For testing, a DE razor blade is best. They are amazingly consistent around 50g. That will help eliminate the blade as one variable.
If you wish you can easily do the 100g thing.
A US nickel coin weighs 5g, so 20 nickels is 100g. I can pretty much guarantee that over time you will give up being that precise. You will get used to it! I suppose you could practice lifting 20 nickels to get the feel of 100g. It’s not much!
Additionally, the test media is only 0.23mm diameter, or 0.009”. So consistently hitting that exact same spot on a knife blade by hand would be extremely lucky. Hand sharpened knife blades are generally not super consistent in sharpness along the edge. Even a tiny amount of burr in one small spot will vary the sharpness reading.
I like to take 3 or so measurements along a blade and then take an average. I’m also looking for any big variation that generally is indicative of remaining burr.
Test media is not completely immune to tension. Test media clips for example put the test media under tension (sorry I can’t remember how much), and that considerable tension makes test media clips read 20% too sharp. Mike said that bending the little legs on the clips back/forth a couple of times help relieve some of the tension and makes them read closer to the hand threaded test fixture.
Hope this helps! Please let me know if you have further questions.
If you wish you can easily do the 100g thing.
A US nickel coin weighs 5g, so 20 nickels is 100g. I can pretty much guarantee that over time you will give up being that precise. You will get used to it! I suppose you could practice lifting 20 nickels to get the feel of 100g. It’s not much!
Additionally, the test media is only 0.23mm diameter, or 0.009”. So consistently hitting that exact same spot on a knife blade by hand would be extremely lucky. Hand sharpened knife blades are generally not super consistent in sharpness along the edge. Even a tiny amount of burr in one small spot will vary the sharpness reading.
I like to take 3 or so measurements along a blade and then take an average. I’m also looking for any big variation that generally is indicative of remaining burr.
Test media is not completely immune to tension. Test media clips for example put the test media under tension (sorry I can’t remember how much), and that considerable tension makes test media clips read 20% too sharp. Mike said that bending the little legs on the clips back/forth a couple of times help relieve some of the tension and makes them read closer to the hand threaded test fixture.
Hope this helps! Please let me know if you have further questions.