I talk fairly often about the importance of being able to see what you're doing with an edge, which is for more than one reason. it could be because you're a beginner, and it could be to solve issues with whether or not an iron that feels like junk really is. I won't go into the latter, there are a lot of circumstances, but safe to say, the issue is simple - under any visual magnification, the edge should look fairly uniform and you can quickly learn what is occurring in a picture that threatens that and what doesn't.
I was reminded by someone (not on a forum) who mentioned to me that he thinks maybe the whole sharpening thing is overblown. Of course it is.
Why is it? because people talk about how they're doing something, and not about results- not about how long, and not about how often things come up short. And I think it's compounded by the fact that most people talk about using hand tools more than they use hand tools.
So- the point of this post - what you're using to sharpen cost-wise doesn't really matter. What you're doing with what you're using to sharpen and how fine the final step is - that does matter. And how accurate the method can be does matter. This means freehand accuracy, not that there's a need for a guide.
If you have a stone that cuts fast but leaves a burr, then you have to deal with the burr. Inevitably, sharpening is two steps of something - putting grinding aside.
* honing
* stropping
here's what an edge looks like off of a shapton cream - which is unequally graded in grit size, on purpose I think, because it makes the stone faster if it claims an average grit size but the particle size is variable and scattered rather than consistent. For example, the sigma power 13000 is very consistent and only slightly smaller claimed particle size, but it's 1/3rd or 1/2 as fast.
The important part of the photos is the edge - this is the back of a plane iron. How fine, how consistent and does it look rounded or have voids.
Not an expensive stone -about $50 in japan and should last anyone a lifetime of sharpening if they like it.
You can go up in cost a lot and not get much more other than trade offs for fineness vs speed. If you want to go finer, then it's more important to concentrate on only working the very edge of an iron and biasing the bevel.
How this ties into two steps is that instead of using a medium stone and a really fine stone, you can shoot for the middle (like an ultra fine india or a scuffed washita stone on the bevel side) and then replace stropping with something as cheap as white buffing bar on wood.
So, the next picture is literally from about $3 of materials. A 6x2 stone that is slightly finer than a fine india and a bit of white honing bar that I got from sears (now defunct) in the clearance aisle for $0.99. Buffing bars have to be reasonably graded if they're a polish bar, even if they're cheap. A drop of oil on wood allows the bars to soften and the wood allows them to cut reasonably fast (hardwood) but stray large particles don't damage edges like they might on a harder surface.
The time spent with both methods is about the same. I prefer the feel of the buff bar on wood, and I like the small extra fine india stone better than any waterstone.
The third part of the system was grinding the edge with PSA roll on wood, just to make a point. it's relatively inaccurate and if you grind by hand instead of a fixed grinding setup, you'll have shorter edge life because the convexity will reduce clearance and there's no strength advantage to it.
if you don't believe that, sharpen a blade for a while entirely by hand, get it really sharp and then sharpen another blade with a grinder grinding shallow and then final honing at 33 degrees. plane with both in a piece of wood and see how much faster the hand ground iron runs out of clearance. You'll be shocked.
Lack of clearance is a huge waste of energy.
After noticing the fineness of the honing compound, but combined with its relatively good speed on hardwood, the only reason that I don't do it is because I grind a lot of metal and I'd have to make a box to keep the "wood hone" in to keep metal dust from settling on it. I use the buffer to remove a burr instead because it doesn't care if metal dust lands on it.
$3 - the fineness counts here. The edge on the right will last longer than the one on the left, it takes no longer to achieve and it costs almost nothing.
When it gets difficult to get any nicking or wear out with the stone before it, then it's time to regrind. Really, regrinding a step for that is better.
How many times you can hone varies, so someone claiming "do it every 4" or whatever, that's method not results - it makes no sense when any method gets the same result.
If I stop metalworking at some point, I will go back to using this on plane irons as the buffer is OK, but it doesn't really have a purpose on plane irons above and beyond a flat abrasive strop because they're not getting denting damage.
I was reminded by someone (not on a forum) who mentioned to me that he thinks maybe the whole sharpening thing is overblown. Of course it is.
Why is it? because people talk about how they're doing something, and not about results- not about how long, and not about how often things come up short. And I think it's compounded by the fact that most people talk about using hand tools more than they use hand tools.
So- the point of this post - what you're using to sharpen cost-wise doesn't really matter. What you're doing with what you're using to sharpen and how fine the final step is - that does matter. And how accurate the method can be does matter. This means freehand accuracy, not that there's a need for a guide.
If you have a stone that cuts fast but leaves a burr, then you have to deal with the burr. Inevitably, sharpening is two steps of something - putting grinding aside.
* honing
* stropping
here's what an edge looks like off of a shapton cream - which is unequally graded in grit size, on purpose I think, because it makes the stone faster if it claims an average grit size but the particle size is variable and scattered rather than consistent. For example, the sigma power 13000 is very consistent and only slightly smaller claimed particle size, but it's 1/3rd or 1/2 as fast.
The important part of the photos is the edge - this is the back of a plane iron. How fine, how consistent and does it look rounded or have voids.
Not an expensive stone -about $50 in japan and should last anyone a lifetime of sharpening if they like it.
You can go up in cost a lot and not get much more other than trade offs for fineness vs speed. If you want to go finer, then it's more important to concentrate on only working the very edge of an iron and biasing the bevel.
How this ties into two steps is that instead of using a medium stone and a really fine stone, you can shoot for the middle (like an ultra fine india or a scuffed washita stone on the bevel side) and then replace stropping with something as cheap as white buffing bar on wood.
So, the next picture is literally from about $3 of materials. A 6x2 stone that is slightly finer than a fine india and a bit of white honing bar that I got from sears (now defunct) in the clearance aisle for $0.99. Buffing bars have to be reasonably graded if they're a polish bar, even if they're cheap. A drop of oil on wood allows the bars to soften and the wood allows them to cut reasonably fast (hardwood) but stray large particles don't damage edges like they might on a harder surface.
The time spent with both methods is about the same. I prefer the feel of the buff bar on wood, and I like the small extra fine india stone better than any waterstone.
The third part of the system was grinding the edge with PSA roll on wood, just to make a point. it's relatively inaccurate and if you grind by hand instead of a fixed grinding setup, you'll have shorter edge life because the convexity will reduce clearance and there's no strength advantage to it.
if you don't believe that, sharpen a blade for a while entirely by hand, get it really sharp and then sharpen another blade with a grinder grinding shallow and then final honing at 33 degrees. plane with both in a piece of wood and see how much faster the hand ground iron runs out of clearance. You'll be shocked.
Lack of clearance is a huge waste of energy.
After noticing the fineness of the honing compound, but combined with its relatively good speed on hardwood, the only reason that I don't do it is because I grind a lot of metal and I'd have to make a box to keep the "wood hone" in to keep metal dust from settling on it. I use the buffer to remove a burr instead because it doesn't care if metal dust lands on it.
$3 - the fineness counts here. The edge on the right will last longer than the one on the left, it takes no longer to achieve and it costs almost nothing.
When it gets difficult to get any nicking or wear out with the stone before it, then it's time to regrind. Really, regrinding a step for that is better.
How many times you can hone varies, so someone claiming "do it every 4" or whatever, that's method not results - it makes no sense when any method gets the same result.
If I stop metalworking at some point, I will go back to using this on plane irons as the buffer is OK, but it doesn't really have a purpose on plane irons above and beyond a flat abrasive strop because they're not getting denting damage.
also in sets of three and diamond encrusted , at astronomical prices!
?
