09-26-2018, 04:35 AM
I'm the odd duck on bessex. The majority of the members are knife sharpeners. I sharpen knives, too, however, my true sharpening passion is working with chisels. Even when sharpening knives, subconsciously I am translating my thoughts into chiselese. The two languages have much in common.
I have the highest praise for my fellow bessexers who are intensely studying the effects of burrs. We are up against a very powerful lobby, the marketing community who incessantly promote simplicity over sharpness. I see nothing wrong with establishing a certain level of sharpness which is compatible with being able to sharpen a hundred knives on a Saturday morning. Nor do I see anything wrong with the level of sharpness obtained with the myriad of kitchen gadgets used by people with essentially no sharpening experience at very low cost. I can certainly understand the appeal of a nicely packaged ten dollar grocery store knife for a person of modest means.. All of these areas fulfill a need. My problem with them is that all too often they become the norm instead of just expedients.
The ally of mass marketing is, for lack of a more polite term, laziness. With chisels, the use of intermediate grit stones is called "refining the scratch pattern". As with sharpening stones, I have noticed a resistance among Tormek users to use the stone grader to add the middle step 1000 grit before going to the leather honing wheel. With waterstones, I have observed a tendency to omit the middle 4000 grit between the 1000 and 8000 grits.
Reading through this topic, I get the impression that judicious use of the middle grit(s) not only refines the scratches; it is our best weapon in getting rid of the root burr. In my sharpening, I really have no need of sub 50 sharpness, however, creating more durable edges definitely perks up my interest.
I will end this reply as I began it. To all of you who are pioneering the quest for better sharpness, I am most grateful. You are like the auto racing or space program teams. Your work may start on race tracks or bessex, however, like those other technologies, your work will raise the general level of sharpness and edge durability for everyone.
Keep up the good work.
Ken
I have the highest praise for my fellow bessexers who are intensely studying the effects of burrs. We are up against a very powerful lobby, the marketing community who incessantly promote simplicity over sharpness. I see nothing wrong with establishing a certain level of sharpness which is compatible with being able to sharpen a hundred knives on a Saturday morning. Nor do I see anything wrong with the level of sharpness obtained with the myriad of kitchen gadgets used by people with essentially no sharpening experience at very low cost. I can certainly understand the appeal of a nicely packaged ten dollar grocery store knife for a person of modest means.. All of these areas fulfill a need. My problem with them is that all too often they become the norm instead of just expedients.
The ally of mass marketing is, for lack of a more polite term, laziness. With chisels, the use of intermediate grit stones is called "refining the scratch pattern". As with sharpening stones, I have noticed a resistance among Tormek users to use the stone grader to add the middle step 1000 grit before going to the leather honing wheel. With waterstones, I have observed a tendency to omit the middle 4000 grit between the 1000 and 8000 grits.
Reading through this topic, I get the impression that judicious use of the middle grit(s) not only refines the scratches; it is our best weapon in getting rid of the root burr. In my sharpening, I really have no need of sub 50 sharpness, however, creating more durable edges definitely perks up my interest.
I will end this reply as I began it. To all of you who are pioneering the quest for better sharpness, I am most grateful. You are like the auto racing or space program teams. Your work may start on race tracks or bessex, however, like those other technologies, your work will raise the general level of sharpness and edge durability for everyone.
Keep up the good work.
Ken