Michael Blakley

[Michael Blakley]

Marc, thank you for your detailed reply.

Here’s my progression.

WE, 100, 200, 400, 600, 800, 1000, 1500, diamond lapping , strop 14mu, 10 mu, 5 mu, 3.5 mu.  8000, and 12,000.  My understanding is that 3.5 micron is about 5900 grit.  Maybe 5900 to 8000 is too big of a jump?

Thank you for sharing your experience.

BTW, it’s almost a parlor trick, but the knife I’m sharpening is a full size Griptillion 3.25 inch long blade.  If I fold a piece of notebook paper longways into a V and stand it on end, the blade can cut it down the middle without me holding the paper.  So the blade is sharp.  I think I’m just trying to figure out how much work does it take to get all the scratches out.  Then I’ll decide if I ever want to do that much work again. 🙂

Michael

[Michael Blakley]

Well, I gave this one more shot.  I purchased Shapton’s 8000/12000 grit stone made for my WE system.

The 8000 grit does not move smoothly across the blade.  It feels sticky and kind of jumps across the blade.

That makes me think I need to oil the stones or soak them in water or something like that.

Do you have experience with that stone grit and care to share your advice?

Thanks!

Michael

[Michael Blakley]

My knife is so sharp I performed lasik surgery on myself just by looking at the edge

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wickededge

[Michael Blakley]

My knife is so sharp, I cut a piece of ham so thin, I could see both sides at the same time.

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wickededge

[Michael Blakley]

NorCal, which Tormek are you referring to, there seem to be numerous Tormek products.

Michael

[Michael Blakley]

I restored an 8 inch Premier Shun a few months ago.  the tip was broken off, almost a half inch missing.

The blade was bent.  The owner said it got caught between the drawer front the the cabinet when he shoved the drawer shut.

It took a lot of slow pressure, some mallet hammering and a lot of patience to straighten the blade. Then I traced the tip of a Shun that was intact, ground the 8 inch into a 7 1/2 inch blade then sharpened it.  Tried to buy it from the owner, but no dice.

Michael

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Brewbear

[Michael Blakley]

My 1500 on one side and blank on the other are Green and White.  I’ve hand them for about 2 years.

I wasn’t sure if I’d be gaining anything by moving away from the lapping strips to a 3000 grit.  From these replies, it sounds like it’s a toss-up.

Michael

[Michael Blakley]

The shiny vertical line is the bevel.  I’m holding the knife against the mm portion of a metal ruler.  So it looks to me like the bevel is a millimeter from apex to the side of the blade.

With most knives I can figure out the angle of the bevel by rocking the knife on a hard flat surface and feel where the bevel is lying flat.  Then a protractor measures that angle for me. But this this tiny bevel, I could not feel any rocking or fulcrum at all.

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[Michael Blakley]

Good news.

The folks at Customer Service got back in touch with me.  They gave me the information and actually included a drawing so as to remove doubt!  It’s 14° to 17° on either side.  So, I”m going to set my WE at 15° when it comes time to sharpen it.

Michael

 

[Michael Blakley]

Dear TCMeyer,

Thank you for your advice, I appreciate it very much.  In sharpening a blade, I think we share the medical doctor’s Hippocratic oath.  Rule #1, do no harm.

I may have been hasty at pulling out that 80 grit.  On the other hand, at least I didn’t pull out the reverse side (50 grit).

Fortunately, this sharpening went well,   It passed the paper cut (yellow pages) test without a snag.

Again, thank you sir!

Michael

[Michael Blakley]

One thing I’ve learned is that getting the angle right, every time, is an absolute necessity.  I highly recommend you buy the Angle Cube as part of your system.  You use it to help you position the angle of the stones to say 20.00 degrees for a chef’s knife, or 15.00 for a high end Japanese kitchen knife for fish.   Maybe there are new ways to get that angle correct, but I’m sold on the angle cube.

Welcome to the obsession.

Michael

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Chazz

[Michael Blakley]

I sincerely appreciate the education you all are providing.

What level of magnification will I need to do what you’re advising?

And once it’s under that magnification  what tells me it’s time to switch from lapping to 14 micron to 10 to 5 ? Thanks

 

[Michael Blakley]

So I can see that I should stick with what I’m currently doing and just get better at it.

A couple of follow-up questions.

1.  On the reverse side of my 1500 stone is the glass to which I attach the lapping material.  it’s the kind that I peel off a sheet and stick on to the glass.  How do I know when it’s time remove the existing and replace it with new?
2. When using the lapping, how do you know when you’re done and it’s time to move on to the 14 micron leather strop?
3. Last, how do you know when the blade is ready to move from the 14 to the 10, then 10 to the 5 and then to the 3.5?

Right now, I’m just counting.  50 strokes per side with lapping and all strops.  There’s got to be a better method than that.  BTW, I only sharpen pocket knives and kitchen knives (no serrated blades).

Thanks to all!

Michael

[Michael Blakley]

What started this is that I was trying to sharpen a knife that was on need of major work and a few hours of work seemed to accomplish nothing.

So I got the 50-80 stones.  Thanks to the advice from this forum, I used only the 80 grit.  I rubbed the 80 grit sides together gently for 3 minutes washed them and repeated the process.

I started using the 80 grit slowly. Using the sharpie ink on the bevel. Wow. It chewed the metal insanely fast.

I went to the 100 grit once it looked like I had an even bevel on both sides. An hour later the knife was paper cutting sharp.

 

Thanks everyone!

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NotSharpEnuff, Brewbear

[Michael Blakley]

Well here’s what I think is going on.

First I am trying to put a new profile on this knife.  I want to change it from sharpening from 14 or 16 degrees on each side to 20 degrees on each side.

Putting a more blunt edge means removing a lot of metal.  So I spent a couple of hours eating into the bevel.  Actually, It started off as a looking like a double bevel for a while.  The 15 degree bevel was about 4 mm long while the 20 degree bevel was much shorter.  So there was a lot of grinding to be done.

I wish I had that 50 grit stone WE sells.  It would probably have made the re-profile go much quicker.

Faithfully yours,

FP

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Richard, Organic

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