Pass HHT on your kitchen knife 2 (Electric boogaloo)

[Blank Blades.]

Decided I'll just start the new thread to make it official.

For anyone that doesn't know what this is about give the old one a read linked below.

Just Another Dam Project - Pass HHT on your kitchen knife

The Hoover Dam was completed on 01 March 1936. It was a monumental effort using yet unproven techniques. The dam now provides power for much of Arizona, Nevada and Southern California. In honor of achievement bought with persistence, get out your stones and your finest kitchen knife, and...

www.kitchenknifeforums.com

So for this one, i do like the idea of different categories that @stringer brought up. Maybe we can has this out a bit. Set a timeline etc.

For those that are skeptical of the idea of bothering to get a kitchen knife to this level of sharpness. Specifically on the necessity. You are correct. You can have a perfectly usable knife that isnt hht sharp.

That is missing the point though. This for one is for fun. But also about pushing yourself to become a better sharpener. Learning what does, and doesnt work well, and seeing where you can improve, and trying to implement that into your sharpening.

 

[Blank Blades.]

Decided i might as well start today. While the meat is thawing and im waiting to start cooking.

I'll be seeing how far i can get on this king 1.2k, plan to strop with my pants. But ill see. Then go from here.

 

[Blank Blades.]

At least in the ammount of time I just spent. Not hht. Cut the paper towel pretty well. And shaved. But not there yet.

 

[mockit]

Will definitely join on Friday pics and all. Been waiting for the redux. Doing this with a natural could be interesting but I think 1 stable grit would be the best for consistency / technique purposes. Think the 800 JKI Vit. D is too coarse for such an exercise? I seem to remember the idea is to use 1 stone and mayyybe a strop to focus on technique?

 

[mockit]

Just reread the first few pages of the original. 1 stone probably not a restriction / goal. Will do a 2-3 stone + strop progression as that seems much more reasonable! 1 stone is pro status for sure and I am no pro lol.

 

[Blank Blades.]

Will definitely join on Friday pics and all. Been waiting for the redux. Doing this with a natural could be interesting but I think 1 stable grit would be the best for consistency / technique purposes. Think the 800 JKI Vit. D is too coarse for such an exercise? I seem to remember the idea is to use 1 stone and mayyybe a strop to focus on technique?

I mean. Not necessarily.

Since the whole point is coarse to mid grit stones.

I haven't had the chance to try the jki vitrified though so. Idk.

Im planning to use this w2 knife with a few stones for this.

Also something in 10v, or maybe my 15v spyderco i reground. But i really really don't want to waste a bunch of steel on that one. So i may stick to something else in that kinda high carbide volume category.

But for those ill be using my venevs up to the f400, and maybe dmt coarse and fine if they still have any life left.

 

[Blank Blades.]

Just reread the first few pages of the original. 1 stone probably not a restriction / goal. Will do a 2-3 stone + strop progression as that seems much more reasonable! 1 stone is pro status for sure and I am no pro lol.

Certainly you don't need to only use one stone.

What the ideal outcome will be is being about to get hht passing edges from medium to low grit stones, by the end. If no stropping is needed, even better.

However. Just improving sharpening, and getting those edges the most efficiently you can is still valid imo. Just as long as you are making an effort to improve your sharpening

 

[mengwong]

I was rereading Kraichuk’s Knife Deburring today and thought it would be interesting to deliberately create defective edges of various types: can you consistently and repeatedly create a wire edge, foil edge, etc? Can you produce, on demand, a BESS 120 vs 70 vs 40 edge? Maybe for the next evolution of the HHT challenge.

 

[mockit]

Alright gave it a shot tonight. I initially tried on a MAC 8" as I don't mind beating up my older stainless stuff. Did not get anywhere close. Barely got it to cut paper towel . Picked up a recent purchase from Knife Japan Sasaoka Hasami Funayuki-bocho 165mm in Aogami 2 and got it to cut paper towel and shave. I did get the edge to catch and break a hair trying to violin but it was not repeatable so does not count for tonight!

Tried initially on just a JKI Vitrified Diamond 800 (Vitamin D as I like to call it). Got it to cut paper towel pretty nicely. Stropping on a 1 micron diamond helped a bit but not a lot. Pulled out a coticule and that seemed to bring it up to a cleaner paper towel cut and shaving sharpness. Really like both of those for a quick and refined edge. The Vit. D on Hitachi steel forms a burr damn near instantly.

Video posted but I have serious doubts about the quality lol. Will try again another time! In it to win it.

 

[Blank Blades.]

Decided ill give it another go today.

Going to cheat a little and use the 2k green brick of joy.

I say cheating because. While it says its 2k. Its definitely finer in finish. In my experience.

Will give an update in a minute.

 

[Blank Blades.]

Sorry for the not very clear video.

Its hard videoing a hair getting cut with a phone. Especially not having a tripod.

