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After sharpening about 200 knives and also using them in a fast paced meat processing setting I still haven't reached or even gotten near my sharpening goals of below 100 bess. I have tried everything I have read about but I just can't reach below 140 bess on a the 15 dps knives. The edges cut really great for the first hour but then they need a lot of steeling to keep cutting well. I find i cant use the polished steel for very long because it doesnt have much of an effect on the edge. I was hoping to have better edge retention after reading Vadims research but still haven't made it there. On the plus side my edges are very consistent at the middle and tip of the knife which is very important on a boning knife and also I find it easy to sharpen with the Tormek

An aha moment for me was deburring, I make sure I alternate a couple very light passes on the 1000 grit stone proir to buffing to ensure the burr is small.  After a strong deburring and polishing phase I finish with ultra light alternating passes to get the remaining burr. I do this at an angle 1 deg to 1.5 deg  steeper than the grind. I eventually purchased a small scope to inspect my edges,  I realized I wasn't actually cleaning 100% of the burr.  They felt sharp and cut well but dulled extremely fast.  I also built a FVB to ensure a consistent deburring angle, slightly steeper than my grind angle.

I'm super excited, I'm finally getting beautiful symmetrical angles and consistently sharp edges.  It's taken me a while to develop the touch.

I have a Lone Wolf folder that I just couldn't get a great edge on.  It's S30V with a pretty thick blade .125, I just sharpened it at 19 deg and consistently got BESS scores of 120 to 130. I know there's better results out there but I'm ecstatic with my progress.

For those of you that aren't satisfied don't give up, you will eventually find your touch.

I currently grind dry with CBN wheels in 3 grits, 200, 600 & 1000, I have 2 honing wheels with progressive grit, however it seems like the Tormek paste is my go to, even though the specs are coarser my results are better.  I built an FVB for the honing wheel, this was probably the single most impactful thing I did. I use the Calcapp software this was also a very impactful tool.

I'm excited to see if there's still opportunity to improve.

Hello all,

I'm feeling a little inept for asking this question but I don't think I'm clear on how to use the CalCapp FVB software, today I measure to the stone but I would think it would be much easier to measure to the FVB.  Could someone post the process for gathering and entering the data.  To put this into perspective, I recently had brain surgery so my short term critical thinking is lagging at this time, it will hopefully improve as I recover.  I'm discouraged as I have always been a pretty techy guy, I have a background in tool and die work where I had to use trig daily but now it just overwhelms me.

Regards,
Jeff

I would agree that a modification of the KJ-45 should work great, if you have access to a milling machine it would be even easier.  I can imagine taking the plastic components off and taking about .125" or more off each side and then thinning the clamp to allow clearance when clamped so close to the cutting edge.  I haven't done the math to ensure clearance is possible but I'm pretty sure it would be.  Before I invest in a new clamp I will certainly check to ensure I can achieve the clearances I will need but thanks for planting the seed, I too am looking for a better solution when sharpening small pocket knives.

Today I use the Husky 4 drawer roll away, I took the casters off and it is almost exactly 28" high but I would love to try some lower heights also, I'm 5'9" and I feel like another 1" or 2" lower would make the angle better.

Thanks for the encouragement,

I believe that ethics and integrity should be our #1 focus.  I want to be sure my clients are genuinely pleased and spreading good news and  words of satisfaction when they mention my work. Right now when it's free the feedback is positive but I would assume the critics will be a little more vocal when they have to hand over their hard earned cash.  I'm hoping to retire soon, that's when I'll pull the trigger on the business, I'm not looking for a full time gig just something that will help keep me busy and supply a little play money.

I have been trying the rock hard wheel and my experience has been mediocre. I now use 2 leather wheels, I finish with a .1 paste and my results are getting much better, at 15deg I can frequently get below 100 BESS.  I set my honing angle about 1 to 1.5 deg higher than my grind angle.

My wife is trying to help me out, she helps at a youth camp in our area, she said she would bring me some knives from the camp kitchen.  I was expecting maybe 10 knives, instead it was a huge box full, probably 50+ knives.  They were unbelievably beat up, the practice was great but I have to admit, I got tired of the extensive grinding it took to salvage many of the knives. I ended up tossing some of them because they were beyond repair.  Of course I will welcome that kind of gift as I work to improve my process.

Hi all,

I just picked up this light for my work station, it has made a hug difference in how well I can see my blade contact.  Are there any other solutions that you would recommend?

I bought this light off Amazon and it seems to work great but I'm open to other ideas, my old eyes can use all the light they can get.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B09LXNYPMD/ref=sspa_dk_detail_2?pd_rd_i=B09LXNYPMD&pd_rd_w=5w7RT&content-id=amzn1.sym.f734d1a2-0bf9-4a26-ad34-2e1b969a5a75&pf_rd_p=f734d1a2-0bf9-4a26-ad34-2e1b969a5a75&pf_rd_r=5PJX9EYCYHYA832FX1AD&pd_rd_wg=8eu9F&pd_rd_r=f971f1bf-d59a-4dd5-a223-f670727383e9&s=hi&sp_csd=d2lkZ2V0TmFtZT1zcF9kZXRhaWw&th=1

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The smaller tables do look like a good idea, this would give you the ability to position yourself left or right where the long table I referenced could limit mobility.  I'm thinking if I get the longer table from Home Depot I'll work off the end to give myself more room to function.

I'm almost embarrassed, I've been working on this for months now and all of a sudden it seems like I've developed a knack.  I'm  thrilled with my results but I'm having a hard time understanding why it took me so long to figure it out.  If I had to teach someone I'm not sure I could, it really seems like a feel thing.  I think I could relate it to my best friends standard response "you gotta want it" I believe it's really all about staying dedicated to making improvement and not settling for mediocre results.  I'm excited to see what the next year will bring.  My biggest challenge now is getting the tip to be consistent with the rest of the blade, i'm getting closer but I always seem to get a little wider at the tip.

I just took a couple of my kitchen knives and increased the angle to 15 deg and honed a couple degrees higher on the 2nd step and low and behold I've finally broke 100 Bess.  I will probably still stick with 17.5 deg on most of the kitchen knives I sharpen but it's nice to see I can achieve those types of results.  My wife of course is going to raise heck with me because her knives already scare her, I'll have to coach her through it I guess.

I use the Calcapp software, at 1st you may think wow this is elementary but that is what I like about it.  My only issue is that many of the calculations will require a conversion from MM to .000".  It's an easy conversion, a MM is .03937"  It also works well on all devices, I use it on my Samsung S10, this makes it easily accessible in my shop.

I'm glad this topic has been brought up, it has bothered me since day one, I found it very difficult to measure the primary angle on a blade so I could make the needed angle calculation and adjustment.  I started out using the black felt marker because I didn't trust the gauge, but that didn't work on the knives that were abused.  Now I use software and I am so happy with the results.  I think the Tormek gauge definitely has a place especially with square tools like chisels, but for tapered blades like knives I am totally sold on the software path.

I'm thinking I want to put something together that allows me to work in the mid 20"s, today I'm working at 30" and it feels a little tall, I'm 5'9".  Home Depot has a wood top table that adjusts from the low 20's to the mid 30's with a simple hand crank,  I think I'll pick one up.  It would give me room for a 2nd Tormek or my 1 x 30 with a felt belt.

https://www.homedepot.com/p/Husky-52-in-W-x-24-in-D-Adjustable-Height-Solid-Wood-Top-Workbench-Table-in-Black-HOLT52XDB12/301809830   The wheels can come off and get replaced by feet, this gives it a few more inches.