What strokes do I use for cross hatching?
- This topic has 4 replies, 2 voices, and was last updated 01/22/2020 at 11:33 am by
.
-
To change the direction of the scratch pattern start the first stroke with the stone’s direction of motion from the knife heel traveling across the knife towards the tip. The next scratch pattern I start with the stone at the knife tip then sharpen across the knife to the heel. This will make a cross hatch pattern when both strokes are done with the same type stroke that is both are edge trailing strokes. The heel starting stroke will travel up and off at the tip and the tip starting stroke will crisscross the first scratch pattern while traveling from the tip up and across the knife steel to the heel. This cross hatch will be produced only when both strokes are edge trailing.
If the stroke type is switched to edge trailing, that is up and off the edge on the first scratch pattern then the opposite stroke type is edge leading stroke, down and onto the edge on the second scratch pattern, then to achieve a cross hatch or criss crossed scratch pattern then with both strokes, edge trailing and edge leading you would start at the heel and end at the tip, for the stroke direction of progress across the knife, or with both again the same, but this time starting at the tip and ending at the heel, will then again create the cross hatched pattern.
In summary with the same stroke type, that is both edge trailing or both edge leading, for both strokes, the direction of travel across the knife is opposite. One starts at the heel and the other starts at the tip.
For opposite stroke type, that is one edge trailing and the other edge leading, then both strokes travel begins at the same knife end and end at the other knife end. That is both strokes travel heel to tip, or both strokes travel tip to heel.
Hope this is what you’re asking.
Marc
(MarcH's Rack-Its)1 user thanked author for this post.
I do want to say that I prefer to do it differently.
I begin each grit in the sharpening progression with a scrubbing stroke. This is up-down-up-down as I work the stone along the entire knife bevel length, heel to tip, up and back. I work the sides one handed, individually. I balance my effort and time switching/alternating between the knife sides to keep the edge work, the bevel profile even and balanced from side to side and the steel removal even and equal.
The scrubbing is a good effective and efficient sharpening stroke to remove and shape or profile the bevels at your desired/set bevel angle. With the successive finer grits the scrubbing refines the edge with increasingly smaller and finer scratch patterns as we work towards a polished or mirrored bevel.
Care and safety must be exercised with scrubbing strokes, as with all edge leading strokes, that is with any sharpening strokes when the stone is directed down and onto the exposed knife edge with exposed finger tips holding the stones. I always utilize plastic safety shields as a physical barrier to protect my finger tips from cuts, (that can be quite serious with sharp edges and fast stone action).
The scrubbing does the bulk of my edge shaping, edge profiling, and steel removal, with each successively finer grit sharpening stone. The scrubbing may result in a burr being formed. The burr is a good indicator that your shaping, sharpening and edge refining work is effective, that you have and continue to apex the edge, as you continue through your sharpening stone progression.
I follow this scrubbing stroke phase, still with this same grit stone, now utilizing an edge leading stroke, that is down and onto the knife edge/apex. This is done alternating sides, left-right-left-right in a balanced manner for time and effort exerted. This keeps the steel work and steel removal even and balanced. I do this stroke heel to tip, or tip to heel as I work down and back along the knife edge as I create the desired slightly slanted scratch pattern. Even though I may be working back forth, along the knife to be thorough and complete, the direction of the strokes are always heel to tip or tip to heel to maintain the uniformity of the scratch pattern direction, all along the entire length of the knife edge.
By alternating the direction of the travel or progression of stones relative to the knife edge you can determine the angle of your scratch pattern that is imparted on the bevel. Alternating this progression direction, first heel to tip with one grit, then tip to heel with the next finer grit, leaves the criss crossed or cross hatched pattern that makes it easier to determine the effectiveness of your grit use as you follow your sharpening and polishing progression. It is easier to control and direct the angle of your scratch with the edge leading, down and on, stroke direction, for me then with the edge trailing, up and off stroke type. I want to add, that the stone direction of travel relative to the knife, heel to tip or tip to heel, and the stone direction associated with the stroke type, edge leading, down and on, or edge trailing, up and off are two seperate motions that are combined and used simultaneously. It’s like driving your car forward while you follow a curve around to the right. Two motions done simultaneosly to yield one smooth combined result.
The second benefit of the edge leading stroke is by the nature of its contact, it removes the burr that can form and may remain after using the scrubbing stroke method, I use first. The edge leading stroke shapes a knife edge apex so that it is sharp, sort of stout and exposed. This is compared with the edge and the apex that remains following edge trailing strokes. The edge trailing stroke type may still have a burr remaining or the remnants and the steel may become thinned and elongated with what is called a wired edge. The wire edge can be extremely sharp but they may be thin and weak. Using a combination of stroke styles and stroke directions, repeatedly and succesively makes up my sharpening technique.
Marc
(MarcH's Rack-Its)4 users thanked author for this post.
- You must be logged in to reply to this topic.