Sharpening. Let's hear it.

[Ringmaster]

Needbucks,

It's a video that shows how to clean a ceramic stone with Comet, after it loads up. There's nothing porno about it. (Drat !)

JR

[orvet]

Rust erasers also clean ceramic sticks & stones. It is a quick cleaning if you don't have time (or a sink & Comet) to clean the ceramic that way. We sold loads of crock sticks in the cutlery store and without ready access to water & cleanser, the rust erasers work pretty well.

Dale

[Redrummd]

I use 8 inch cardboard wheels to sharpen knives. They are one inch wide and mounted on a variable speed craftsman grinder set up to turn away from the cutting edge. I can put a arm shaving edge on a knife in probably less than two minutes. I use an S30V bladed pocket knife and even it shaves hair after a minute or two on the wheels....

Am I the only one doing this the fast and easy way?

I also have diamond plate hones and I can do the same thing on them freehand but it takes a lot longer than two minutes....

[philco]

Hey Mike,
Two questions for you...... first, Does that process generate enough heat to threaten the temper of the steel?.............second, can you post a picture of that cardboard wheel and/or tell us where they can be purchased?
Thanks
Phil

[orvet]

I have the cardboard wheel system that I bought off eBay 2-3 years ago.
I Jantz has them or something similar; page 95 in the 2008 catalog.
What I don't like about that system is putting the abrasive on the cardboard.
In the one I have you have to dress the wheel with a wax or something then put the abrasive in the wax & rub it in so that it sticks. It is messy and time consuming, and it cut slowly and did tend to heat the blade if you didn't watch it.

For 75%+ of my personal sharpening is done on a 1" X 42" belt sander with a new or close to new 120, 150 or 180 grit belt. The coarser the grit the faster it cuts & the less heat is generated. I used that method a lot when sharpening commercially in the cutlery store. When a restaurant brings in 15 knives to sharpen between lunch & dinner time, you don't have the time to hand sharpen each those knives and still take care of the other customers in the store. So I got good with a belt sander, and I got fast.

Most of my sharpening consists of; one or two passes on the belt sander to sharpen, then I deburr the blade with a Powrstrop (leather wheel) on my buffer. I use white jewelers rouge on the Powrstrop.
I lot of the time I just use the Powrstrop and nothing else to touch up an edge. It leaves a nice polished edge.

Sometimes I use my slow wet wheel, especially if I am reshaping a blade. It is slow and never heats a blade, but it takes a long time to sharpen a knife on it.

Just the way I do it,
Dale