[quote quote=“drichardjackson” post=16811]For us not so in tune yet. Do you typically notice you are using the same number of strokes as you progress up the grit/strop range or do you even count them at all? I completely understand getting to where you know what to feel and hear. But I think it would help if we greenhorns knew and idea of when to start looking for those changes in sound and feel. It’s like wine or beer tasting, sommeliers will teach their students to taste and smell different flavor profiles by sometimes first giving the students a wine and saying that this wine has hints of vanilla, citrus, dark cherry and chocolate etc. Then the students can start picking up what the teacher is saying. So the teacher is not only telling then what to taste for but also giving a hands on example of what that taste tastes like in a wine.
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I love this forum!! There are people way more advanced in the art of sharpening, the science of sharpening and the zen of sharpening.
Mentors and leaders in every direction!! How cool is that? (And now on this super-fast webserver!!)
My self-diagnosed OCD, I begin by using either 89 strokes. Why? It’s the closest number to 100 from the fibonacci sequence: 0,1,1,2,3,5,8,13,21,34,55,89,144
As almost all the responders have mentioned is that it varies.
My brother is visiting from Fairbanks. He and his son both have SOG Twitch II. My brother’s knife had never been sharpened after leaving the factory: after setting the edge angle it didn’t take that many strokes at 200 and I was at the edge. Went right to the 400’s and immediately drew a burr, honed it off, and proceeded to polish out the previous grit lines. Went up through the fine ceramics – beautiful and arm-hair shaving.
His son had been hand-sharpening (not well) his SOG and it took much longer. The bevels were visibly different sizes and we measured them as +/- .5 mm difference.
It took awhile. I started 400 but quickly dropped down to 100. There were two stubborn spots: one at the heel of the blade and one on the very tip. At the heel was an existing horizontal scratch in the bevel. At the tip, it looked like something “hard” was push cut and ever-so-slightly dented the edge.
I worked the 100’s, then the 200’s and then went up to the 400’s and at each level reset the angle with the cube. (My nephew wasn’t there but my brother was, so we used it as a teaching/learning experience.)
Using frequent use of the marker I/we gradually brought the two bevels together. Then, I tried to raise a burr. Nope.
Through the loupe, I found a section near the dented tip that was 3-4 mm that retained marker.
So, back down to 200’s, then back up to 400. Worked and worked another 100 very light strokes and time to work up the burr. I “thought” I had one, but just wasn’t 100% sure. So, I cleaned the blade really well, remarked the edge, took a few strokes on each side and really examined the edge. There was a length of edge less than the width of an UltraFine marker (.3 mm – according to Sharpie’s website) at that dented tip. (The scratch at the back was almost gone and didn’t affect the edge of the edge in any case.)
We had begun counting the number of stroke grit lines per millimeter!! Once he and I both confirmed that the spot (smaller than a pencil lead) was gone and we had really, truly reached the edge, I tried to raise a burr. It took only a few more strokes and it was no longer guess work – the burr was obvious at 400 grit the whole length of the blade.
Once we got that last micro-spot profiled, it seemed the whole blade was done and not a stroke sooner.
We left it at that last night very, very late, because from now on it’s polishing. I’ll finish that this morning.
Before we were finished, my brother and I both understood a deeper level of the listening aspect. He even suggested I get a microphone for my bench stereo system so I can hear better. He called it a magnifying lens for the sound – just as important.
I ramble.... and all just to support the already given replies.....
Enjoy the process.
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