Am I getting worse at Sharpening?

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I took another crack on Ryusen with the synthetic natural, and may have done better. Basically just focusing more with greater concentration for the final steps, and spending more time deburring, about 3x longer than carbon. That process seems to have helped. @Kippington pen cap check has better results. Also used my nail, must admit. Working on the board hasn't degraded the bite as much as before.
 
I understand what are you talking about, guys...
But since 2009, when I made a sharpener for myself, I forgot all problem))).
 

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captaincaed said:
I took another crack on Ryusen with the synthetic natural, and may have done better. Basically just focusing more with greater concentration for the final steps, and spending more time deburring, about 3x longer than carbon. That process seems to have helped. @Kippington pen cap check has better results. Also used my nail, must admit. Working on the board hasn't degraded the bite as much as before.
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Using the nail is fine; what is of concern is dragging the edge over the nail. If you just use the nail to check portions of the blade (eg: Klip's video) there is little risk. But sawing or dragging the edge across the nail risks cutting into the nail bed when your knives are extremely sharp and especially with the longer heavier blades. The way you used your nail in the video made me cringe like I was watching an accident about to happen. Maybe you can get away with it. Who knows?

I have been sharpening for 50yrs and I do not consider myself an authority. That is probably because I have been undisciplined and more recreational (home cook with too many knives and a guy who sharpens family and friends knives). I do notice I get better edges with tougher steels using synthetics. I have a nice little collection of J-nats and I find I do not have the patience or perhaps technique to sharpen the harder steels to the level I desire on the naturals.

If I had the same experience you are having I would likely work on some near zero angle sharpening for a while to see what might happen- but like I said I am not an expert on the level of the guys who do it all the time.

Best of luck getting the edge and not hurting yourself in the mean time.
 
Here's a full vid of sharpening a Mizuno from 1k-Gesshin synthetic natural. Love to hear comments.

I show three different views, moving the camera every time I change stones. It's probably worth it to skip around, as it got a little long.

 
captaincaed said:
Here's a full vid of sharpening a Mizuno from 1k-Gesshin synthetic natural. Love to hear comments.

I show three different views, moving the camera every time I change stones. It's probably worth it to skip around, as it got a little long.

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Nice knife, nice stones, nice hends)))...
But Your board to hard for edge.
I'm sharpening my knives now much less often, when I use a simple pine plates.
 
I am no expert and do not think you suck at all at sharpening. I do not switch hands when sharpening, so take my comments with a grain of salt. When you switch to your left hand, it seems you take much shorter strokes when sharpening so it seems a little awkward to me. So hopefully someone who switches hands will chime in.

How did you feel about the results when you were done? if you were not satisfied, I would suggest you a start with a coarser stone. Although not a universal view, I'm a big proponent of spending more time on coarse stones. You might find coarse stone to help with your edge.
 
captaincaed said:
Most of the time I'm using edge maple, harder than pine, softer than the checkerboard.
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That's right, but how much cost pine in Home Depot?
I've change my cutting board every 6-8 month, before It receive enough microbes)))...
Of course simple pine seems not so beautiful, but at least better for knife...
 
PappaG said:
I am no expert and do not think you suck at all at sharpening. I do not switch hands when sharpening, so take my comments with a grain of salt. When you switch to your left hand, it seems you take much shorter strokes when sharpening so it seems a little awkward to me. So hopefully someone who switches hands will chime in.

How did you feel about the results when you were done? if you were not satisfied, I would suggest you a start with a coarser stone. Although not a universal view, I'm a big proponent of spending more time on coarse stones. You might find coarse stone to help with your edge.
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Yeah the left hand is still a bit awkward, that's a good catch. How do the angles look to an outside eye?
 
Here's my unprofessional opinion. The knife is already kind of sharp. No need to raise a burr. I'd do 2-5 very VERY light pressure edge leading strokes on your finishing stone. It should be much sharper now. I know @stringer posted a good example on his YouTube about 2-3 weeks ago.
 
captaincaed said:
Yeah the left hand is still a bit awkward, that's a good catch. How do the angles look to an outside eye?
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I switch hands to sharpen just like you. As far as I can tell from the video I think you used very good angles for sharpening. Good finger placement.
Have you rounded the sides of your stones? Would those stones benefit from working up mud first?
I noticed you tend to use the closest part of the stone to you for sharpening tip area, but I like farthest away part (but hey whatever works)
Maybe a few more passes in the low grit next time? Maybe?
Before I use a stropping motion I do like to rinse the stone off of swarf build up or any other particles that may remain after some sharpening on it.
It is a pain to switch hands with every single stroke when using stropping motion, eventually I taught myself to keep the knife in one hand and just flip it over with every pass in the stone. This will help you, knocking the burr back and forth one stroke per side until it’s very weak. Got a corkscrew laying around? That’s how I like to finish.
 
Well, here it goes. I hope it won't sound harsh.
At this point it's not about how sharp it gets. Just let that go for a while.
I saw you are really focused on that edge and getting it sharp, but man there is a lot of tension in your hands. Do you throw balls? It's like that. You need a more relaxed and fluid motion.
I couldn't see very well, but J-strops sometimes do have some side effects. I'll try to find a clip about this and show you.
 
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Your very final strokes are highly important both to how sharp the knife will feel and how long the edge will last.

Here's the link to my thoughts on finishing up. I've been getting into straight razors the last few months. It really helps with developing the feather touch. Sorry for the poor production quality and rambling.

I'll watch your videos today sometime and see if I spot anything.

 
I do something a little different to find the Apex.
Learned it from a sharpening course from one of Dave martells videos.
I do a small edge leading stroke, while raising the angle till it bites the Stone, but with feather light weight. Then I lower the angle just enough so it doesn’t bite.
That’s my sharpening angle, for when i sharpen knives I don’t know the angle of.
Then u don’t need the pennies or whatever ever other angle measurements ppl use.
I get paper towel cutting sharpness easy that way. Even on a 1000’gritt stone.
I hope it works out for u
 
  1. Thank you everyone for tips on final finishing strokes. For simplicity I wanted to just do the basics on this video, not to add confounding factors.
  2. Assuming the basics steps are adequate, I'm going to jump on the extra finishing steps.
    1. Edge leading
    2. Stropping
    3. Wash rinse repeat until happy
  3. Thank you also for the emphasis on relaxation! Sometimes it's easy to forget this is supposed to be fun
  4. Will try the apex finding trick, although I do like to play with this angle to find a good compromise between edge retention and thinness for the given steel
 
I think he means pulling the knife through cork (from a wine bottle or whatever) when you are done to help pull off any residual burr.
 
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