Hey all,
So, here is the short story…
I have been working metal since I was a teenager; machinist and welder.  
As I have started turning gray, I have also become pretty skilled in the kitchen.
I’ve spent 1,000’s of dollars on kitchen cutlery, and have never fell in love with any knife I have purchased, regardless of price.

So, my solution, is to make my own kitchen knives, the way I want them.
I have a fair amount of tooling, but, missing a good belt sander.
Here is the plan:
I’ve purchased some O1 tool steel — 1/8” x 3” x 18”
I’ve made cardboard templates for shape of blade and tang
Planning on a slow convex from spine to edge, with an 11 degree 1/2” secondary bevel, which leads to a 16 degree primary bevel.
For this experiment, I was thinking I would just get a cheap $50 belt sander from harbor freight, and make any mods I need to make.  Not sure if that is a good plan, but, sanders go up in price pretty damn fast.

I have a nice Lagun vertical mill and plenty of carbide tools to throw at the rough shaping.  And a plasma torch if needed.
I’ve have a heat treating shop down the street willing to do the hardening and annealing/tempering.
I figure I can get the steel to 60-62 HRc.

If anyone has any advice, I am open to it!
Thanks.
TW.

When it comes to knife sharpening it would probably be considered overly kind to call me an amateur but my Sharp Pad has turned my kitchen knives around. I also own a PT50 edge tester and that was key as well. I don't have to speculate about how sharp they are because I know that they are sharp. Sharp Pad is simply a great tool in the kitchen. It not only makes my knife edges sharp but keeps them that way. I recently bought one for each of my three grown children and I know for sure that at least one of them is making good use of it. My oldest lives in San Diego and on a recent visit there it sat right by his knife block. He said he uses it almost daily.

He asked a question though that I couldn't answer so maybe someone here in the forum can. He doesn't have an edge tester so is there some other simple test or means that would tell him when the burr has been totally removed? I know now what he is getting for his birthday but that is a ways off so are there any suggestions from someone to get him by until he gets his edge tester? Thanks.

I recently did some testing of CBN grinding wheels with the Tormek. Specifically, I wanted to see if using a 180 grit CBN wheel would make the slow speed Tormek, an excellent tool for resharpening, into an efficient reshaping grinder. Short answer: in my opinion, it does. Minor reshaping is accomplished in only a couple minutes; a major reshaping test I did required a few minutes more. The CBN wheel did not glaze and cut efficiently throughout the testing.

The focus here is BESS. In later testing, I compared the edges of 80 and 180 grits with a spindle gouge. I also compared BESS readings for the same gouge sharpened with the wheel turning into the tool and trailing (turning away from the tool).

Especially with the 80 grit, there was quite a burr. BESS was close to 500. However, with just a visit with the leather honing wheel, BESS cleaned up to 130. I prefer the conventional Tormek SG grinding wheel for smooth sharpening, however, the quickly obtained 130 is not too shabby.

BESS gave me a very quick practical sharpness measurement, and one which would be understood by sharpeners anywhere. I find it a very useful tool.

Ken

My original tester is the KN-100. Once I got beyond all my "brilliant" improvements and realized the practicality of Mike's suggested BBs, I became a happy camper. 

Once I bought a PT-50 (original), I was using it exclusively. Why? The test media holder was easier to reset. I like the PT-50, however, I want to start using both for knives. I like the simple directness of the BBs.

I will post my thoughts.

Great forum, Mike and Grepper!

Ken

I am pleased to be a part of this exciting and useful new forum!

When I make BESS tests, I typically get some variation in the readings. I attribute this to some parts of the edge being sharper than others. For a typical kitchen knife sharpened with reasonable care, how much of a range might one expect to find in the BESS readings?

Ken

Hi.  I'm a sharpener in California, and I have a question.  I tried the Murray Carter "3-Finger test" on my sharpened blades, and they don't feel very sharp, even though they test from 160 to 230 grams on my PT 50  What's up?

