NotSharpEnuff

Steve,

The problem I’ve had with filet knives in general is that they tend to flex laterally as the stone presses the blade on both sides past the vise clamp.  Hence, you’re not maintaining a set angle to create a refined apex.  With thicker shorter blades it’s not an issue.  There are several posts in other threads about stabilizing long thin bl…[Read more]

Expedia,

I am registered in TX as an LLC.  If you define a business as working and not charging for services I indeed have a business!  I read a book quite awhile ago about the 10000 hour rule to become expert at a task/sport/endeavor.  Had to look it up – Outliers by Malcom Gladwell.  Anyway, that stuck with me and I look at every knife that I s…[Read more]

Expedia,

Below is one of my posts on the BESS exchange concerning test numbers.  The thread started because a user posted a Youtube video with a 5gf reading.

http://bessex.com/forum/showthread.php?tid=364

I agree that any “slicing” component will skew the test.  Most times I freehand rather than use the fulcrum because it limits the area that I…[Read more]

Mark,

When I upgraded to the newer vise I added plastic stop collars for the stones.  When I set my stones I move the stone to the extreme edges of the blade.  At the farthest point with the stone about a ~1/4″ above the bevel I set the stop collar.

From what I can see from your pics, the knife was set with the handle very close to the vise.  Wi…[Read more]

Adding the fifth pic of the WE laser edge.

Expedia,

I also have a PM2 with S110V as my EDC.  I’ve profiled it once at 17DPS to a mirror polish and have been touching it up at 18 DPS.  I have found that it doesn’t take as keen an edge as my Kershaw 1812 in M390.  Both knives have excellent edge retention and are close to the same in difficulty to sharpen.

The link below from Blade HQ gav…[Read more]

Hope all had a good Turkey day.

Clay,

I have spatchcocked our Turkey the last three years.  We get a free Turkey from work and it is usually right at 15 lbs.  Took less than 90 minutes and came out perfect.

Ed K.

Aaron,

The one Marc linked to above is the one I use.  I have been using it for over a year and it has worked great.  It is a 2MP scope which I find adequate.  One caveat, you should buy some heavy UHMW slippery tape and stick two small pieces around the clear ring – even with ring edge that will touch the knife edge – tip of the hat to tcmey…[Read more]

Welcome Anton

When I have to sharpen a knife in stages or sections and blend the bevel, I draw a sharpie line down from bevel toward the spine on each side of the blade at the junction point.

This way I have a visual mark for my sharpening strokes.

Ed K.

Tom,

I agree with your observations.  Looking at your video, you sharpen in a seated position and work each side one at at time.  I sharpen standing up with the vise on the bench.  Even though I think I’m using the same pressure, I must be leaning in with my shoulder on one side more than the other.

I also can’t tell what the magn…[Read more]

These first two pictures are the knife sharpness results and the Goniometer picture after sharpening.

The edge sharpness is better than my target 130-150 but the convex bevel is not as consistent as I would like along the whole edge.

The knife blade is so thin that it starts to deflect about 2 inches either side of the clamp even with very light…[Read more]

Tom,

I agree the video shows a nice smooth convex bevel.  I also watched your “using a microscope” video as well.  I worked on the Victorinox this evening and got good results but not quite a perfect convex on both sides.  First two pictures are the original bevel and the edge apex.  Next two pictures are the convex bevel and the sharpened edg…[Read more]

Tom,

So, I pulled the Victorinox out of the drawer and checked it on the sharpness tester.  The first picture has the sharpness scores – well below above the delivered factory edge. <span style=”color: #ff0000;”>Below 300 is a an edge many people would be very happy using.  When I sharpen a reading below 200 is good and my target is 130-15…[Read more]

Thanks MarcH, I was looking for the Shapton Glass stones and not the Shapton Pro stones.  Sorry for causing any confusion.

Ed K.

Tom:  I haven’t had a knife to sharpen in about 3 weeks.  So, I looked at it like a practice session to keep my muscle memory and form.  Also, I was using very very fine grits as I wanted a really polished edge and the blade steel is CPM S110V.

When looking at the pictures the tighter and brighter the dot shows a bevel that is precise and very po…[Read more]

jayhwer01:  I have been looking for Shapton Pro stones for the WE but came up empty.  Last time I talked to Bob at Oldawan.com he only had Chosera stones for WE.  He sent me a loaner set to try and I ended up buying the 800,1000,2000,3000,5000, and 10000.  I second what MarcH says: They work very well on expensive hard stainless steels.  I beli…[Read more]

Tom,

After watching your video, I decided to try it on my PM2 EDC.  The method worked very well and it came out just like you said.  I took some pictures with the laser protractor to illustrate the bevel that I got.  I used a restored RH36 WWII era fixed blade sharpened at 20 DPS with a single bevel, a CRKT with a double bevel, and my PM2 with th…[Read more]

I want to thank Marc for the Modular Hybrid Rack-it above.  I was discussing buying one of his standard racks but didn’t have much bench space available.  Below is an abbreviated portion of our email discussion:

Marc, I’m attaching some pictures of my work area so you can see that I’m pretty space limited. Thinking out of the box and not having d…[Read more]

Frustrated Inc,

I ended up buying a chess timer to quantify how long I was spending on the WE for different knives and edges.

Most nights I end up stopping during a sharpening session to eat or take out the garbage.  With the timer, I hit the pause button while I’m not sharpening.  For the average 4″ EDC pocket knife, I spend 30-40 minutes s…[Read more]