07-25-2019, 05:44 PM
When I was first learning sharpening I thought there was something like ancient Chinese Zen master secrets of sharpening that could be discovered. Unfortunately, especially for the beginner starting to research sharpening, it’s easy to become entangled in the plethora of opinions, old wife’s tales and copious volumes of advice belched all over the Internet by self proclaimed experts. There is so much of it out there it can be difficult to ferret out the nuggets of good information from all the blather.
I mention this because I’ve been there, done that, and wasted lots of money buying all sorts of let’s sharpen knives stuff that now sit and gather dust. Zen masters use paper wheels! I bought some. This secret special sauce is your path to sharpening nirvana! Yup, I have secret sauce too. The best $1,000 sharpening machine on the market! Of course, I had to have that. Hold your knife this way, do this, do that, stand on one foot on Monday and the other on Tuesday and on and on and on. I can tell you, standing on one foot is really tiring.
That’s not to say there is anything wrong with having lots of sharpening stuff and experimenting with different techniques. It’s a fun hobby with tons of toys available to play with. Just think of the hours of fun!
That said, basic sharpening is really very simple: Grind an edge and remove the burr. Done. Of course there is the polished or toothy thing, but still, it’s grind an edge and remove the burr. Done.
So what about this dude in the video with his block of felt? Are there special properties of felt that make it super good for deburring?
When I was trying to figure out deburring I created a big gnarly burr (shudder) on a knife and went about rubbing it against every different surface I could find. Hard wood, soft wood, leather, felt, plastic, concrete, stones, diamond plates, burlap, denim, cotton, glass, skin, clay flower pots, steel, aluminum, paper, sand paper, cardboard, hard rubber, soft rubber, you name it. If I could rub on it I did. I even tried cutting the burr off with a razor blade as well as using both steel and brass brushes manually and on a drill.
Just about all of those materials did something. Mostly they just pushed the burr from one side of the blade to the other. Others even damaged the edge. Here’s a great example of bad advice that is out there on the ol’ Internet. I had read that a blade could be magically deburred by dragging the blade along the corner of a piece of wood as though trying to cut it in half, so of course I suckered for that too and tried it. Yes, some burr may be torn from the edge but what does not is smashed down against the bevel making it very difficult to remove and without a good microscope difficult to even ascertain what is really happening. Not only that, cutting wood rolls the edge and dulls the blade. Duh.
It all depends on type of enemy burr. A tiny burr of hard steel can be very brittle and break off easily with little work and sometimes even removed with a finger nail dragged at an angle along the edge, (not recommended). Some big tough burrs of softer steel can be extremely ductile and bend back and forth seemingly without end before fracturing off. I’ve made very fine burrs that I could actually move by blowing on them. Not making that up. Burrs with a big tough LOW are basically unaffected by rubbing on most surfaces and either need to be ground off or the LOW lifted from the edge to be removed.
So, what of that little block of felt? My best guess is that with some burrs it might work, sort of, maybe, in some cases. Is there anything special about felt? I’ll leave that up to you to discover. Purchase a block of the stuff, make some burrs on different knives and rub away! Have at it! Take some before/after sharpness readings and microscope images and post your findings. Should be interesting. If per chance it does not work all that well, don't fret as all is not lost. Smear some special sauce on it and I suspect it would be great for polishing your fingernails.
I mention this because I’ve been there, done that, and wasted lots of money buying all sorts of let’s sharpen knives stuff that now sit and gather dust. Zen masters use paper wheels! I bought some. This secret special sauce is your path to sharpening nirvana! Yup, I have secret sauce too. The best $1,000 sharpening machine on the market! Of course, I had to have that. Hold your knife this way, do this, do that, stand on one foot on Monday and the other on Tuesday and on and on and on. I can tell you, standing on one foot is really tiring.
That’s not to say there is anything wrong with having lots of sharpening stuff and experimenting with different techniques. It’s a fun hobby with tons of toys available to play with. Just think of the hours of fun!
That said, basic sharpening is really very simple: Grind an edge and remove the burr. Done. Of course there is the polished or toothy thing, but still, it’s grind an edge and remove the burr. Done.
So what about this dude in the video with his block of felt? Are there special properties of felt that make it super good for deburring?
When I was trying to figure out deburring I created a big gnarly burr (shudder) on a knife and went about rubbing it against every different surface I could find. Hard wood, soft wood, leather, felt, plastic, concrete, stones, diamond plates, burlap, denim, cotton, glass, skin, clay flower pots, steel, aluminum, paper, sand paper, cardboard, hard rubber, soft rubber, you name it. If I could rub on it I did. I even tried cutting the burr off with a razor blade as well as using both steel and brass brushes manually and on a drill.
Just about all of those materials did something. Mostly they just pushed the burr from one side of the blade to the other. Others even damaged the edge. Here’s a great example of bad advice that is out there on the ol’ Internet. I had read that a blade could be magically deburred by dragging the blade along the corner of a piece of wood as though trying to cut it in half, so of course I suckered for that too and tried it. Yes, some burr may be torn from the edge but what does not is smashed down against the bevel making it very difficult to remove and without a good microscope difficult to even ascertain what is really happening. Not only that, cutting wood rolls the edge and dulls the blade. Duh.
It all depends on type of enemy burr. A tiny burr of hard steel can be very brittle and break off easily with little work and sometimes even removed with a finger nail dragged at an angle along the edge, (not recommended). Some big tough burrs of softer steel can be extremely ductile and bend back and forth seemingly without end before fracturing off. I’ve made very fine burrs that I could actually move by blowing on them. Not making that up. Burrs with a big tough LOW are basically unaffected by rubbing on most surfaces and either need to be ground off or the LOW lifted from the edge to be removed.
So, what of that little block of felt? My best guess is that with some burrs it might work, sort of, maybe, in some cases. Is there anything special about felt? I’ll leave that up to you to discover. Purchase a block of the stuff, make some burrs on different knives and rub away! Have at it! Take some before/after sharpness readings and microscope images and post your findings. Should be interesting. If per chance it does not work all that well, don't fret as all is not lost. Smear some special sauce on it and I suspect it would be great for polishing your fingernails.