Shaving Sharp...I finally get it! :)

OK, welcome members of the shaving sharp knives club.

Post a picture of your partially shaved calves and / or forearms. :wink:

this is IMHO my biggest problem. ah how I wish I could get my knives to shave…

I would, but I have almost no hair on my forearms anyway.. I just see them on the knife. :D

@Hokum: There are tools for that. Little chocks of metal or wood work well, but its best to train a lot until you can do it by hand/with your fingers to keep the distance. I sharpened 8 cheap knives from almost numb to razor-sharp before I started with the expensive ones. I got faster from knife to knife and had to remove less and less material.

Oh, and sharpening knives is really satisfying. People always give me that weird look until they feel the knife and cut something.. or shave. :D

I would say if you have never been able to shave with the edge more than likely you need to work with the coarse stone some more.

If you have previously been able to shave and now can’t you can probably just strop it back into shape or at most go to the fine stone.

I know that’s how it worked for me. As far as keeping the same angle I just lock off my wrist and quickly use the same motion. Your body remembers this motion fairly easily.

I would say it’s like anything else. It seems hard until the first time you are able to do it. After that it’s easy.

Here’s a fun YouTube video.

If you’re lazy (like me), just get the accusharp 1 pass system. The cheap imitation also work ok, but not as good as the original.

I'm lazy like you. Links? Esp for the cheap cheap imitation.

Murry Carter is the guy I attribute my sharpening knowledge to. http://www.cartercutlery.com/ I bought a sharpmaker a couple years before and and couldn’t get knives ‘shaving sharp’ every time but, after watching Murry’s videos, I can do it easily with varying girts of wet/dry sandpaper. NightCrawl, it’s my opinion that the burr IS necessary even if it’s barely detectable. How else would you ensure that one side of the blade meets the other and that you’re creating a sharp edge?

Damn I deleted that photo of my nutsack :open_mouth:

I don’t know if it makes a difference. But I clear my stone and edge as much as possible. I just think grinding the knife edge against little pieces of itself will dull it.

This is their site: http://www.accusharp.com/
For those in the US: Amazon.com
Many imitations on Ebay: http://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?\_trksid=p5197.m570.l1313&\_nkw=knife+sharpner&\_sacat=0

It works via two hard elements (tungsten carbide?) at some angle (I think 30deg on real one) and it removes material until the edge conforms with the profile. Just slide knife through and insta-sharp.

Ah I see, Accusharp is the angled carbide ones. I already have a few of those imitation ones.

They do get the job done fast, but takes too much metal off. And the sharpness is limited to paper cutting sharp. Also, this seem to work better for thinner steel knives (kitchen) but not as good for thicker blades.

Anyhow, for quick sharpening of kitchen knives this works really well.

That’s my impression as well. They take too much metal off and it’s a coarse approach to the problem. It leaves the “micro” serrations too large and therefore they dull more quickly.

You could use a strop on them afterward I suppose but as mentioned they still take too much metal off.

I have a two stage Kitchen Chef sharpener that would be similar I suppose (except for the second stage) but I think it wears the knife blade out too quickly as well (and therefore don’t use it).

There’s nothing cheaper or much easier than an oil stone and a piece of leather.

The original accusharp tends to work better than the cheapos. The easy way is just pull it through, but I get even better results by slowly working both sides seperately (without letting the “edge” touch the bottom).

Decent carbide edges are if anything finer than stone. The “secret” is more in the technique than anything (like, don’t pull/push too hard for already moderately sharp edges). The accusharp commercial product just makes it harder to screw up.

There are also sharpeners with variable angle to minimize removal if you know the exact grind the original edge has.

Also, steel edges are never permanently sharp. For best results, hone before usage to align the serration because steel will always get out of perfect shape after any usage.

Agreed. I prefer to strop for that. Sometimes I’ll go to a fine stone or ceramic first but many times stropping is all it takes.

I’m finding that there is paper cutting sharp and then shaving sharp and the next step after that is phone book paper cutting sharp. I haven’t been able to reach that level.

It’s not necessary of course but I’d like to get there. I’ve seen the YouTube videos demonstrating this. I can cut phone book paper of course but not in the manner of the videos.

I probably need to get a perfectly consistent angle each time and a greater variety of stones (or wet/dry sandpaper).

It’s not intuitive to realize that it’s harder to cleanly cut a phone book page than to shave hair!

When you are sharpening straight razors, it is better to never have a burr as you will need to remove it and then go back to previous sharpening stages. As the burr is attached to the very end of the cutting edge, removing it will leave very small dents and pikes.
For sharpening knives, I don’t know every techniques or tips but I still think that it is better to also avoid it.
I don’t think that ’micro-serrations”” help to cut, it helps to saw, not to cut. The cleaner the cutting edge is, the better it cuts….at least in my standards / opinion.
So I’m always trying to avoid a burr.

A simple way to test the apparition (?) of a burr, (during or) after a sharpening stage, is to test the cutting edge with a pointy needle.
Try different parts of the cutting edge on both sides, and different needle’s angle with the blade plan. The tip of the needle will “abut” the burr.

My latest sharpening purchase is sheets of wet/dry sandpaper in grits 220,400,800,1000, and 2000.

We’ll see where this goes.

I knew the hanging hair test for “testing” straight razors

.
But not this one:

I hadn’t heard of that one either…very good! I don’t have “papers” however. :slight_smile: