Stone activation with the grader

[Jeff Farris]

Herman,

Right after truing is the worst time to try and get a very smooth surface on the stone. The surface is very "open" along with any ridges that come from the feed speed of the cutter across the stone. That is when you want to attack something like an out of square chisel or one with a deep nick.

The fine side of the grader is most effective when the stone surface has been worn down a little by use.

[grepper]

By thin, do you mean the thickness of the steel or the distance from spine to edge?

Knives are one thing that I seem to be able to get very (scary) sharp.  They can cut a hanging hair, cut smooth curves in that thin, shiny, hard to cut catalog paper, and hang on my thumbnail at very small angles.

I do have one set of stainless knives that are difficult to sharpen.  I'm guessing that the steel is very hard.  1000 grit hardly works, even with a lot of pressure.  Even at 220 grit I have to use a lot of pressure.  But I soldiered onward and finally got them sharp.  I just took me awhile to understand just how long and how much pressure I had to use.

Some knives just seem to take a lot longer, and require more pressure than I would expect.  I'm sure my lack of experience helps too! 

I've also found that if I miss the creation of the burr and the edge has folded over, that I can grind away forever and it will never get sharp.  Turning the knife frequently seems to help in those situations.

Or... maybe my knives have realized resistance is futile, and have just surrendered to sharpness in the fearful understanding that I will grind them to mere stumps of their former selves before I give up!

[Jeff Farris]

....  Turning the knife frequently seems to help in those situations.

Turning the knife frequently always helps.

[Rob]

The ideal being that the very apex of the edge is exactly in the centre of the knife and either bevel is exactly the same width