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Old 07-07-2006, 11:41   #1
Bill Harsey
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Advanced Sharpening Notes

Just finished hand sharpening some of our knives that have been out in the "sand" made from the CPM S-30V steel.

Two things, first I use WD-40 on the long Norton Fine India stone clamped onto the bench top, this has previously been stated on this forum but it's very important to note this part:

Stop during sharpening to use more WD-40 to clean the abraded particles out of the stone. This is to keep the stone cutting at the best possible "rate of removal".

While we have some WD-40 on the stone, I observed I was watching the little "wave" of the WD moving along just forward of the edge that was in contact with the stone.

Yes I said that correctly, "observed I was watching".

This is how I tell what part of the curved edge is in contact with the stone and let's me know when to stop at the tip so I don't over sharpen or "round off" the point of the blade.

Last edited by Bill Harsey; 07-07-2006 at 11:57.
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Old 07-07-2006, 13:49   #2
x SF med
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Mr Harsey-
When can I take your sharpening class(es)? Your insights amaze me, I can keep a blade fairly sharp, but you make them sing...
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Old 07-07-2006, 21:23   #3
BrianH
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Quote:
Originally Posted by x_sf_med
Mr Harsey-
When can I take your sharpening class(es)? Your insights amaze me, I can keep a blade fairly sharp, but you make them sing...
Ditto.

I'm starting to make excuses to my girlfriend why I would have to take a pilgrimage to the Northwest that doesn't involve guns or knives.

Bill, there's some great fishing up there, right?
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Old 07-08-2006, 07:01   #4
Bill Harsey
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Quote:
Originally Posted by x_sf_med
Mr Harsey-
When can I take your sharpening class(es)? Your insights amaze me, I can keep a blade fairly sharp, but you make them sing...
If you get close to this neighborhood, your a welcome guest in the shop and we can work on sharpening.

TR, You need me to find a stone for you?

BrianH, The fishing up here is one reason to keep knives sharp.
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Old 07-09-2006, 14:25   #5
BrianH
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Bill Harsey
TR, You need me to find a stone for you?
I don't know about TR, but THIS GUY needs you to find a stone for him
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Old 07-10-2006, 11:11   #6
Bill Harsey
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The Sharpening Stone

The one single stone I use the most for knife work here is made by Norton and is called the Crystolan/India Combo. It's an eleven inch long double sided stone, medium silicon carbide on one side and fine aluminum oxide on the other.
Current price on this stone from Tru Grit is 36.25 US plus shipping.

If you can't get something sharp with this, you need a belt grinder.

Here's the contact: Tru Grit Inc., (trugrit.com) in Ontario, California.
Phone: 909-923-4116

Tru Grit are great folks and are very good to deal with.
They supply all of Chris Reeve Knives and my grinding belts and other abrasives like stones.

Last edited by Bill Harsey; 07-10-2006 at 13:01.
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Old 07-12-2006, 09:32   #7
Bill Harsey
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Looking, Seeing

One of the subtle problems sharpening any knife, especially the thicker tactical or hard use type blades is that we do a whole lot of sharpening and the knife isn't getting sharp.
Sometimes it's tempting to change the angle to make the knife sharpen out to the edge faster. This can be a mistake because it blunts off the leading edge and this makes the knife not cut as well as it could, and makes it harder for us to maintain a sharp knife in the long run.

Try using some magnification to look and see what part of the edge your working on.

Here is my point, often we don't need to change anything we are doing while sharpening but only need to keep doing the same thing a while longer to get very good results.
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Old 07-07-2006, 17:16   #8
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Bill Harsey
This is how I tell what part of the curved edge is in contact with the stone and let's me know when to stop at the tip so I don't over sharpen or "round off" the point of the blade.
That is my problem.

I can get the edge right but I round the tips.

I always have to go back and repoint the tip, which is then uneven.

'Course, I don't have one o' them fancy bench stones.

Got plenty of WD-40 though!

TR
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