06-26-2017, 09:06 PM
Mr. Mark inquired, “How are you dismantling the burr from an 80 grit belt? Normally there's a significant burr from grinding,”
You are not kidding about that! Especially edge trailing and like you say with the soft steel of kitchen knives, those coarse grits produce big, tough, gnarly burrs that are indeed very difficult to remove without smoothing the toothy edge.
Here is what I do. It works, but it takes some experimenting and little practice to pull off. Once figured out though, it’s pretty quick and easy.
I use the rough side of a Surgi-Sharp leather belt on the Kally with a little bit of Tormek 1–3 micron honing compound. I’ve found that dry leather does not work as well, so I guess that there is some abrading away of the burr happening as well as bending the burr to fatigue it off.
All of the work on the leather belt is done with very super light pressure to minimize any smoothing to the edge. That Tormek compound is pretty aggressive, and it’s very easy to smooth some of the toothy edge if you are not careful.
First I do a couple of passes on each side of the blade at the same angle that I sharpened at. This removes almost no burr, but just mostly straightens it. The giant, gnarly burr is still completely visible just by looking at the blade.
Next I just barely touch the edge to the belt at almost 90°. This mostly just touches the edge of the blade to the “fuzzyness” of the rough side of the leather belt. Just enough to see the burr bend completely to one side, but not hard enough to abrade the cutting edge. Then I do a quick light pass on the side with the burr at sharpening angle to straighten the burr and then repeat the almost 90° hone this time bending the burr the other way. At this point I generally see the burr has started to be removed.
Then I just sort of mess around doing the same sort of things until the burr is removed.
The real trick is that all of this is done with extremely light pressure. Sometimes just tickling the edge with the belt.
I was almost giddy when you said, “I honed at 90* to the entire edge on the Atoma with Zero pressure.”! I didn’t think, and had not heard of anyone else doing that 90° thing. I thought I was alone, totally alone in the universe doing something crazy like that. But I have done sharpness testing and have found that when using something soft like leather with a super very light touch it does not seem to dull the edge. In fact, unless you use abrasives to remove the burr, I’ve found it’s about the only thing that works. Trying to deburr at the sharpening angle does not bend the burr enough to fatigue it so it breaks off. I suppose it might after a really looooooong time, but I’m not up for that and it would no doubt smooth the tooth out in the process. So I’m really surprised and happy to hear that you do the same thing. It’s nice to know I’m not totally alone and completely crazy.
That all sounds like it takes a long time and is overly complicated. But really, in practice, it does not take very long and it not difficult. It just takes a little practice.
Anyway, it works and completely removes even those big, nasty, gnarly, tough, malleable and ugly burrs and seems to leave the edge very sharp and the toothy edge intact.
You are not kidding about that! Especially edge trailing and like you say with the soft steel of kitchen knives, those coarse grits produce big, tough, gnarly burrs that are indeed very difficult to remove without smoothing the toothy edge.
Here is what I do. It works, but it takes some experimenting and little practice to pull off. Once figured out though, it’s pretty quick and easy.
I use the rough side of a Surgi-Sharp leather belt on the Kally with a little bit of Tormek 1–3 micron honing compound. I’ve found that dry leather does not work as well, so I guess that there is some abrading away of the burr happening as well as bending the burr to fatigue it off.
All of the work on the leather belt is done with very super light pressure to minimize any smoothing to the edge. That Tormek compound is pretty aggressive, and it’s very easy to smooth some of the toothy edge if you are not careful.
First I do a couple of passes on each side of the blade at the same angle that I sharpened at. This removes almost no burr, but just mostly straightens it. The giant, gnarly burr is still completely visible just by looking at the blade.
Next I just barely touch the edge to the belt at almost 90°. This mostly just touches the edge of the blade to the “fuzzyness” of the rough side of the leather belt. Just enough to see the burr bend completely to one side, but not hard enough to abrade the cutting edge. Then I do a quick light pass on the side with the burr at sharpening angle to straighten the burr and then repeat the almost 90° hone this time bending the burr the other way. At this point I generally see the burr has started to be removed.
Then I just sort of mess around doing the same sort of things until the burr is removed.
The real trick is that all of this is done with extremely light pressure. Sometimes just tickling the edge with the belt.
I was almost giddy when you said, “I honed at 90* to the entire edge on the Atoma with Zero pressure.”! I didn’t think, and had not heard of anyone else doing that 90° thing. I thought I was alone, totally alone in the universe doing something crazy like that. But I have done sharpness testing and have found that when using something soft like leather with a super very light touch it does not seem to dull the edge. In fact, unless you use abrasives to remove the burr, I’ve found it’s about the only thing that works. Trying to deburr at the sharpening angle does not bend the burr enough to fatigue it so it breaks off. I suppose it might after a really looooooong time, but I’m not up for that and it would no doubt smooth the tooth out in the process. So I’m really surprised and happy to hear that you do the same thing. It’s nice to know I’m not totally alone and completely crazy.
That all sounds like it takes a long time and is overly complicated. But really, in practice, it does not take very long and it not difficult. It just takes a little practice.
Anyway, it works and completely removes even those big, nasty, gnarly, tough, malleable and ugly burrs and seems to leave the edge very sharp and the toothy edge intact.