quote:

Originally posted by sjtill:
[QUOTE]


How much time does it take you to take a dull blade and get it to mirror sharp finish?

I use diamond plates to reprofile a blade up to 1000gr.
I switch to stones from 2000gr to 12,000gr before moving to leather strop plates .
I spend an hour reprofiling to a mirrored edge.
I go slow as the cost / value of higher end knives deserve extra attention.

I enjoy having a sharp serviceable knife around ( who doesn’t?) but I have always plain sucked at sharpening them. I have a decades old lansky system that I get by with, but they just never seem to come out as sharp as I would like.

I am very open to any pointers the good people here can give! ( I am not going to invest in an expensive system or new equipment unless it is fairly inexpensive)

I’ve owned a guided sharpening tool for a few years now but I recently bought some of the diamond paste for the strop and it works really great.
Many days I just use the strop for a quick tuneup now.

quote:

Originally posted by parabellum:
Sometimes a coarser edge is preferable. I'm just curious which particular devices (and the hones they use) are capable of producing such edges.

The edges I'm talking about- neither you nor I would be able to get them by free-hand sharpening.

I'm positive I can duplicate these edges freehand. If I can do it, anyone can that really wants to, can also. I'm a compulsive sharpener with an extensive selection of (collection? hoard?) of hones of many types. I'm known on a razor forum for my staunch, advocacy of Arkansas stones as finishers. The Black and Translucent family see everything that I sharpen, reasonable or not. I have Black and Trans Arks I only use for knives and tools, and others I only use for razors.

I've been interested and fascinated by sharpening since I was quite young. Many boy scout, and cheap pocket knives suffered at my early attempts. And I do mean suffered... After buying a Buck honing guide and 2 stones in 1976, I was hooked on my first, hair popping, edge. I soon quit the honing guide and worked on free hand. It took a couple of years until I mastered the free hand process. The Buck guide, drove home the point of the bevel angles needed, and possibly gave me some muscle memory, to create them, but this was my last use of any type of aid to sharpen anything. I found that the edge was not repeatable do to positioning of the guide on the blade, no touch ups to be had......

As far as Arkansas stone go, I favor vintage Norton hones and have quite a few. Blacks, Translucents, Black Translucents, Butterscotch translucents as finishing stones, and I have a selection of very old Vintage Washitas. I love outlier Washitas that punch above their weight.

I restored my bosses knife for him. It never had proper bevels honed/ground onto the stainless steel blade. What a bitch. I kept track of the hours I spent honing this, this, thing. This knife shaped object. I ended up with 50 hours in just the edge. But it was quite the edge. Gorgeously polished on a Black Ark, and hair popping from the handle to the needle point.

A mirrored edge is just show, to the naked eye. If you examine the edge at 40x magnification, it will appear to be sand blasted.
The polished parts are just the bevels leading to the apex of the edge where the magic happens. When I sharpen straight razors, I keep my eye on the apex. That's where improvement of the edge takes place.

Stropping can also achieve mirrored bevels. I've used white rouge on paste board to strop edges for wood carving tools. A stropped edge is very ineffective for cutting warm flesh, as in hunting knife for field dressing. It will shave arm hair really nice though. My favorite knife edge is finished on a Translucent Arkansas stone that is dead flat and dressed to 600 grit wet/dry sand paper.

With the use of newer super steels, I've been forced to use other types of synthetic hones, but most of these steels, can still be improved at final finish, on a Black or Translucent Arkansas stone.

YMMV greatly. For me, it's free hand all the way. I'm not downing set ups and guides, I just get a certain satisfaction doing it old school. It's getting to be a lost "man skill" in today's world....

Honing anything is my Zen. An adult beverage, a killer play list and I'll hone until the wee hours of the morning. Give free hand honing a shot Gamma. It's not that hard to master. Just takes some practice. But the juice is worth the squeeze!!!

Elmax to 12,000grt & 0.1um diamond paste strop @ 15DPS.