tcmeyer

I bought 5/16″ stainless square bar stock from Mcmaster.com (8986K13).  Cut to the desired length and use the original bar as a template – clamp it centered to the new bar and drill the two holes through the original holes.  A 7/32″ drill ought to work.

And wicked edgy when referring to the prices as well!  Wife and I were there in ’94 for proton beam treatments at Harvard.  I think I paid $18 to park for a 20-minute breakfast near Harvard Square.  Otherwise, a great time.

Diamond lapping film lasts longer than you would think.  If you can find a supplier that will sell you 8X11 sheets of PSA film, the costs per strip are actually quite reasonable.  That having been said, I’d recommend buying the 1500/2200 diamond stones rather than the 1500/glass platen set.  Diamond stones aren’t subject to contamination like st…[Read more]

Thanks for the post, Robert.  I ordered a set of the files today.  I hope to use them on blades I harden in my propane mini-forge.

I’ve always noticed that the stainless knives I’ve sharpened in 420C and 440C “felt” different.  Not hard, but resistant to normal abrasion by my diamond stones.  I think I’ve sensed something similar on other man…[Read more]

Well… pretty much, but we have had a couple of individuals who gave up on it either because they didn’t want to invest the time to learn the basics or were so mechanically-challenged they didn’t begin to understand the basic principles.  Never underestimate the limitations of those at the bottom end of the bell curve.

Emily was played by the late, great Gilda Radner.  I remember her wondering what all the fuss was, about “sax and violins” on television.  That was another of her “Oh!  Never mind!” moments.  I thought she was even better in her other character role, as Rosanne Rosannadana.  Gilda, a gifted comedienne, was married to Gene Wilder and died in 1988…[Read more]

Sorry I hadn’t read this before, as I could have saved you some time and money.  Planer blades wouldn’t work in a chisel adapter or even in the WE because of their angle.  You can, however, use the diamond stones to finish the edges.

Planer blades tend to see damage that is quite deep along their edges and which usually requires some sort of p…[Read more]

I’ve made a number of knives from kits over the past 45 years.  Recently, I’ve done a few that have turned out quite good.

If you want an inexpensive ($23) EDC folder, I’ve done the “Sarge” kit, which is available from a number of sources.  My source was Woodcraft.

My kitchen knives, which I also bought from Woodcraft, are completed blades of e…[Read more]

Back to the scalpel in the photo I posted above.  Please note that what the manufacturer has done is to form the bevels with (what appears to be) 600 grit, then polished one side.  They are skipping all the intermediate grits between 600 and 3000 (?), so the 600-grit scratches and the 600-grit apex are retained.  Only the high ridges of the 60…[Read more]

Clay reported at one time that he had some success with 200 as the “tooth”-producing grit.  Probably used as an elk-gutting and skinning application.  I don’t recall the details, but I would think that 50 grit is too coarse and would accelerate the loss of steel.  I have a set of non-serrated Wuesthof steak knives and they are quite thin and ha…[Read more]

I made a batch of skinning knives which have a more or less constant radius belly (see photo below) and found that the best way to mount the knife is to center the belly directly over the center of the vise, ignoring any of the normal landmarks or key positions.  This works so well that I’ve adopted it for any knife that has a somewhat constant…[Read more]

Agreed, Marc, this is very interesting reading.  I’ve never gotten into the whetstone process.  All my sharpeners are diamond, ceramic or oilstones.

How do you deal with changes in stone thickness changes after lapping?  Do you check angles with each grit change, or do you use the Variable Stone Thickness Adapter (which doesn’t work on the Gen 3…[Read more]

A long time ago, to help me understand what made for a really sharp knife, I studied shaving razor blades and scalpels.  I talked my dentist into given me a few of his old scalpels, which turned out to be junk, so I Googled it and found you can buy scalpels right off of Amazon, so I bought a bunch.

I had really been curious as to how scalpels…[Read more]

TL;DR  Which I think stands for “Too long, didn’t read.” which I’m sorry for, but I’m way behind on my forum reading, so I’ll jump in here, not knowing if what I have to add has been discussed or not.

Serious chipping is a problem that nagged me for the first two years of WE sharpening and it changed my approach entirely.  It popped up again t…[Read more]

If you’ll send me your e-mail address via private message, I’ll forward to you all the information you need.   I assume you want the parts as shown in your third photo, correct?

From your name, I’m guessing that you are in Europe, maybe Netherlands?

I’ll concur, taking exception where a user whose skills are well developed wants to break in a new set of stones.  I use a piece of plate glass, begged from a local glass shop.  It’s about 6 inches long, 2 inches wide and 1/4″ thick.  I think it speeds up the break in process about ten-fold.  This is what I use, but I don’t necessarily rec…[Read more]

From my experience, (which is to say not much) one of the problems I’ve seen with scissors is the material being cut tending to slide away from the point of shear.  This suggests that a “toothier” edge might be better.  I’d stick with the 1000 grit.

One example I’m aware of said he started by setting up a web site advertising his services.  Most of his jobs were managed by mail.  Meaning that customers shipped their knives to him and he returned them via same way.  I gathered that happy customers spread the word.

Another fellow set up a table at flea markets and such.  He also worked a dea…[Read more]

I see you have a Gen 3 Pro.  I did a Youtube video a while back that shows one method of doing convex edges on a Gen 3 Pro.  In the video I use half-step increments to produce the convex edge.  After subsequent tests, I found you can do full-step increments with pretty much the same results.  See the video here.

Kenneth:

Which vise do you have?  Is it the Gen 3 type with the crank arm?  I have an extra, older LAA that only works with the older vise models.