I hope that many sharpeners join this forum, as I am interested in improving my skills.  Thanks!  ............Dan

I was the guy that broke the news about the KN100 edge sharpness tester two years ago on a knife forum and that thread ended up with about 20,000 views. I hope to beat that number with this thread because Mike's products deserve it.
 
I read Mike's post here and was glad to see that he's finally beginning to tell the story right. When I first ordered the KN100, all I expected it to do was tell me how sharp my knife was when I finished sharpening. On the very first knife I measured I found out different. It was a very nice carry knife and measured 185 after sharpening  and stropping. Then I wondered "what would happen if I tried this?". Nothing. "So how about this?" Worse. "So what about this?" 165.  What a wonderful tool this is! I've shaved more hair and cut up more paper than anybody in the state of Louisiana and  there is  no comparison. That's not just me talking but all my friends who have purchased these testers as well. I've got a bad habit of ordering sharpening gizmos and compounds that make sense to me. Some of the time they work and most of the time they don't buy me much. I don't have to guess which side of the fence they fall on now because my new PT50 tells me.
 
My new electronic tester spends a fair amount of time over at my son Henry's house and I'm going to post some pictures here that he took. It's a Victorinox knife that he used Norax belts and a leather hone on. The numbers speak for themselves. It's interesting because the PT50 has turned Henry's interest back to knife sharpening again. I really wish we could all start talking BESS numbers. Then we could really learn something from one another. We don't need to pull each other's leg with how low our BESS numbers are. Just tell me you did "this" and it lowered your score by 20 points. That would be fantastic! This ol Louisiana boy is still singing the same tune I did two years ago. Sharpness is now a number! 

   

Hello!

As Executive Director of BESS Universal please allow me to express my gratitude to those who have joined us here on the BESS Exchange, and to Edge On Up for sponsoring what we expect to be a very informative site.


BESS Universal is an Arizona Nonprofit Corporation whose stated purpose is to obtain scientific information about sharpness of edges and points, and to disseminate the findings by placing them in the public domain.  The administration of BESSU is conducted by myself and a several member volunteer board, and we work very closely with licensees (such as Edge On Up, a manufacturer and seller of sharpness test measuring instruments) in efforts to innovate and learn more about this fascinating topic.  We also provide the BESS test media for our own instrument certification work and to our licensees to use in their work, or to resell. 

BESS Test Media was two years in development and now has enjoyed two years of availability in the world market.  In that two years we have enjoyed remarkable success. The BESS (Brubacher Edge Sharpness Scale) has become the standard that is used to gauge, quantify, and communicate edge and needle sharpness levels for many people and entities worldwide. We now enjoy relationships with licensees, regulatory entities, and safety associations, and our BESS Partner Program allows manufacturers to post BESS scores on their products and use the BESS Logo thereon.

Please join us and contribute to the ever increasing knowledge base being developed in connection with edge sharpening and testing by posting your comments, experiences, findings, and suggestions, for the benefit of us all. 

Thank-you.

Bernard Propst
Executive Director, BESS Universal

(Should you have questions concerning licensing or the BESS Partner Program please contact me directly at b.propst@bessu.org. BESS Test Media is repackaged and sold only through our licensees)

Welcome to the BESS Exchange and the SHARP PAD page! SHARP PAD is a product designed for and targeted at the home chef and sharpener. With that in mind, we do sell a very considerable number of Sharp Pads to professionals, enthusiasts and industrial users due to its convenient size and effective burr removal and work hardening features. When a SHARP PAD is paired with one of our edge sharpness testing models, it becomes an even more powerful and effective tool.
 
This page is not exclusive to discussions concerning our SHARP PAD product. It is titled “SHARP PAD” only because this is the page that EOU will be directing our consumer SHARP PAD customers to. All discussion relative to burrs and burr removal, edge straightening (rolling) and work hardening edges will be much appreciated here. Education is the purpose of this page so lots of questions and informed answers are the goals here. As always, and throughout this Exchange, we are much more interested in what you have found that works well as opposed to what does not work at all. If you’ve had good success with an alternative method or system we’d love to hear about it here.
 
