A little set back for our new KF-10R. A long story but the short of it is that on some KF-10Rs the screw head that holds the magnet in place protrudes just a bit making the fulcrum a little "tipsy". Let us know (edgeonup@gmail.com) if this is the case with your KF-10R. This does not apply to older KF10s. The fix is simple - a different screw.  Sorry for any inconvenience.

I have to restore chips of ceramic knife. The ceramic & silicon carbide belts can handle it?

And unlike sharpening steel, no burr will be formed because ceramic is not a ductile material. How can I know when to switch to a finer belt?

Not forming a burr while sharpening is a sharpening technique favored by a few people, namely Cliff Stamp and Sal Glesser (also most straight razor honers) although they use different techniques.  I use both methods of sharpening, forming a burr or not, but when I ask people if they use burr-free sharpening, the answer is almost always the same:  I can't get it to work for me.  The people asked are usually experienced in sharpening, so this puzzles me.  It took me about a week to get burr-free sharpening down.  I am wondering what people think about burr-free sharpening, if they use it, and how to get the technique to be learned easier and faster, as it can help with all forms of sharpening.

I want to share this interesting video with you.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dndjr3YXsLA

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=McJc_AXD7v0

I've often seen many people use cotton buffing wheel for finishing sharpening. But you don't. Why?

My knife sharpening with Viel is started with Norton Blaze P120. This belt is amazing. Fast, Low heat, and long life. But Norton made no finer grit of it. 

So I'm looking for the medium grit(400~800 grit) belt and polishing(1000~3000 grit, not for finishing) belt.(I have silicon carbide 400~1000 grit belts but I want to upgrade it.)

Here are some options. 

1. 3M Trizact: No! because heat. 
2. Super Fine Polishing/Sharpening Belts(http://econabrasives.com/abrasive-belts/...belts.html): Not good. Backing is too thin. 
3. Norton Norax: Good. It's very fine AO. Following is P3000. ---> https://www.sharpeningsupplies.com/Work-...-P556.aspx

But I can't find 1x42 size of Norax. Do you know where can I buy it? Let me know if there's another fine grit belt as good as it.

Travis, New Zealand:
"Got the PT50B. And have already learned so much about my sharpening in this short time. Really opens your eyes on technique and stuff."

40 BESS is sharper than a standard razor.

Nathan, Australia:
"It's bloody addictive and quite a leveller on what you think is sharp. I'm chewing through the cord pretty quickly!"


Nathan who won our The Sharpest Knife Contest is getting popular on social media through his edge retention tests using the PT50B.
Watch the video to see his interesting technique of placing short blades in the fulcrum for accurate scores.




Apart from our industrial customers, it is for these enthusiasts we bring the testers to Australia and NZ, for the 2nd year - I've just realized that we haven't had a single warranty claim for this period.

I'm looking for hammer for repairing of high-end knife. I will mainly use it to straighten out the bended tip or blade. What hammer is suitable? ball-peen? steel or brass?

I may have just sharpened my first lawn mower blades intelligently. I'm back on the farm now and mower blades take a beating here. Heretofore, mower blade sharpening has been the province of bench grinders and it's an ugly process. Here's a picture of one blade segment prior to sharpening;

                             

The picture really doesn't do justice. The edge apex looked like it was 1/16" wide and perfectly rounded. Would have measured about 20,000 on the BESS I'd estimate. I've got one of those Harbor Freight 1 x 30's here and thought this would be a good opportunity to make use of it. I put on a 120 grit ceramic belt and removed the big end of the notches that had dented the edge first. This was accomplished by holding the edge perpendicular to the belt. I'd guess the bevel at about 30° so shined that up and thinned it just a bit. I didn't want to use up 16 belts and frying by belt grinder in creating a burr so tipped the blade back about 5° and put a micro bevel on it and raised a burr. Then just a  light touch on the back side.

On went the SFN Scotch Brite belt then for about 5 light passes per side. Here's the finished product;

                               


413 and the burr is gone. That's just about where I wanted to end up. Now we'll see how it works. Sure looks better than a bench grinder job though and was pretty simple and fast to effect.

If you're interested in the crop report, here's what the soybeans look like this year around here;

                               


Scenes like this make an ol' farm boy's heart swell.

I enjoy Paul Sellers' woodworking videos. Here he presents another real world sharpening point of view.

https://youtu.be/UbAo4RpM7oM

(Incidentally, I used the same combination India stone for many years. I eventually switched to waterstones and then the Tormek. I might still be using the India stone if I had owned my DMT flattening plate to refresh the stone back then.)

Ken