unable to razor sharpen my knives

[discus96]

Dear Sir,


I love and owe many knives, Kitchen, Hunting, sport,  fixed, folding etc etc.........
I have been trying to keep them sharp with hand stones and other devices but I have never been able to sharpen them properly.

So I decide to buy the Tormek T7.

After two weeks of practice and after carefully watching the videos I have been able to sharpen my knives but never to RAZOR SHARP level I'm struggling for (smoothly cutting a paper sheet or shave the hairs on my arm).
Often after honing my knives they get less sharp than before.

Don't you make sharpening classes, I definitely need those..........

[Herman Trivilino]

Most likely you're not removing the burr.  See Reply #4 in this thread: http://forum.tormek.com/index.php?topic=1087.0

[Jeff Farris]

Discus,

Two things are vital to creating a smooth-cutting razor sharp edge. The first, and most important is that the grindstone be graded to its finest possible surface. Use the smooth side of the stone grader on the grindstone until it feels like a piece of wet glass when it is running. You should not be able to feel any abrasiveness with your fingertips. This surface will deliver the scratch pattern onto the steel necessary to get a smooth, clean edge.

Second, when using the leather honing wheel, it is important not to bring the angle too steep. If you bring the edge of the knife onto the leather at too steep an angle, you will round over the edge. Sneak up on the edge from too flat. You can do no damage to the edge by being too flat -- you just won't do anything -- so carefully feel your way up to the proper angle.

[discus96]

Dear Jeff,

it's clear  I'm doing something wrong,
I have been grading the stone with the fine part of the stone grader as you suggested, but how long and with how much pressure?
Is there a way to understand when the bevel is done properly and the burr is created

Is the burr visible with a lens or something else?
How sharp should the blade be before honing?

When honing I normally put some light oil on the honing wheel and after that some paste , but  I find difficult to find the right angle, how can you realize when the honing anle is correct by hand? 

thank you

[Jeff Farris]

First, oil is a break in procedure only. DO NOT OIL THE WHEEL EVERY TIME YOU USE IT. Sorry for the all caps, but the message doesn't seem to get through. Oil the leather one time, when the wheel is brand new, and then honing compound is the only thing that should be put on the honing wheel.

As far as time and pressure on the stone grader, firm pressure and no less than 40 seconds. Personally, I don't use time as a measure at all. It is the feel of the grindstone. I use the grader until the surface of the stone feels like wet glass. Sometimes that takes 40 seconds, sometimes it take a minute and a half.

The burr from grinding can be elusive. On better quality knives, the burr can be very difficult to detect. A better test is to rest the edge of the knife on your thumbnail. If the blade "bites", the bevel is established. If it slides, there's still a flat spot between the two bevels.

Getting the angle right on the honing wheel takes some practice. As I said in my earlier post, there's no harm done by being too flat with your presentation, so start out too flat and then slowly raise the angle until you're polishing the bevel correctly. Practice makes perfect.

[tb444]

It can help to cover the edge in marker pen ink, that way you can easily see which part of the edge you are touching with the grind stone or the honing wheel

[ionut]

When honing, it may help you if you position the light source somehow to come from a side and from behind the blade, that will create a shadow on the honing wheel of the knife or tool citing edge. Then you will have to change the honing angle only until the small shadow disappears, not more than that.  I do my honing at 2 o'clock on the wheel  and keep my light source coming from close to my right shoulder.

Ionut