In the few months I've been here, I've learned so much. Thank you. Seen most of the YouTube sharpening videos, including all the Usual Suspects (Murray Carter, Peter Nowlin, Mark Richmond, Jon Broida, Ryky, etc.) Curious what the pros think about Bob Kramer's sharpening technique - fast and swoopy? Lately, I find myself following that curve on the finer grits. Two pennies for your thoughts?
if you look at his vid it might not be obvious but its cut and edited. its looks like he's doing all that in like 30 seconds, but thats not the case.
he also seems to be using extremely high pressure to get **** done fast. its easy to crush/fold an edge doing that.
that being said. i think you should just try to get a blade sharp on your stone. you will find out what you have to do pretty fast. this is not rocket scinece.
- i have a type of hybrid sharpening method that i came up with myself. for coarse work i do like jon broida, like 90 degree angle back and forth over and over, because thats the fast way of removing metal on stones i found.
- then i try to make the bevel even/blended all over the blade. and then i do a sweep from edge to heel, trying to use the whole stone. back and forth, same sweep
- then i do the swipes from heel to tip edge leading as deburring/fine grinding, imagine trying to slice a thin sliver off the stone, and i alternate sides 1-1 doing this while lightening up the pressure as i go.
so in my opinion there is no right or wrong, and no good or bad method. its just different techniques for different stages imo. and those above works for me on kitchen knife size blades.
on folders and small blades under lets say 10cm, i use none of these techniques. because i dont find them effective nor precise for that. i don't feel i have the control i want so then i do completely other things instead.