One of my favorite YTers.
Knife Sharpening Fanatics: Need a power tool!
- Thread starter Beerhippie
- Start date
RoninB4
Well-known member
-Thank you. Even touching them with bare skin leaves acidic oils that will corrode a fingerprint into the metal. I appreciate your discretion.
99.9% of DIYers aren't going to spend ~$60 each for Snap On 1/4 universal sockets. That they may never use. Get over it, it's reality, no matter how great they are. I'm sure there was no surge in online orders from DIYers for SO flare nut wrenches after that PF test either.
Start a thread on universal sockets if you want to see a comparison, I'm sure some will join in. I have a 10? year old SK set that probably goes to ~80* FWIW.
Wamsutta
Well-known member
OP
Beerhippie
Well-known member
My 50/8-0 grit stones for the WE arrived today!
But now I need to break them in. The new diamond stones always have some irregularities and loose diamonds that need to be evened out and removed before taking on a good blade. The general rule is about 25-50 cheap blades before hitting a good one with them.
Well, I was mowing the lawns at the pub today and someone left a nice big rock surprise for me.
I'll bet this gets the new stones broke in:
The worst of the nicks is about 3/16" deep. The black on the bevel is Sharpie so I can track my progress.
Normally, I'd use an angle grinder to rough the blade out, then put a final sub-bevel on with a single-cut mill ******* file, but this should be a lot slower....
But now I need to break them in. The new diamond stones always have some irregularities and loose diamonds that need to be evened out and removed before taking on a good blade. The general rule is about 25-50 cheap blades before hitting a good one with them.
Well, I was mowing the lawns at the pub today and someone left a nice big rock surprise for me.
I'll bet this gets the new stones broke in:
The worst of the nicks is about 3/16" deep. The black on the bevel is Sharpie so I can track my progress.
Normally, I'd use an angle grinder to rough the blade out, then put a final sub-bevel on with a single-cut mill ******* file, but this should be a lot slower....
You're going to manually sharpen a dented mower blade with a diamond stone? Whoa. Those grass blades don't stand a chance!My 50/8-0 grit stones for the WE arrived today!
But now I need to break them in. The new diamond stones always have some irregularities and loose diamonds that need to be evened out and removed before taking on a good blade. The general rule is about 25-50 cheap blades before hitting a good one with them.
Well, I was mowing the lawns at the pub today and someone left a nice big rock surprise for me.
I'll bet this gets the new stones broke in:
The worst of the nicks is about 3/16" deep. The black on the bevel is Sharpie so I can track my progress.
Normally, I'd use an angle grinder to rough the blade out, then put a final sub-bevel on with a single-cut mill ******* file, but this should be a lot slower....
OP
Beerhippie
Well-known member
Nah, I'm just using it to break the stones in. I put about 30 minutes on each side of each stone, then moved on to the angle grinder and flapwheel. That rock almost finished the blade off. I have another on order.
Gotta look more carefully when mowing areas I've already cleared of rocks.
pssst, use a RED Sharpie on the bevel. I find it more visible and less mistaking a shadow on the bevel/edge than when using a black Sharpie. YMMV and all that.
btw, how does/did the Wicked Edge guide system and stone do on the pretty tight radius convex and concave areas of that mower blade? With a flat stone or file I can usually do a convex radius but there is no way to get into the concave zone without using a round tool of some sort. Or the flap wheel on an angle grinder.
And I've dinged mower blades worse than that one.
Angle grinder or bench grinder usually in those cases (cause I'm not hand filing out 1/4" + dings in an edge bevel on a mower blade), and then go order some replacement blades and when those arrive the formerly-dinged-but-resharpened ones usually get rotated out to 'back-up' status. Unless they are so bad that they are relegated to 'misc metal chunks for various purposes' status.
Speaking of mower blades, I should resharpen mine again. They're probably due. Again. Sigh.
Yeah, even from a 'name' brand knife blade I usually end up completely redoing the bevel. By hand (with a guided system of some type). Which takes HOURS. Diamond stones have become my go-to, no matter what the steel of the blade is because they seem to cut faster. And for the 'modern' hard and abrasive resistant steel alloys on some blades (I'm looking at you S35VN), anything less and the stone just doesn't do much if anything to the blade.
I had bought a blade a little while ago from a 'name' brand with a good/decent reputation. At first glance and use, the edge seemed decent. But I decided to touch it up a little. HAH! So I looked at it under mild magnification (maybe 4-8x?) and saw that the primary bevel sharpening was not all that consistent or smooth at all and the 'edge' was pretty much just a microbevel honing. That turned into redoing the edge bevels completely. By hand with the guided system. And THEN doing the sharpening. Several hours later. If I was doing it as a business, I might have earned a few (single digit few) dollars an hour for any reasonable price I might have been able to charge someone to sharpen a knife. Good thing I was doing for myself.
btw, how does/did the Wicked Edge guide system and stone do on the pretty tight radius convex and concave areas of that mower blade? With a flat stone or file I can usually do a convex radius but there is no way to get into the concave zone without using a round tool of some sort. Or the flap wheel on an angle grinder.
And I've dinged mower blades worse than that one.
Angle grinder or bench grinder usually in those cases (cause I'm not hand filing out 1/4" + dings in an edge bevel on a mower blade), and then go order some replacement blades and when those arrive the formerly-dinged-but-resharpened ones usually get rotated out to 'back-up' status. Unless they are so bad that they are relegated to 'misc metal chunks for various purposes' status.Speaking of mower blades, I should resharpen mine again. They're probably due. Again. Sigh.
Yeah, even from a 'name' brand knife blade I usually end up completely redoing the bevel. By hand (with a guided system of some type). Which takes HOURS. Diamond stones have become my go-to, no matter what the steel of the blade is because they seem to cut faster. And for the 'modern' hard and abrasive resistant steel alloys on some blades (I'm looking at you S35VN), anything less and the stone just doesn't do much if anything to the blade.
I had bought a blade a little while ago from a 'name' brand with a good/decent reputation. At first glance and use, the edge seemed decent. But I decided to touch it up a little. HAH! So I looked at it under mild magnification (maybe 4-8x?) and saw that the primary bevel sharpening was not all that consistent or smooth at all and the 'edge' was pretty much just a microbevel honing. That turned into redoing the edge bevels completely. By hand with the guided system. And THEN doing the sharpening. Several hours later. If I was doing it as a business, I might have earned a few (single digit few) dollars an hour for any reasonable price I might have been able to charge someone to sharpen a knife. Good thing I was doing for myself.