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The Newbies Arena Are you new to knife making? Here is all the help you will need.

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  #1  
Old 03-26-2017, 01:09 PM
dtec1 dtec1 is offline
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sharpening ideas?

Hey guys so one of my friends asked me about these knife sharpeners. I have never used one of these. Its the work Sharpe system. Looking at it its got me a lil curious. SO the 2 links below are what jantz has the first one is I guess the main part of the machine and then the second one is the ken onion attachment. It seems a lil pricy the attachment is more than the main machine... So just wondering if its any good if any one has used one. Also it says it adjustable for all these different angles so that would make you think it would be a flat edge bevel and NOT a convex. but looking at the pictures it doesn't seem it has anything behind the belt and that would make you think it would come out with convex. My firend brought this up but if it was a flat edge bevel I might even think of getting one for myself. I can do a convex on the belt grinder and I have the edge pro for flat edge but it would be nice if I had another quicker way of doing a FLAT edge bevel. Customers knives would always be done on the edge pro but some times I wish I had a quick way to get a flat bevel sharpened quickly....if you guys don't know much about this any other ways or systems that make it quick to get a flat bevel???THANKS GUYS!!!

Machiene----- https://www.knifemaking.com/product-p/wsktsko.htm

attachment----- https://www.knifemaking.com/product-p/wsbga.htm
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  #2  
Old 03-26-2017, 01:22 PM
mr.HC mr.HC is offline
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I have the workshop sharpener the Ken Onion addition and used it a half dozen times the past 3 years, I bought it before I started making knives hoping it would sharpen my kitchen and fillet knives seeing that I cannot get an edge on a stone, I was disappointed in its performance and had a hard time getting the edge I wanted, with that being said since I started making knives and became better at sharpening knives on the 2x72 I am sure the workshop would be a quality sharpener, seams well built and has variable speed.

Carl
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  #3  
Old 03-26-2017, 01:41 PM
jimmontg jimmontg is offline
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I use a silicone carbide 220 wet 1x42 belt to put an edge on a blade , when I say wet I mean damp cloth wet, not water flying off, I apply the water with a sponge turning the belt by hand. My motor is protected and I only need to put the guard on. Keeps any chance of turning the edge blue and with some hard wear resistant steels that is a real problem and I need to move faster than I like to with a regular belt. Once I establish the edge I want I finish by hand, but if I didn't know how to do that I would use the Edge Pro.

Neat thing about learning to sharpen by hand is you can put on a flat bevel or convex with some practice. I have always been surprised at how many makers can't hand sharpen. Also surprised at how many non-makers who think they can sharpen a knife and are doing it wrong.LOL
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  #4  
Old 03-26-2017, 01:56 PM
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Andrew Garrett Andrew Garrett is offline
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I belt sharpen on my 2x48 Multitool II. I just taped an angled piece of leather to the side of the platen to serve as an angle guide.

I did look up a couple of videos on this product. It seems intuitive, but people are still screwing up the job with it. It seems to go too fast for me too.


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  #5  
Old 03-26-2017, 01:57 PM
dtec1 dtec1 is offline
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Thanks guys yeh I had a bunch of shapton glass/ceramic stones and I was bring9ing them to my uncle to borrow them (this was a while back) I dropped them down the concrete stairs all broke except 1 of the higher grit one. I have had the edge pro for a long time too way before I started making knives. so after the stones broke I started using the edge pro but some knives I don't want to spend the time so I will use the KMG with dulled belts create a convex edge and knock off the burr lightly with a buff. I justs wich I had a way to make a flat edge as quickly as you can do a convex on the grinder
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  #6  
Old 03-26-2017, 01:59 PM
dtec1 dtec1 is offline
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Adrew that lil piece of leather sounds like a good idea. May I ask what grit belts you use? do you end up with a burr that should be knocked off on a buff?
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  #7  
Old 03-26-2017, 04:18 PM
mr.HC mr.HC is offline
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I have never been able to put an edge on with a stone, not afraid to say, I would always just buy new sharper knives, when I started making knives I learned how to put an edge on with the belt and are by far the best edges I have used, 320 belt then 600 until burr then strop 100 times each side for a wicked sharp edge. I also use the edge pro for a lot of my stainless knives.

Carl
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  #8  
Old 03-26-2017, 05:25 PM
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Andrew Garrett Andrew Garrett is offline
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I use 400 grit belts. This is how I establish and initial edge and do some edge restoration. It certainly does get a great burr, but I don't use a buff to remove it. I had been using green chrome charged paper folded around my finger, but now I'm using the fleshy side of a strap of Tandy's tooling leather. I charge it with the green rouge and go back and forth lightly until the burr flakes off on its own.

Touch ups from regular use (every couple of months for my pocket knife), I can do quickly with a stroke or two on a fine stone.
After each use, I find a handy post-it pad, stack of paper, or newspaper, and strop two or three times in each direction. In the absence of any paper, I use my pant leg.

I always have a sharp knife.


