Tilting Blade in Vice to Get Sweet Spot

[blacksheep25]

Black Sheep:

That’s a very nice batch of blades you have there. I’m interested in that last one, which seems to have been ground very elegantly to a very thin edge. What is it? Does the photo show it before or after you’ve sharpened it? Can you share that sort of info?

And are these knives yours? Customers’? Friends’? A mix?

I only do sharpening as a hobby, so either my knives or friends knives. Look in my photobucket album, I have a lot more pics; for the post above I only grabbed the pics with the side view clamped to illustrate the point.

[blacksheep25]

Hey Black Sheep,

Thanks for the excellent photos. :woohoo:

On many I see crosses drawn in pencil. What are you dong here? How do you position the cross on the blade and then in the vice?

Once you figure it out the first time how do you measure/record to be able to put it back the same way next time?

I was trying to come up with a system to replicate the clamp position. In general I’m trying to find the sweet spot, and by marking the blade then taking a picture, I can attempt to clamp it in the same place. However, most times I just guess-timate the location and sharpen it.

My general sharpening philosophy is that I don’t try to make the sharpening perfect, since every little bit of metal is blade life. Which is also why I don’t describe to the super polished edge finishes.

[Mark76]

Very ingenious, Josh! So simple, yet I’ve never seen anybody come up with it.

Molecule Polishing: my blog about sharpening with the Wicked Edge

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