A phrase I've been hearing a lot lately. To be honest I'm confused?
It may seem like an obvious question but could someone explain it to me?
I confess I am/was a bit confused as well because I think people use the term for two different activities, no?
Namely,
(1)Literally thinning behind the edge for example when one lowers the angle, sharpens, and then raises the angle a wee bit and puts on a microbevel with the final stone?
and
(2)Thinning up the surface of the blade, keeping the knife really really flat against the stone (<10 degrees??) for example and grinds away up to the shinogi line or even grinds away at the whole width of the blade to change the geometry of the knife.
Or am I missing something??
thinning behind the edge means shrinking the lower calf and ankles of your knife. kankles on a knife = crappy cutter.
I'm still a firm believer that many are too quick to remove a bunch of metal. Why thin and sharpen so frequently? Does ones knife really need a full progression starting all the way down to low grit full thinning every week? I like to try and do as little metal removal as possible, increasing my knifes longevity. I do agree that some knives need a bit of tuning, and thinning is all part of upkeep; that being said, I only resort to a full progression when my actual bevel has deteriorated, which takes a ton of abuse to achieve. Usually touch ups will get me through for a very, very long time.
+2I'm still a firm believer that many are too quick to remove a bunch of metal. Why thin and sharpen so frequently? Does ones knife really need a full progression starting all the way down to low grit full thinning every week? I like to try and do as little metal removal as possible, increasing my knifes longevity. I do agree that some knives need a bit of tuning, and thinning is all part of upkeep; that being said, I only resort to a full progression when my actual bevel has deteriorated, which takes a ton of abuse to achieve. Usually touch ups will get me through for a very, very long time.
Just a c-hair off the stone with the spine. Changes the geometry a touch but leaves a bit of convexity that I like.
Totally agree!! I've seen many thinned knives with mess up blade geometry.I'm still a firm believer that many are too quick to remove a bunch of metal. Why thin and sharpen so frequently? Does ones knife really need a full progression starting all the way down to low grit full thinning every week? I like to try and do as little metal removal as possible, increasing my knifes longevity. I do agree that some knives need a bit of tuning, and thinning is all part of upkeep; that being said, I only resort to a full progression when my actual bevel has deteriorated, which takes a ton of abuse to achieve. Usually touch ups will get me through for a very, very long time.
Is there something particular you look for when you can say that you've remove enough metal when thinning? Is there going to be a burr too?
When you go on a diet, you lose weight, you don't get shorter.
Assuming you are not screwing up the geometry by thinning, how does repeated thinning reduce the life of the knife?
It'll make it more flexible surely? If you're used to a knife with no flex, once is starts to happen it could limit the tasks you use it for and once it starts flexing unless you reduce the height of the blade, it's only gonna get worse
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