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  #9  
Old 03-26-2017, 07:05 PM
jimmontg jimmontg is offline
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Removing the burr by hand or with an edge pro, is to always move the stone into the edge and not away from it. Look at the difference when using a belt, if you sharpen edge down (safest way) it leaves a big burr compared to if you do it edge up. I know it's easier to see what you are doing with the edge up going against the motion of the belt, but be careful as the knife can get caught by the belt, then watch out. Use a light touch whichever way you do it as you do not want to heat the edge up. As for stropping I use a piece of leather with 5,000 grit diamond on it and then just leather if I need to cut wood,leather or shave. Mostly I just take my knives to about a 800-1000 grit finish with an old EZE Lap diamond and then a few swipes on a hard Arkansas stone. I only use a grinder if the edge is all messed up or establishing one.

I mostly leave knives with a working edge or butcher's edge, but some customers want a polished edge so OK, I hit it with the diamond paste and leather and buff off most of the micro sawteeth that a fine stone leaves. As I have said before, here on KNF, there is such a thing as too sharp for its intended purpose. A filet knife with a buffed edge is lousy to use and is so sharp when you go to remove the skin it just cuts through it and not slice it off the meat. For kitchen use and filleting/skinning I just use my EZE Lap and just a few swipes on the Arkansa. Scalpels are only 400-600 grit finished, medium. BTW, my EZE Lap will pop the hair off your arm, any properly honed 800 grit edge will, but it slices tomatoes too.
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  #10  
Old 03-27-2017, 07:09 AM
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Crex Crex is offline
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I have an Onion, but I only use it when making my miniatures - I modified it to hold a skateboard wheel as a contact wheel for final profiling and shaping the little blades. Otherwise, for regular using blades I put my final cutting edge on a 400 grit on my KMG. Never could get the hand of edge down so I do it edge up. Not had a snag or catch on a belt from this method except when I didn't inspect my belts first. I too, prefer the "butcher's" edge on a working blade, but....customer's supposedly always right and will get the mirror edge if requested.
All about being comfortable with your equipment and conditioned, ingrained hand-eye coordination. Good lighting is a must.
Hard to beat good stone work and I do when I have the time, but that KMG can knock one out in a couple of passes - so much faster.
Do what is most comfortable for you and be safe.


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  #11  
Old 03-27-2017, 11:23 AM
dtec1 dtec1 is offline
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Thanks guys
CREX I think you have a very important fact "do whats good for YOU" I have said that with so many other things. I think I have some experimenting to do and see what works for me. The 2 ways I am used to doing it is I have one of the bubble jigs...I don't use it for doing the grinding much any more but I do set it to a specific angle and forgo the clamp and just put the bubble on the flat of the knife and do a couple passes till I get a burr then same on the other side. Then I would take it to the edge pro and now I know the edge is set to a certain angle I can set my edge pro to the same angle and go it makes it a bit quicker than the edge pro alone and since you know the angle the edge pro works quicker cause you don't have to "re profile" the edge.....looking for something quicker I started doing a convex edge on the grinder and buff. I am thinking maybe do it on the flat platen with the little buble but instead of going to the edge pro just go to a higher grit and stroping by hand....I will have to experiment with a few things Thnks again everyone
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  #12  
Old 03-27-2017, 06:09 PM
jimmontg jimmontg is offline
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Only reason I said it's safer to do edge down on sharpening is that it happened to a Bladesmith and I read about it in one of the Knife magazines in the 90s. He was out of business for a few weeks as the knife snagged on a belt and cut a tendon in his hand, not a buffing wheel (that happened too). I always use a light touch when doing the bevel anyway, but if establishing an edge on a new knife or fixing a really screwed up one I will start edge down and finish edge up, but as stated above by Crex, look at the condition of your belt, any frayed edges will snag the blade and the super fine micron belts are the most prone to snagging an edge up blade if there isn't any belt lube on them as they have a very thin backing. For 15 micron (1200 grit) I use Tap Magic applied with a rag, it also cleans them and makes them last longer. For sharpening I always use a fairly new belt. With my new 2x48 grinder I can grind backward and even if the belt snagged the knife, it would be flying away from me and not at my feet.

Wished I could find a 36" wet wheel like I learned how to grind knives on. It spun away from you and went through a water pan, so grind as hard as you wanted with it. Looked about 120/160 grit, but didn't say. Very old and made of what appeared to be Arkansas stone, probably started out as a 5' wheel and thrown away at 36". No markings and run with a winch motor and bicycle chain and sprockets. Was fast on the spinning circumference. Now that, I could make a hollow grind on, but shallow. My brother found it and set it up in his shop. Nice to have a sheet metal/blacksmith shop available. Would probably still be there if my brother weren't so crazy.

Oh I might add, a good medium diamond hone like my EZE Lap will sharpen a not too dull knife in a minute and my hand honing after grinding is only about 3 or 4 minutes. That diamond Hone takes it off pretty fast and I recommend them highly.

Last edited by jimmontg; 03-27-2017 at 06:29 PM. Reason: addition
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2x72, belt, belts, bevel, blade, edge, fillet, fire, flat, grinder, guard, how to, htm, kitchen, knife, knife sharpeners, knifemaking, knives, leather, make, making, sharpening, stone, workshop


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