vilasman
Senior Cook
- Joined
- Sep 6, 2004
- Messages
- 323
I now have a wonderful collection of around 7 sharpening stones, one of those retractable pocket diamond sharpening sticks and 1 3 sided pocket sharpening thingy.
I also had about 10 more or less dull knives, 3 pairs of dull scissors and 1 dull chisel. I am not sure of the grit of any of these stones. If any one can shed some light on how to determine their grit I'd appreciate it.
I received all of the stones second hand. I can tell that 2 are oil stones, the rest are water stones.
1st on sharpening the chisel. I noticed that the surface of the rough oil stone was pretty smooth- the surface of the stone seemed almost soft to the touch. When I put a knife to it, it didn't feel right. Dont know how to say it except it didn't feel right. It didn't grind as fast as the water stone did. On the other hand when I put the chisel to the water stone, The chisel was eating it up. Shaving off a lot of the stone. When I put the chisel to the oil stone... with some oil on it, it felt like it was doing the job and didn't feel like I was shaving the stone off and it did a good job of grinding the edge down past several knicks that were in the chisel from hitting nails that were embedded in wood. SO I used the roughest oil stone to pretty much square up or blunt the edge of the chisel.
Then I went to what is probably a medium grit water stone to dry and start making an edge on my chisel, again it didn't feel right so I went the medium oil stone, the back side of the rough stone and it began to grind an edge on the chisel.
One important thought here is... you can see when an edge starts to form. Another important point is... when I was starting to run the blade across the stone. I took my index finger and put it between the rear blade and the stone. I used a finger on the other hand on the top front part of the blade to kind of help maintain the angle. So the angle of my blade to the stone was set to the thickness of my finger. I dont have thick hands.
When I got an edge on the chisel that felt sharp to my finger... that scratched it basically... I put the knife to a pretty smooth water stone... it feels a lot like emory paper. The chisel was no longer digging into the stone. After a few laps on this stone I considered it done.
As for my knives. I only put them to water stones. When I started with some of them, I really couldn't see an edge. After I ran them across the rough water stone for awhile I could definitely see where the stone was wearing the blade down to a fine edge. On the bigger knives or a knife that had a big curve in it, or at the tip or the heel of some knives the edge didn't develop as fast as it did in other places. The advantage that I found in having multiple grits is, as I began to develop an edge that wasn't uniform along the length of the blade, I could use a finer grit to work on the places where the edge was not developing as fast, without grinding down the places that I was happy with as fast. Also I could get a better feel ... the places where the blade was sharper would glide over the higher grit, where the duller places would drag until they were ground down even to the rest of the knife.
Now for my really fine grit stones... When I finished the step above, the knives were sharp enough to slice through the heavy coated paper junk mail advertising stuff that I had laying around... In some cases 4 pages thick with no real effort. I then ran the blade over the emory paper feeling stone maybe 10 times on a side just because. I am not sure that it made a real difference but next go round I will have a magnifying glass to see if I can see a difference.
I am planning on getting belgian blue and yellow stones 4000 and 8000 grit
to see if they make a difference. And then I will possibly move on to some shapton glass stones.... just because... can you ever have to many sharpening stones.
But in the end... sharpening a knife is not something to be in awe of. It probably takes a little practice and to pay attention to what your fingers tell you as you go at it. You can develop a feel for it and with a magnifying glass you can see what you are producing.
Just my .02 cents worth
I also had about 10 more or less dull knives, 3 pairs of dull scissors and 1 dull chisel. I am not sure of the grit of any of these stones. If any one can shed some light on how to determine their grit I'd appreciate it.
I received all of the stones second hand. I can tell that 2 are oil stones, the rest are water stones.
1st on sharpening the chisel. I noticed that the surface of the rough oil stone was pretty smooth- the surface of the stone seemed almost soft to the touch. When I put a knife to it, it didn't feel right. Dont know how to say it except it didn't feel right. It didn't grind as fast as the water stone did. On the other hand when I put the chisel to the water stone, The chisel was eating it up. Shaving off a lot of the stone. When I put the chisel to the oil stone... with some oil on it, it felt like it was doing the job and didn't feel like I was shaving the stone off and it did a good job of grinding the edge down past several knicks that were in the chisel from hitting nails that were embedded in wood. SO I used the roughest oil stone to pretty much square up or blunt the edge of the chisel.
Then I went to what is probably a medium grit water stone to dry and start making an edge on my chisel, again it didn't feel right so I went the medium oil stone, the back side of the rough stone and it began to grind an edge on the chisel.
One important thought here is... you can see when an edge starts to form. Another important point is... when I was starting to run the blade across the stone. I took my index finger and put it between the rear blade and the stone. I used a finger on the other hand on the top front part of the blade to kind of help maintain the angle. So the angle of my blade to the stone was set to the thickness of my finger. I dont have thick hands.
When I got an edge on the chisel that felt sharp to my finger... that scratched it basically... I put the knife to a pretty smooth water stone... it feels a lot like emory paper. The chisel was no longer digging into the stone. After a few laps on this stone I considered it done.
As for my knives. I only put them to water stones. When I started with some of them, I really couldn't see an edge. After I ran them across the rough water stone for awhile I could definitely see where the stone was wearing the blade down to a fine edge. On the bigger knives or a knife that had a big curve in it, or at the tip or the heel of some knives the edge didn't develop as fast as it did in other places. The advantage that I found in having multiple grits is, as I began to develop an edge that wasn't uniform along the length of the blade, I could use a finer grit to work on the places where the edge was not developing as fast, without grinding down the places that I was happy with as fast. Also I could get a better feel ... the places where the blade was sharper would glide over the higher grit, where the duller places would drag until they were ground down even to the rest of the knife.
Now for my really fine grit stones... When I finished the step above, the knives were sharp enough to slice through the heavy coated paper junk mail advertising stuff that I had laying around... In some cases 4 pages thick with no real effort. I then ran the blade over the emory paper feeling stone maybe 10 times on a side just because. I am not sure that it made a real difference but next go round I will have a magnifying glass to see if I can see a difference.
I am planning on getting belgian blue and yellow stones 4000 and 8000 grit
to see if they make a difference. And then I will possibly move on to some shapton glass stones.... just because... can you ever have to many sharpening stones.
But in the end... sharpening a knife is not something to be in awe of. It probably takes a little practice and to pay attention to what your fingers tell you as you go at it. You can develop a feel for it and with a magnifying glass you can see what you are producing.
Just my .02 cents worth