At EOU we regard general knife sharpening as a two-step process. Raise a burr and then remove the burr you just created. Of course, this is a bit of edge sharpening "short-hand" but for the novice it helps to put the process into perspective. The SHARP PAD product does not contain abrasives and is therefore well removed from step one of our two-step process. It is our feeling that the home kitchen world is already awash in metal removal tools and products but nearly devoid of simple means and tools to remove the burr that these products leave in their wake. While we sometimes cringe at the metal removing result of many of these products we try to remain pragmatic in that most of these edges can still be converted into useful kitchen tools with a SHARP PAD and attention to the SHARP PAD operating manual.
 
Thank you for the opportunity to talk to you about SHARP PAD and I hope the conversation continues for a very long time.  In the future and if information is required that neither members nor moderators can answer, then the appropriate Edge On Up personnel may answer under the collective Exchange name “EOU”.  Once again, thank you and welcome to the SHARP PAD Exchange Page. 

Welcome to the BESS Exchange! Sharpening and sharpness testing have been inextricably linked for centuries. Today the pages of YouTube and the internet are filled with various means and methodologies in grinding a new edge and a nearly equal volume of means in testing the efficacy of those grinding efforts. Until the appearance of CATRA and later ANAGO those edge testing efforts were confined primarily to mostly anecdotal methods. Recognition and credit must be given to these two associations and their members for recognizing the value and need for more definitive edge sharpness testing (“EST”) methods. It is the subject of "value and need" that I would like to address in this, my first and final post in this category. Hereafter, and only as the need may arise, questions will be answered by the appropriate Edge On Up personnel as “EOU”.
 
The development and use of instrumentation can be traced back to ancient times. The existence and usefulness of these ancient tools and measuring devices are well known and numerous so I won’t waste time here with their recital. Instead, I will pose a question. Surely, most ancient Egyptian people were satisfied with the determination of the time of day by gazing up at the sun. They did live in sunny Egypt, didn’t they? So why did someone drive a vertical rod into the ground in an effort to improve the accuracy of this time calculation? Further still in Egypt, the sundial was followed by the water clock and then the sand hourglass. The hourglass “stuck” for a while. Ferdinand Magellan carried 18 hourglasses on his circumnavigation voyage and I understand that large hour glasses (large enough for the Sunday morning congregation to see) were a common fixture on 18th century British church pulpits.
 
So, what does the early history of time keeping have to do with the “value and need” for accurate edge sharpness testing? Well, just this. Advancements in time keeping didn’t end with the hourglass and EST development didn’t stop after the first definitive edge sharpness tester was developed.  Today, modern EST provides so many more possibilities and, like your current timepiece, serves many more purposes than simply gauging whether you arrived at a destination on time or not.
 
EST today is not simply about how sharp an edge is at the end of a sharpening session. EST is about the process of sharpening from beginning to end. Cause and effect. Which tools, materials and techniques contribute to the desired effect and which are a poor or wasted use of time and resources. EST instrumentation is easily capable of not only “seeing” edge issues that even a digital microscope cannot but also of measuring the extent of the issue as well. The discovery potential for sharpeners is almost infinite but, without doubt, improvements with the sharpening process is the facet of EST where we receive the most accolades from users. We simply could not put it better than one of our users did “My PT50 turned on the light in my sharpening room”.
 
In the industrial segment of our business we deal with process engineers on a regular basis and we hope to hear from them here on the Exchange as well. In fact, all sharpeners are process engineers in my opinion whether your business card indicates so or not. We have all purchased equipment and materials and studied the techniques required to produce sharp and durable edges. We all seek to improve and optimize our processes. Please consider EST and the BESS as certainly not the final step, but a very significant step toward improving your process and achieving your goals.