Anyway. I did follow with plain leather but idk not bad i think. The first attemp split the hair in the video. The second one cut it.

 

[dabes]

No video evidence but here's a photo
Xerxes Primus II off of SG500 + diamond loaded denim strop, the hair is still slightly attached, so I guess it's hair whittling?

 

[Blank Blades.]

No video evidence but here's a photo
Xerxes Primus II off of SG500 + diamond loaded denim strop, the hair is still slightly attached, so I guess it's hair whittling?

View attachment 251322

Yeah that would be whittling or hair splitting.

 

[jedy617]

I was able to get a super low BESS on my mikami, takes the best edge of any knife so far I have sharpened. Pops hair but can't wittle or slice one yet

 

[Blank Blades.]

I was able to get a super low BESS on my mikami, takes the best edge of any knife so far I have sharpened. Pops hair but can't wittle or slice one yet

View attachment 251373

You mean like popping hair like normal shaving?

Just want to clear it up. Because if its hht popping hairs, that usually is harder than getting it to split.

 

[jedy617]

Hmm. I have to check again, it felt like the hairs were jumping a bit compared to just normal shaving. Maybe some areas of the edge are sharper than others

 

[Desert Rat]

I have failed with a fine India, can't get past a fiddle. Not sure where a fine India falls in line with grit rating, I always considered it kind of medium-fine.
Not ready to give up on the stone just yet though. I will try again when I have more time.

 

[Blank Blades.]

I have failed with a fine India, can't get past a fiddle. Not sure where a fine India falls in line with grit rating, I always considered it kind of medium-fine.
Not ready to give up on the stone just yet though. I will try again when I have more time.

Its about 600 grit from what i remember.

 

[D J]

Iyoto finish, which is usually the pre finisher, finer than 1000, coarser than ohira suita. May not count as coarse enough finish for this test. Will try with the 1000 when I get the urge to have another go at it.

 

[D J]

Wat pro santoku and wat 1000grit followed by home made cow leather strop loaded with flexcut gold

 

[Blank Blades.]

I think sometimes we don't expect how much a loaded strop helps with this kind of thing.

The last round we did. I was able to get hht passing on the dmt coarse if i followed with a strop with compound pretty reliably. But with a plain leather strop with no compound i couldnt get below a dmt fine (about 600 grit).

I still think its valid for sure. Really i think anything involving finishing on a stone between 120-2000 grit is a pretty good place for the challenge. and following with a loaded strop is still in the spirit of this. Provided you arent doing some extensive stropping progression.

But this time around i will only be doing either plain leather, my jeans, or no strop. Just to make sure im really pushing myself to improve my sharpening from the last time around.

 

[D J]

Thanks. I tried before stropping but couldn't get it to bite. I was surprised that it cut after stropping. I have a couple of other strops, but that one my favourite

 

[Blank Blades.]

Thanks. I tried before stropping but couldn't get it to bite. I was surprised that it cut after stropping. I have a couple of other strops, but that one my favourite

Yeah. During my normal sharpening i use a couple strops. Both are leather. One loaded with green compound. The other with 1 micron diamond spray. The one i use depends on the steel

 

[Desert Rat]

I'm at level 1, a fiddle on this rusty old Cammillus and a hindostan.

I will try it again tonight and hold my mouth just a little different, almost there...

 

[Blank Blades.]

I'm at level 1, a fiddle on this rusty old Cammillus and a hindostan.

I will try it again tonight and hold my mouth just a little different, almost there...

Nice. You got this

 

[Mr Kooby Shemayrew]

Not the best hair popping but it does, barely.

Thinned on belts > Norton Crystalon coarse > All 3 India’s > Nakayama (which removed all the bite) > switched to a Dan’s blue black Ark > stropped.
I should have just stopped at the fine India in retrospect.

 

[Blank Blades.]

Not the best hair popping but it does, barely.

Thinned on belts > Norton Crystalon coarse > All 3 India’s > Nakayama (which removed all the bite) > switched to a Dan’s blue black Ark > stropped.
I should have just stopped at the fine India in retrospect.

View attachment 262161

Some tips on doing the actual hht.

Make sure you are checking the direction the "grain" of the hair is running. For lack of a better word.

You can do this by pinching the hair using both hands and lightly pulling it. Whichever way its more able to slip through your fingers shows you the way the hair is going.

You want it so the hair will pull the layers against the edge when you touch it to the edge, so if the edge has a small enough radius. It catches and either splits it, or slices it. Or if the radius isnt quite small enough it will violin.

I hope i described that well.

That said about the nakayama. You might have gotten off on your angle. Hard to say. Just speculation. But if you are relying on feedback from the stone, and you are using a stone with a lot less feedback suddenly. It can potentially throw you off, and have you ending up rounding your edge over on accident (even if its just a little).

With all that said. Great work!