No Burr

[Seth]

As others have suggested, the burr can be there but diificult to feel with your big hairy calloused hands. You need to find a very sensitive area of your body to accurately feel for the burr.

 

[Benuser]

No suggestions??

 

[ajhuff]

The snarkiness is not appreciated nor helpful.

-AJ

 

[adletson]

I'm really glad you asked this aj. I had thought you had to raise a burr with each stone too.

 

[Still-edo]

The way I check for burr is I use a light stropping motion against my hand or a piece of paper. I think it's easier this way to check for resistance. or I scratch the tip with my nail. Work my way up the blade to make sure I have a burr the complete length. Then I flip over and go light on the side with the burr to grind it away very lightly. When I can't feel a burr on either side anymore, I strop with my exgf's leather Coach belt that I repo'd from her. Then I try to cut the long way of a rolled up shiny magazine page. Since it's really slick it's really hard to cut unless the blade is really sharp.

 

[DeepCSweede]

When I can't feel a burr on either side anymore, I strop with my exgf's leather Coach belt that I repo'd from her.

LMFAO - Good use for a Coach belt IMHO although my wife would kick my A$$ if I tried it with any of hers. I bet it works pretty well too.

 

[Crothcipt]

I was just wondering if it does any better than a cheap piece of leather.

 

[Still-edo]

In Alton Brown's words "Multi-tasker". Hey, you gotta use whats around right?

As for performance, I don't know maybe we have to arrange a pass around to judge that lol

 

[markenki]

May I respectfully disagree? If the very edge is hit with the 400-stone, but not with the 1000, you won't see a patina yet on the unreached part which has been freshly abraded by the 400.

Yes, of course, this only works for the first stone you use in the sharpening session.

 

[CompE]

As others have stated, it becomes much more difficult to feel a burr as you go up in grit. Furthermore, if you flip the knife often, the burr will be more difficult to feel. If you really want to try to feel the burr, try working just one side of the knife until you feel it and then flip to to work the other. Make sure you worth both sides equally or you'll be left with an asymmetric grind, although it's unlikely you will cause too much damage to a hard J-knife with a 1K.

The guideline that I go by, which should work with any knife, stone or sharpening style is this... I constantly check if I am improving the edge. I'll work the whole edge until I'm satisfied that I've covered all of it, make another pass or two with lighter pressure and then I'll check the edge. I de-burr on a felt block and then stropping (even if I can't see or feel the burr) and then I cut printer paper, checking for how easily it cuts and what it sounds like. If cuts better than the previous stone, then I know that I did something right. I'll then do it again to see if I can make it even better. When working the same stone stops improving the edge, it's time to move on to the next. If the next stone made the edge worse, I'll go back to the previous to fix the damage (IMHO some knives/steels like a toothier edge that can be made worse with too fine of a polish). If the next stone didn't make the edge any better or worse, I either keep working it or accept the fact that it isn't going to improve (a POS stainless knife won't improve on a 5K stone). Also keep in mind that the law of diminishing returns applies. Each stone will improve the edge to a smaller degree.

 

[Benuser]

For stropping I use a leather strip coated with acrylic paint containing Cr2O3 as a pigment. It helps to hear if there are remaining burr debris. The paint is water soluble. The smooth coating can be easily restored with a few drops of water when the stropping has caused any damage to the surface.

 

[tk59]

As others have suggested, the burr can be there but diificult to feel with your big hairy calloused hands. You need to find a very sensitive area of your body to accurately feel for the burr.

:rofl2:

 

[add]

I strop with my exgf's leather Coach belt that I repo'd from her.

Condolences.


Pray tell, there was no lingerie and similar application involved in said gift recovery...?

 

[ajhuff]

I've had a similar complaint from customers regarding the King stones. They told me that the stones wears down before their knives get sharp. When I asked Mr. Sugai, he told me that the king stones haven't changed what their material is made of, so they're not really up to date with current harder material knives. I assume they would do wonders on carbon knives or softer materials, but maybe just not for your particular knife.

If you want the burr, you may want to try a lower grit stone and work your way to the #1000 grit stones. This is what Mr. Sugai does to make sharpening easier.

I was able to get a burr on my Sabatier Nogent on the King 1000 but not on any of the Japanese knives. So it like this is the answer Mari. I think I will be in the market for a harder stone.

Thanks,

-AJ

 

[Eamon Burke]

More aggressive, not necessarily harder.

 

[ajhuff]

OK, and could you expound more please.

-AJ

 

[Eamon Burke]

Just saying that a harder stone isn't always a faster, better cutting stone. Hardness is a quality of what the binder is and how it is made. Aggression is largely a product of the what kind of abrasives are in it.