12-31-2019, 07:29 PM
Mr. Brian - Rarely do I flat out recommend, let alone highly recommend equipment, but the EOU testers are an exception. As I said before, it is a must have for anyone at all serious about sharpening. I use the PT50B to test every knife I sharpen. Many times I’ll take 3 measurements along the blade just to check for a consistently sharp edge. A few days ago I used it to test a 4” pizza cutting wheel I sharpened. I depend on it and would feel lost without it. It’s just that significant.
The “thread” that is severed when taking a measurement is called test media. Is not just thread or mono filament fish line. Test media took two years to develop. Unlike thread or fish line, test media is moisture resistant, heat resistant, consistent in diameter and resistance to cleaving. These properties provide highly accurate and repeatable measurements, something thread or fish line can’t come close to doing. The EOU testers are accurate test instruments, not something cobbled together in a garage using thread or fish line.
Assuming testing is done using the test fixture, test media cost is about $0.03 per test. It is the only consumable cost. New units include enough test media for 325-350 tests. It takes 10 seconds or less to set up for a test. Really quick and easy.
Congratulations! You are the only person to have ever made the connection between Grepper and the Unix grep process, but you nailed it. And besides, I think it makes a cool name. I even named one of my cats Grep. We called him Greppy or Grepper or just Grep. My wife also had other terms of endearment for him such as golden boy (he was orange and white), but that’s another story.
I really hope you enjoy your Kally and will have fun experimenting with the variety of belts you purchased. It seems like you mentioned a preference for a toothy edge like I too enjoy. For that you will probably want to stay in the 150-200 grit range for belts. That makes sharpening quick and simple. Polished edges require more work with finer and finer grit abrasives and possibly compounds for polishing.
I’ve experimented with sharpening down to 40 grit. Coarser than 150 starts to be excessively aggressive and tears up the edge. It’s a fun experiment nonetheless. Get some old beater knife and have it. Doing stuff like that teaches a lot about what grit does to steel. Well worth doing. The Kally is a handy general purpose grinder too. No doubt you’ll find a use for your 40 grit belts like grinding the head off a bolt.
You’re spot on with your considerations of the benefits of light pressure grinding. Additionally, heavy pressure makes deeper scratches in the bevel, hogs off metal quickly and produces big ugly gnarly burrs that can be more difficult to remove. Using light pressure generates burr more slowly so it can be kept to a minimum. I always prefer more light pressure strokes than fewer passes with high pressure. It only takes a few seconds to pull the blade past the belt.
For me, the secret to getting sharp edges is to get a tiny, even burr then stop grinding. Producing a bigger burr accomplishes nothing. Once a burr is formed, grinding is done. Burr removal is more difficult and is as or more important than grinding. After a tiny burr is formed from each side of the blade and the burr is completely removed, almost magically the knife is very sharp. It’s still a bit of a surprise to me every time I see it happen.
Keep us informed and feel free to ask questions!
The “thread” that is severed when taking a measurement is called test media. Is not just thread or mono filament fish line. Test media took two years to develop. Unlike thread or fish line, test media is moisture resistant, heat resistant, consistent in diameter and resistance to cleaving. These properties provide highly accurate and repeatable measurements, something thread or fish line can’t come close to doing. The EOU testers are accurate test instruments, not something cobbled together in a garage using thread or fish line.
Assuming testing is done using the test fixture, test media cost is about $0.03 per test. It is the only consumable cost. New units include enough test media for 325-350 tests. It takes 10 seconds or less to set up for a test. Really quick and easy.
Congratulations! You are the only person to have ever made the connection between Grepper and the Unix grep process, but you nailed it. And besides, I think it makes a cool name. I even named one of my cats Grep. We called him Greppy or Grepper or just Grep. My wife also had other terms of endearment for him such as golden boy (he was orange and white), but that’s another story.
I really hope you enjoy your Kally and will have fun experimenting with the variety of belts you purchased. It seems like you mentioned a preference for a toothy edge like I too enjoy. For that you will probably want to stay in the 150-200 grit range for belts. That makes sharpening quick and simple. Polished edges require more work with finer and finer grit abrasives and possibly compounds for polishing.
I’ve experimented with sharpening down to 40 grit. Coarser than 150 starts to be excessively aggressive and tears up the edge. It’s a fun experiment nonetheless. Get some old beater knife and have it. Doing stuff like that teaches a lot about what grit does to steel. Well worth doing. The Kally is a handy general purpose grinder too. No doubt you’ll find a use for your 40 grit belts like grinding the head off a bolt.
You’re spot on with your considerations of the benefits of light pressure grinding. Additionally, heavy pressure makes deeper scratches in the bevel, hogs off metal quickly and produces big ugly gnarly burrs that can be more difficult to remove. Using light pressure generates burr more slowly so it can be kept to a minimum. I always prefer more light pressure strokes than fewer passes with high pressure. It only takes a few seconds to pull the blade past the belt.
For me, the secret to getting sharp edges is to get a tiny, even burr then stop grinding. Producing a bigger burr accomplishes nothing. Once a burr is formed, grinding is done. Burr removal is more difficult and is as or more important than grinding. After a tiny burr is formed from each side of the blade and the burr is completely removed, almost magically the knife is very sharp. It’s still a bit of a surprise to me every time I see it happen.
Keep us informed and feel free to ask questions!