Haffner

As Kyle said, his business is addressing a market that will accept any edge that cuts.  That said, I’ve got a few items to comment on, hopefully to prompt some more discussion.

I noticed that Kyle uses almost dead-horizontal strokes and seems to be applying a lot of pressure.  Hmmm…

Kyle accepts whatever angle the existing bevel seems to b…[Read more]

That may be explained by having scratches on top of scratches. If your stones are new, they will be more aggressive. If you follow Kyle’s technique, that will be the end result: a very functional edge without much polish. I’m not sure if you have a micro bevel on your edge but that id besides the point. As the more experienced members here will…[Read more]

I have a set of 50/80 and honestly, I used it twice on a couple of machetes that were so beat up and damaged they couldn’t cut cold water. If space is a problem, then yes, buy a set for those rare occasions when you have to remove a lot of metal, Even then, I wouldn’t apex (raise a burr) with them, just get really close to the apex and then use…[Read more]

Those variable speed switches work only on AC motors with wound rotors and brushes.  Not sure, but I think variable frequency drives usually require some form of feedback device (tachometer or position sensor) to work.  I’m sure there are some cheap Chinese versions out there, but I haven’t pulled the trigger on one yet.  I’d like to put one on my…[Read more]

I had some bad experiences with the lower grits, so I never bought a pair of the 50/80s.  If I’m in a situation where the 100/200s don’t seem to be doing the job (I’m old, so I don’t have a lot of time left to spend on really boring stuff), I will take the knife to my 1X30 belt sander, using the angle guide attachment, or to my WorkSharp.  It s…[Read more]

I just realized I didn’t answer about the magnification.  I use the face of the clear plastic shroud as the fixed reference, which I place against the edge as I slide the camera longitudinally to inspect the edge.  At that focal plane, the lens will focus at two different magnifications.  On my 21″ wide screen monitor, the lower setting is ab…[Read more]

I have several cameras, but I always come back to the Celestron 5MP.  I posted a video on how I use it on Youtube,  It’s a bit out of date but you might want to check it out.  Once you learn to use it quickly and effectively and make it a part of your process, it becomes automatic and you’ll rely on it heavily.  I never, never sharpen knives without it.

I don’t use the burr method. I concentrate on forming the apex using the handheld microscope.  Burrs look like a dull edge, but you can identify them by seeing if they move when you switch sides.  Mainly, I’m looking for an apex that doesn’t reflect light.  If I see reflected light, I swing the camera to the side to look for  a crisp, straight lin…[Read more]

DPS= Degrees per side

I have a bottle of Flitz’s “Rifle, Gun & Knife Wax,”  but I haven’t really used it enough to evaluate its performance.

While on the topic of protecting knife surfaces…  I recently bought a Zhen Damascus Nakiri knife blade from WoodCraft and it had a VERY unusual feel to the surface of the steel.  It is slick and looks highly polished and fe…[Read more]

I’m guessing that you’re measuring the angle as the stone moves along the edge of the knife.  You can’t do that without rotating the angle cube to keep it perpendicular to the edge.

In any case, the angle does change as the belly of the blade sweeps downward.  The objective is to keep the angle constant, which is the subject of “finding the s…[Read more]

I checked on it at Amazon, where they show it in stock on Jan 17.

I never thought of using a ultrasound bath to clean my knifes, I’d be concerned about the edges getting damaged if they touch the bath walls. Then again, that’s why we have a WE system, to fix those edges. I use Kurobara oil to protect my blades in the kitchen and by extension (read lazy… maybe a little) my folding knives as well.

Another thing to consider is setting up the widest blades at the bottom of the vise indent (deeper than the “hole” guides), that would would decrease the height of the blade above the vise jaws and make it a more universal angle for different blade widths. Just a thought!

That’ll work! Good job.

Last Pic.

Rodger,

Got the Laser Knife Edge Reader (LKER) a few hours ago.  It comes with a spare set of batteries and a test blade.  The laser is not centered or aligned when it arrives.  You have to manually adjust three screws to center the beam.  Not a very tight stable setup in my opinion.  If you only use it a home and not take it on the road it prob…[Read more]

Marc’s list doesn’t show the Scandi grind, which is a geometry where the face grinds continue all the way to the apex, with no bevels ground at all.  This makes for a very sharp edge, as the included angle is probably less than 10 degrees, but as such is quite fragile and extremely time consuming to resharpen manually, as you must remove steel…[Read more]

I’m all for simplifying your process.  Because the angle decreases (for a given setting) as the width of the knife goes up, you might consider setting your widest knife at the 14 (or 16?) degree position, and then look to see how the angle actually changes as you mount narrower blades.  If your narrowest blade ends up at about 20 degrees, it m…[Read more]

Kenneth,

Yes, 3 sets of any stones/strops/ceramics/water stones will fit.

Ed K.