Sharpening. Who can explain why.......

[Castillo]

OK. I'm really getting into this sharpening thing with my Lansky and am now getting fairly reasonable results.

However, there is one thing I can't work out.

Can someone explain to me why when sharpening some knives I can shave arm hairs on one arm, but turning the blade over and trying the other arm, the edge won't shave? I thought I was not sharpening each side with the same number of passes with the hone, but counting them each side makes no difference?

Is this just an effect of using the Lansky, or should the edge shave no matter which side of the edge you use?

Some help would be appreciated guys. Thanks.

[mloc]

Are you raising a burr on both sides ??

[Dave Budd]

strop your edge. you are likely leaving a burr on the blade and it will be the burr that shaves not the actual cutting edge.

stropping will remove the burr and straighten the edge so that it cuts properly

[Castillo]

Yes, burr on both sides.

[Castillo]

Thanks Dave.

[MorningFox]

Yea it might need a good stropping?

edit - woops 3 posts too late

[Andy]

You may not be putting the same amount of force on the strokes. As a result some will remove more metal then others. For this reason you may need to do more (lighter) strokes on one side then the other. IMO there shouldn't be a big difference between the sides when you go from stone to strop.

[Castillo]

Originally Posted by Dave Budd

strop your edge. you are likely leaving a burr on the blade and it will be the burr that shaves not the actual cutting edge.

stropping will remove the burr and straighten the edge so that it cuts properly

Just checked the last knife I sharpened and I can't feel any burr on either edge?

[Dave Budd]

strop it anyway. it will make a difference if you haven't stropped already. the burr could be very small?

Or maybe it's your shaving technique? are you going in the direction of hair growth one way and then against on the other?

[Castillo]

I think my technique is OK! Going "up the arm" on both sides. I'll give it a strop tomorrow, if that fails I'll go back to the hones and try again.

[mirage]

You may be getting a wire edge.

Keep a piece of soft pine or similar wood with your sharpening kit.

After each stone, e.g. after you have created an edge with the coarse stone, and before moving to the medium stone, push the edge firmly down into the wood then draw the edge through the pine from ricasso to tip.

I fnd that this removes any trace of wire edge. In fact, if you look at the slit in the pine through a good glass, you can often see traces of metal left in there.

Go through all stones in order as normal, using the above procedure after each grade of stone.

After the stones, strop.

"Bye bye hair."



mirage

[Castillo]

Stropping seems to have fixed the problem. Thanks for the advice guys.