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+--- Thread: Powered Sharpener Setup Recommendations (/showthread.php?tid=515)
RE: Powered Sharpener Setup Recommendations - grepper - 02-16-2020
That looks beautiful to me! It looks like new. S-B belts can do wonders bringing back or creating a fine finish.
One time I wanted pronounced satin finish with some grain. More scratchy than would have been produced with just fine grain S-B, but still with a smooth finish if that makes sense. So I used a very coarse S-B belt with a lot of pressure to get some good scratches in the surface. Then I finished with extremely light pressure using a very fine S-B belt. It worked! Reflected light showed definite scratch grain, but the surface was smooth and satin(y). It was pretty cool.
S-B is fun stuff to play with.
RE: Powered Sharpener Setup Recommendations - Mike Brubacher - 02-17-2020
I think that a lot of people will find that video to be very helpful Brian. Serrated edges represent a curve ball to many. Well done!
RE: Powered Sharpener Setup Recommendations - blgentry - 02-17-2020
Thanks guys.
I may have to do a video where I take a serrated blade from really dull to paper slicing. That might be fun.
Brian.
RE: Powered Sharpener Setup Recommendations - blgentry - 02-24-2020
My latest sharpening on the Kally. Using the KallyRest I'm pretty impressed with how consistent the edge bevel is. I think it's really nice cosmetically.
Brian.
RE: Powered Sharpener Setup Recommendations - grepper - 02-24-2020
Thanks for the update showing your results using the Kallyrest Brian. I’d say you definitely have the hang of it. That bevel looks beautiful to me. Great job on that!
I’m embarrassed to say that I had to Google what a choil is. Thanks to your video now I know. Learn something new every day I guess. That is exactly why the rest piece on the Kallyrest is 7/8” wide with the Kally using a 1” wide belt. It is designed to enable the knife edge to be sharpened right up to the handle of the knife without the rest getting in the way.
I’ve often heard what I consider misconceptions about how belt grinders are too aggressive with the likelihood screwing up the bevel. I say misconceptions because it differs from my own experience. I’ve found that even when using what most would call a coarse belt like a 150 grit that the Kally is very forgiving and it’s relatively easy to produce smooth even bevels every time. Your video shows that very well. That bevel on your Spyderco looks about perfect to me. Again, nice job on that.
RE: Powered Sharpener Setup Recommendations - blgentry - 02-26-2020
Thanks grepper. I appreciate the validation.
I hope my posts are somewhat interesting. I'm still in the honeymoon phase with this system. Excited about using it and excited about the results and it's fun to share with a group of people that might get a kick out of it.
Brian.
RE: Powered Sharpener Setup Recommendations - Mike Brubacher - 02-26-2020
Your posts are most appreciated Brian! Your most recent topic concerning nice, even bevel lines using Grepper's angle guide had special meaning for me. We tested the first iteration of the angle guide and decided to try it against the platen. That turned out to be an unmitigated disaster. The bevel line looked as if some drunk had been painting lane lines down the freeway. To our amazement and pleasure though, when we moved the angle rest above the platen, it healed all our scars and produced a bevel line similar to the one pictured with your Spyderco knife. There just is something about a Kally, angle guide and grinding above the platen that takes most of the mystery out of knife grinding. Another way to put it I guess,"Knife Grinding for Dummies".
RE: Powered Sharpener Setup Recommendations - grepper - 02-27-2020
I think your posts are both interesting and enjoyable Brian. Thanks for taking the time to do it.
To me, posts sharing real life experience are the most informative, valuable, interesting and fun to read. Videos make it even more fun. Demonstrated empirical experience is much more engaging and useful than the usual parroting of existing Internet blather so often propagated. It’s a whole different game to show this is what I did and look at the results.
Doing the work and learning from it is very different than simply accepting Internet lore as truth. We have seen many myths dispelled here on the Exchange thanks to the efforts of our members.
So, thanks Mr. Brian for adding to the demonstrable knowledge here on the Exchange.
RE: Powered Sharpener Setup Recommendations - tyee - 03-02-2020
New member here! I have had the Kally for a couple of years and I just can't get rid of the burr properly, but after reading this thread it's looking like this technique is the way to go. I do fillet knives/kitchen knives mainly and I haven't been able to get my fillet knives really sharp for salmon/ling cod filleting. I do like toothy edges also, been using JNeilson's youtube video technique but when I put on the leather belt it wobbles quite a bit and I just don't like it. Maybe I got a lemon belt, maybe not. I have taken the platen and plate totally off the unit also just like JNeilson...so I have a belt supplier 30 minutes from my house called Skookum Tools, I think I can get the scotchbrites from him, but they are Klingspor brand but hopefully they are ok. I haven't looked into BESS yet, just finding out what it does reading here. I'm in Canada so it's 33% more but whatever. Any Canadian dealers for it? Hopefully this technique will get me to where I want to be!
About the Kallyrest, is it going to make a big difference? My bevels look nice and even but are they?? Last week I was considering the Viel sander because of the angle guide, but after reading some reviews it's not quite a Kally. So I'm wondering if I do need an angle guide.
Can't find the P150 Cubitron in Canada on 3M's site. These are the only 3 on the site - https://www.3mcanada.ca/3M/en_CA/company-ca/all-3m-products/~/Products/?N=5002385+3293241513&preselect=8711017+3294529206+3294579454+3294629366&rt=rud
RE: Powered Sharpener Setup Recommendations - grepper - 03-02-2020
Hi tyee. Welcome to the Exchange.
Not sure what you mean by “wobble”, but if regular abrasive belts don’t wobble then I would suspect a problem with the leather belt. My Surgi-Sharp leather belt runs true just like any other belt. If it’s just uneven and moving side to side that may not affect performance, but if you don’t like it then I’d try a new belt.
As far as the Scotch-Brite goes, you want the blue very fine girt. I think manufacturers other than 3M mostly follow the same color code so I would think that other brand metal conditioning belts would be just fine. When the belts are new they are pretty aggressive. I like to break new ones in with fairly heavy pressure against the platen with some hard steel like a bolt. S-B belts and others like it have abrasive embedded in blobs of adhesive. Breaking them in will help break up some of the bigger more aggressive blobs. Especially with new belts using very gently pressure is advisable to avoid messing up the edge. Old soft S-B belts are a good thing. New ones are fussier to use and require more care.
Deburring a polished edge is not that difficult and many times only leather is needed depending on the burr. Toothy edges, like I enjoy, are more difficult because burrs tend to be larger and tougher and leather just won’t cut it. The trick is to remove the burr but not polish away the toothy edge. That’s where the S-B comes in. It seems to cut and break up the burr while leaving the toothy edge intact. It also grabs onto the LOW or wire edge or whatever it’s called and lifts it off the bevel of the blade.
Deburring with S-B requires practice and experimentation to get it right. When first learning use very light pressure. Do a pass or two at sharpening angle. Try holding the edge 45° to the belt and just barely tickle the edge on the belt. Done correctly this can bend the burr and slice it up. Too much pressure will dull the edge. Then a pass or two back at sharpening angle. Once the burr is mostly gone leather is good to clean things up. I always finish with a few passes on the leather belt at sharpening angle and it seems to improve sharpness by 10-20 BESS. I think what is happening is that the final passes align and straighten the edge as well as generally clean up micro burr particles that remain.
As I mentioned, deburring with S-B requires practice, but it does work and works well. Don’t get discouraged at first. Keep experimenting and you’ll get it. It’s the coolest thing the first time it works! Once you see it work it just becomes a matter of refining your method.
I know other members have learned S-B deburring. Perhaps they may chime in and share their experience.
Do you need an angle guide? I don’t know, but I do know that it really helped me. It only makes sense that maintaining a consistent angle will produce a more even and possibly sharper edge. I know that I’m just not that good at maintaining a consistent angle without a guide. With an inconsistent angle, too acute and the belt misses the edge. Too steep and it grinds a new edge. That doesn’t mean it can’t be sharp, but the edge won’t be as even and the whole thing will take longer.
That said, you mentioned that you removed the platen so you are using a fairly slack belt. A slack belt will be very forgiving because it allows the belt to wrap around the bevel making it far less fussy about bevel angle. I suspect the slack belt really helps in producing the even bevels you are getting.
I'm guessing that your blades are not as sharp as you would like because of incomplete deburring. A microscope or at least a very good, at least 10X loupe would help confirm that. An edge tester like a PT50B will show the specific problem areas of a blade.