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Excellent idea cbwx34, and thank you Rick for the contact info. I'll send an email to the BESS folks after things calm down over here.

Yes! Spot on. Thank you Rick!

Somewhere on this site there's a picture of the truing tool with a zip tie wrapped around the parts- I did that to mine and it was an absolute gamechanger. No more harmonic ridges, exponentially less chipping of the edges, and the truing tool doesn't bounce around as much. My advice for truing the SJ- whatever the depth of cut you're setting, halve it. Whatever the speed you're thinking of going at- quarter that. I'm no expert here but when truing mine that's what I've found to work. Could somebody more experienced help me track down that zip tie photo?

After some thought I've decided to include the guy's page. It's a public business account on Instagram, and could reasonably be found after some sleuthing. Look up burrbenders on Instagram. That being said, it's not my intention to hassle this fellow whatsoever- I'm just curious about his claims and seeing what other people think.

Hello folks-

Recently I've been seeing something that's either incredibly awesome or incredibly disappointing, namely some zero BESS readings on a knife sharpening company's page. Now, they DO have some pretty impressive (think very!!) non BESS results- IE shaving wafer thin bits off of an unsupported cork, slicing an onion with an axe, etc. They make a point of showing several zero BESS readings. Now, I think this is where the bullshit comes in. First, please correct me if I'm wrong, but doesn't the BESS tester measure grams of force applied? So even if the knife is extremely sharp, it should still register one BESS at least? Secondly, this person makes a point of using the BESS tester without the pivot. Watching their technique, I don't see any slicing going on, just a straight push cut, but this still seems suspect to me. Another idea I had was that they had somehow calibrated their tester (like taring a scale) to the equivalent of 45 or so BESS- while still extremely impressive, this would still be faking results. My other thoughts are that the testing media is far over tightened, resulting in a BESS reading that averages consistently lower. And lastly, even our own Wootz (A very sad loss- he contributed immensely to this community and the science we use) was not able on his best day to come within this range. I know many people here view him as one of the foremost sharpeners here, and it seems peculiar to me that some non scientific knife sharpener could outdo him sheerly by accident. They also don't show any of their processes. So- these are my thoughts, I'm curious to hear other ideas. Is a zero BESS reading even possible? I'm unsure if I should mention this person publicly, but would be happy to do so if that's within etiquette rules. If this person actually has created a process that can consistently and reproducibly make zero BESS readings, without any funny business, I will first eat my hat and then proceed to be extremely impressed. Bravo to them if that's the case.

Hey there!

I charge USD $1.50 per inch, plus an additional $2.20 for wear and tear on stones. I use the SG-250 and the SJ-250, and debur on a hanging felt and leather straight razor strop. I've found it's really not that hard to charge per inch, just get a decent metal combo square and you're good to go. I don't mean to tread on any toes here, this is just what I find to be the case with the work I do. If there are serious chips/nicks/major re-profiling needed, charge for that too, whatever seems reasonable. That's my personal metric- you have to find what works for you/the time you're putting into each knife/your skill level/the level of sharpness you're able to get. Something that helped me immensely was to calculate out the number of knives I could do per hour at different sharpening rates, and seeing which ones worked best as a use of my time. I also do woodworking tools. If you're looking to do those too, I'd recommend starting with the square edge jig- it's great for chisels and plane blades, two of the more high volume woodworking tools that I tend to sharpen. Just be prepared to see some absolutely wrecked chisels, and don't hesitate to tell your clients to just get a new chisel. Often the budget chisels are less expensive to get a new one of than to fully restore to a functional edge.
Cheers, and happy sharpening!

Been experimenting with this idea- made the rest out of lexan, and thinned front to back. When used for wider knives, a stair gauge for a framing square clamped on to the back of the knife greatly helps in pivoting.

Noticed that too- a fascinating idea. Some interesting possibilities: mdf wheels impregnated with successively finer diamond grits for flat sharpening super steels, installing a flat over hollow grind for sloyd knives, possibly even convex edges.

Very interesting! What stone is that? How would one go about truing it?

Hiya! I've had the same problem. Check out the knife grinders Australia YouTube video- I've used the same techniques (zip tie and reversing direction of cutter) and found that cleared up around ninety percent of the helical chatter.

PS
There are a bunch of different options, ranging from ceramic, silicon carbide, aluminum oxide, zirconia, and aluminum oxide. I'm going with the silicon carbide, but I'd be curious if any of you think another option would work better.

Hello all,

I recently watched the same video, and was wondering if a silicon carbide sanding belt backed by a flat plate of some kind in the square edge jig would work as well. The sandpaper is on the way, and I'll write an update once it gets here. I think this method, if it works, may be more economical while at the same time providing high quality material, and a greater range of grit sizes.

Cheers from mud city.

PS

There are a bunch of different options, ranging from ceramic, silicon carbide, zirconia, and aluminum oxide. I'm going with the silicon carbide, but I'd be curious if any of you think another option would work better.

Regarding self centering clamp- I've seen something like this used in a machinist's shop before. It's a relatively simple mechanism- two opposite thread pitches guide a ram along two exterior rails. If we could figure out a way to miniaturize this, and perhaps recess and angle the jaws so they don't interfere, I think we would be set. The problem would be ensuring the mechanism doesn't get in the way of the stone.

https://www.google.com/url?sa=i&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.spreitzer.de%2Fen%2Fclamping-technology%2Fcentre-clamping-vises%2F&psig=AOvVaw3Rbg-rf8IDQ8XefezsU019&ust=1611008691047000&source=images&cd=vfe&ved=0CAIQjRxqFwoTCIjUgKSBpO4CFQAAAAAdAAAAABAD

Extrapolating from this setup, something along these lines would be might be simpler. The black bit remains exactly in the middle at all times. If we attach the post to the rear of the equivalent black bit, and cut reliefs in the jaws, I think this could very well work. A friend of mine is a machinist, but I'm afraid I have just about zero budget right now (t8 and KG purchases.) Anyway that's my very amateur two bits.

Thank you Rick!

Yes, I'm reading the KG edge de-burring book. Thanks for the info- from the reading and the extensive SEM images in the KB book, it seems the diamond wheel is the better method for grinding carbides as opposed to the steel matrix itself. Unfortunately the diamond process above is a little out of my current budget.

Hello everybody- me again. As many of you suggested, I've read back through the forums looking for anything about trailing edge honing techniques, and have learned a ton. And yes, I probably have too much free time on my hands... there's a lot of information out there. I still have some questions, however.
   This is what I%u2019ve gleaned thus far. It seems the minimum wallet hurty process that yields better results then my current setup would be:
   
   SG250 @220  SG250 @1000 SJ250 @4000 the KG rock hard felt wheel with the FVB & software using controlled angle honing with the 1u diamond spray.
   What a mouthful. In regards to the felt wheel- due to the special qualities of the felt, I think the recommended honing angle is one to one and a half degrees steeper then normal, which removes the burr %u201Cat the source.%u201D I could also be entirely incorrect about all of this.
There are so many different recommendations and techniques bouncing around in my overstuffed brain that I wanted to run this by the experts before taking the plunge.

One last note- I keep seeing japanese water stones made by "sun tiger japan." Anybody have any experience with these?

Does this make sense thus far? Any glaringly obvious mistakes/mixups?

PS
The sharpening book just came in literally minutes ago! Holy cow it's amazing. Thanks for pointing me in the right direction everybody.