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Sharpening -- burr??

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Sharpening -- burr??

#1

Sharpening -- burr??

Jeremy Osner

>Ok, got my new grinding and sharpening setup all put together tonight and figured I would break it in with that chisel I've been grinding various impressionistic bevels on over the past few weeks. So I did it, followed Joel's article and his grinding instructions pretty closely, and it came out nice and sharp. (Well it was shaving end grain pretty nicely on a piece of maple I had on hand. Didn't try my arm hair or anything.) But here is what's confusing me -- at no time during the grinding and honing process could I see a burr on either side of the blade. I kept picking the blade up and looking for one because I knew that was what I wanted -- but no dice. What am I doing wrong? Could I not have flattened the chisel's back sufficiently?

Re: Sharpening -- burr??

#2

Re: Sharpening -- burr??

Ed Mulligan, Cape Cod

>Those burrs are very small. I can't see them either. Their presence (or absence) can be felt as a slight roughness by dragging a fingertip lightly across (not along) the edge on the side opposite from where you are working. So, if you are honing the bevel, test for the burr on the back.

Re: Sharpening -- burr??

#3

Re: Sharpening -- burr??

Joel

>first of all it is nice to hear that after all the early problems you were having to successfully free hand ground and sharpened something. THat's great progress.

However if you followed our honing instructions the way you know you should go to the next step is by feeling the wire edtge. (you can't really see it).

if you didn't try to feel it and could see it it might have been there. If it truly wasn't there then you may have gotten lucky and pretty sharp but not as sharp as you can get - but that's progress.

incidently in certain alloys and harder steels - such as A2 and Japanese tools you typcially get a smaller wire edge because it crumbles. Doesn't matter but the burr won't be as pronounced as it would be on a regular western tool steel.

Re: Sharpening -- burr??

#4

buy a 10X hand lens

bill tindall

>The aid that has most helped me learn to sharpen has been a 10X hand lens. Even this low magnification is sufficient to see what is going on. You can see if the "dead" edge is gone, you can see the wire edge when it finally forms, you can see when it is honed away(or not). In summary you can tell how sharpening ( or dulling) is progressing and get visual feedback on efforts to sharpen. The lens will also reveal how crappy ones sharpening may be, but that is the first step in improving.

PS/ to use the lens place it near the eye (glasses distance) and adjust the tool to be in focus. The incorrect technique is to fix the tool some inches from the eye and more the lens around to obtain focus. A tiny field of view is the result of the latter technique.

Lyn would jump right in and support this aid (I learned it from him), but we have not heard from him in a while- a worrisome sign?

Re: Sharpening -- burr??

#5

Ref. Lyn

Joe Rogers

>My Guess is he is too preoccupied cleaning drool off of his new toy.JR

Re: Sharpening -- burr??

#6

Re: buy a 10X hand lens

Rob Lee

>Hi -

Had the same thought... so I emailed him a week or so ago - Lyn's fine - just really occupied...!

Cheers -

Rob

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