can see something is amiss here, but it is tough to tell what)
The problem is that the edge is actually REALLY small. In fact, to be really sharp, the edge has to be so small that we won't readily see issues, or even necessarily feel them. Here is the edge even larger, so you can see my point.
INTERESTING. In this case, because some nut:foot
that would be me) thought the bevels looked good, he quit using each grit too soon. You can see that even though it is finished through a DMT EEF stone, there are still scratches from the C, maybe even the EC. The edge in this condition cuts string at about 2-2.5oz of pressure, and just barely pushcuts printer paper. The bright reflections are the polished edges of the serrations, which were polished from the Spyderco UF rod riding across them.
So what would happen if a person worked clear to the edge on each stone? Obviously, each stone would erase the scratch pattern of the one before it, leaving the edge with less serrations. Would just this small step cause a knife to be noticeably sharper?
Here is a pic of another knife after making sure that each stone was used longer, to better erase the scratch pattern of the last, and then used on a Spyderco UF rod. This one was also stropped, which you can see the effects of on the smooth area right behind the edge.
Now that one looks noticeably sharper. In this case, the knife is hair whittling, though you can see that there is still room for improvement. The small serrations in the blade(from stone marks that didn't quite get taken out) mean that the sharpness will be somewhat variable, depending on the exact portion of the blade. In cutting thread, the knife uses between 1.7 and 2.0 oz of pressure to cut.
So to continue, what if even more sharpness is desired? Well, one could strop, or finish on a finer stone, or both... Here is another knife finished to an EEF diamond stone, then stropped with white and green compounds as well as plain leather, then it recieved a micro bevel on the Spyderco UF rod. Whether all those are needed, I don't know
, as you will see in a second.
At this point, you can see that each stone was used 'long enough', so that the scratches of the previous stone have been removed. Also, the finer stropping compounds have removed the scratches from the finest stone (EEF). This knife whittles hair more easily, pushcuts paper easily, and will cut string at about 1oz of pressure. Of course at this point, we are at the limits of my Mickey Mouse setup as far as magnification and resolution, so it has to quit.That is why I say it is tough to tell how much of the routine was needed, because I just don't have the resolution to see for sure.
Realize that the point of this was just to show what is going on at the edge, so as to have a visual aid. None of the sharpening was actually done using high magnification, other than a loupe and magnifying glass. This was just to help everyone see what I saw when looking at the very edge in relation to sharpening.
For one final pic, here is a Derby brand DE razor blade new, which will cut thread at about .7oz of pressure.
If anyone has anything to add, jump in. Thanks for looking.
I have been getting over being sick, so I had WAAY too much time on my hands. After knifenut has been helping me so much, I figure I ought to pay it forward in a way.
I have been working on this all day now, and it has been a real learning experience. I don't mean to convey that I am somehow special and trying to school everyone else, just showing the things that I have learned over the course of the last few days...
Do you ever wonder why your knife isn't sharp? Have you gone through the grits on your stones/system/etc., and just aren't there yet, even though the bevels look good?
Being the good little knifenut, you pull out your loupe, which you picked up at dealextreme for occasions just like this... and even at a large magnification, the edge looks OK. (ETA, I guess you can see something is amiss here, but it is tough to tell what)
The problem is that the edge is actually REALLY small. In fact, to be really sharp, the edge has to be so small that we won't readily see issues, or even necessarily feel them. Here is the edge even larger, so you can see my point.
INTERESTING. In this case, because some nut:foot
that would be me) thought the bevels looked good, he quit using each grit too soon. You can see that even though it is finished through a DMT EEF stone, there are still scratches from the C, maybe even the EC. The edge in this condition cuts string at about 2-2.5oz of pressure, and just barely pushcuts printer paper. The bright reflections are the polished edges of the serrations, which were polished from the Spyderco UF rod riding across them.So what would happen if a person worked clear to the edge on each stone? Obviously, each stone would erase the scratch pattern of the one before it, leaving the edge with less serrations. Would just this small step cause a knife to be noticeably sharper?
Here is a pic of another knife after making sure that each stone was used longer, to better erase the scratch pattern of the last, and then used on a Spyderco UF rod. This one was also stropped, which you can see the effects of on the smooth area right behind the edge.
Now that one looks noticeably sharper. In this case, the knife is hair whittling, though you can see that there is still room for improvement. The small serrations in the blade(from stone marks that didn't quite get taken out) mean that the sharpness will be somewhat variable, depending on the exact portion of the blade. In cutting thread, the knife uses between 1.7 and 2.0 oz of pressure to cut.
So to continue, what if even more sharpness is desired? Well, one could strop, or finish on a finer stone, or both... Here is another knife finished to an EEF diamond stone, then stropped with white and green compounds as well as plain leather, then it recieved a micro bevel on the Spyderco UF rod. Whether all those are needed, I don't know
, as you will see in a second.
At this point, you can see that each stone was used 'long enough', so that the scratches of the previous stone have been removed. Also, the finer stropping compounds have removed the scratches from the finest stone (EEF). This knife whittles hair more easily, pushcuts paper easily, and will cut string at about 1oz of pressure. Of course at this point, we are at the limits of my Mickey Mouse setup as far as magnification and resolution, so it has to quit.That is why I say it is tough to tell how much of the routine was needed, because I just don't have the resolution to see for sure.
Realize that the point of this was just to show what is going on at the edge, so as to have a visual aid. None of the sharpening was actually done using high magnification, other than a loupe and magnifying glass. This was just to help everyone see what I saw when looking at the very edge in relation to sharpening.
For one final pic, here is a Derby brand DE razor blade new, which will cut thread at about .7oz of pressure.
If anyone has anything to add, jump in. Thanks for looking.
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