Bess tester on the cheap…

This topic has 7 replies, 4 voices, and was last updated 04/17/2020 at 8:19 pm by Readheads.

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04/11/2020 at 9:36 am #53958
Tinyfish
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I’m new to the forum and W.E.

I saw the fancy Bess tester which look great but I thought I would try making one at home.

I had a few scrape pieces of wood that I screwed togther and used some small screws to wrap the fishing mono around and I use my small kitchen scale to get the reading. The mono I had on hand is 6lb 0.009″. I will buy some flurocarbon in the 0.007″ range which I think is closer to what I need.

Don’t laugh at the knife that what I’m using until I am confident enough to start using the Japanese knives I just bought.

Anyways hope this will give you a smile at the very least lol.

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000Robert, wickededge, Organic, Dwight Glass
04/11/2020 at 10:03 am #53961
Marc H
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Looks good. Two differences, the BESS device does capture and reflect the reading at the breaking point. Also the BESS has been tested and calibrated to the test filaments they use.

Your’s will certainly give you an indication of relative sharpness. Good job. You get an “A” for ingenuity.

FYI: The BESS test filament looks and feels like a stiff “Spider Wire” fishing line.

Marc
(MarcH's Rack-Its)

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wickededge, NotSharpEnuff, Tinyfish
04/11/2020 at 11:48 am #53962
Tinyfish
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FYI: The BESS test filament looks and feels like a stiff “Spider Wire” fishing line.[/quote]

Hi Marc. The Bess is 1000% better then my setup. I just wanted an idea of how my knife would be pre and post sharpening. You do have to keep your eye on the scale readout or else you miss it.

I would have bought the Bess system but being in Canada with the exchange rate and the cost of shipping I could not reason it yet…key word yet.

Thanks for the tip on the spiderline as I do have a spool of braided line handy. I was not sure that would be good because of the way the line is braided.
04/11/2020 at 2:19 pm #53963
Readheads
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Very interesting, it makes me think that a hand held one with a strain gauge in series with the filament plus a simple readout (and a little software on a chip plus battery) could suffice to to display the max strain before filament break. You could use it while the knife is still mounted in the vise.

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Organic, Tinyfish
04/11/2020 at 3:09 pm #53964
Tinyfish
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Readheads wrote:

Very interesting, it makes me think that a hand held one with a strain gauge in series with the filament plus a simple readout (and a little software on a chip plus battery) could suffice to to display the max strain before filament break. You could use it while the knife is still mounted in the vise.

Now that is a great idea! What a great way to test how the sharpening is going without having to remove the knife from the vice…now I wish I knew alittle somthing about computers lol.

But seriously if you can come up with somthing like that I’m sure other people would be interested. I wish my little scale could hold the readout or I was smart enough to rig somthing up like that.
04/17/2020 at 9:39 am #54003
Richard
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Just wondering if the tension on the media would cause an error in the result?
04/17/2020 at 4:32 pm #54011
Tinyfish
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Richard wrote:

Just wondering if the tension on the media would cause an error in the result?

I’m sure it does Richard. I tighten the mono as much as I can with in reason. I am just using this as a rough gauge to get a number for when the knife is dull and compare it to the when I’m done sharpening.

I am going to try Sprider wire/bradied fishing line for my next sharpness tests.
04/17/2020 at 8:19 pm #54012
Readheads
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Hmm, good thought, we could use a fishing pole tensioner as one part of the portable handheld BESS, now just have to figure out the sensor approach plus an easy reloader. Electronic readout of the sensor is the easier part.
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