Sharpening: Keeping it Simple!

[Warren Mickley]

Luke,

Many folks starting down the sharpening road have been sold or have bought into only a mirror finish can be sharp. The bottom line is that ain't so. Shinny is not necessarily sharp. It can be but most important is the scratch pattern on both surfaces and do they truly met at an acute angle. I've seen and tried to use irons with a mirror finish so bright and shinny to almost blind you but have a scratch pattern on the cutting edge that looked more like a saw than a chisel. They would not cut warm butter nor hold up pass the first contact with wood. Conversely I've used irons where the back and bevel have a near matt finish and the iron was very sharp and held up very well to contact with wood.

Oh, one question. Are you using DMT diamond plates?

Of course as with all thing wood, YMMV.

ken

The correlation between grit number and quality of sharpening is not all that great. In the past decade or so there has been a movement to have stones that cut more quickly and violently at a given grit number. This leads to harsh stones that leave a poor surface. At a given "grit" level there is probably a pretty good (negative) correlation between speed of steel removal and quality of sharpening.

[Robert Engel]

Luke,

Sharpening technique is about as personal as shaving, to each his own, but basic principles apply. For example, there is a difference between sharpening and honing, the former involving removal of metal to establish an edge and the latter being polishing the established edge. One could certainly go straight from 300 grit to a strop, but incrementally through a couple finer grits will give a much better edge.

I start with a 1250 diamond stone, (800 if I've been too lazy to rehone) then 4K -> 8K water stone. Never more than 10-15 strokes each. I could go straight to the 8K, but I hit the 4K in between just to remove the burr. Then just a few strokes on a strop. I've timed myself generally I'm back to work in less than 2 minutes.

A word of caution about a strop: care must be taken because it can actually dull an edge. It can also round the side edges OK for plane irons not so good for chisels.

I've seen a few guys spending way too much time stropping and/or relying too much on the strop to hone an edge. My feeling is 30-40 strokes on a strop is unnecessary. 10 strokes on an 8K polishing stone + 4 strokes on the strop puts you back to work a bit faster.

[Patrick Chase]

The correlation between grit number and quality of sharpening is not all that great. In the past decade or so there has been a movement to have stones that cut more quickly and violently at a given grit number. This leads to harsh stones that leave a poor surface. At a given "grit" level there is probably a pretty good (negative) correlation between speed of steel removal and quality of sharpening.

It depends on *why* the stone cuts fast. For stones that use the same type and quality of abrasive I think that's a fair statement.

Certainly there are stone manufacturers (Norton, Shapton) who have been "aggressive" in terms of particle size, and the result is a relatively rough finish at any given grit size...