News:

Welcome to the Tormek Community. If you previously registered for the discussion board but had not made any posts, your membership may have been purged. Secure your membership in this community by joining in the conversations.
www.tormek.com

Main Menu
Menu

Show posts

This section allows you to view all posts made by this member. Note that you can only see posts made in areas you currently have access to.

Show posts Menu

Messages - sharpening_weasel

#16
Knife Sharpening / Re: Zero BESS reading Baloney?
November 19, 2022, 03:03:09 AM
Excellent, good to know. Thanks for doing the legwork 3d Anvil. I might in fact question Burrbender's integrity- while they show some frankly incredible results with corks, carrots, etc, I feel they should stick to that, and not manipulate a well respected platform to gain more views/fake results. That feels ethically unsound to me. I'm curious as to how others feel about this, now that we know the results to be, shall we say, fishy.
#17
Knife Sharpening / Re: Zero BESS reading Baloney?
November 17, 2022, 06:30:46 PM
Midterms.
#18
General Tormek Questions / FVB
November 16, 2022, 06:44:10 PM
[removed, not sure how to delete post entirely. Apologies Ken.]
#19
Knife Sharpening / Re: Zero BESS reading Baloney?
November 16, 2022, 06:28:05 PM
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.
#20
Yes! Spot on. Thank you Rick!
#21
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?
#22
Knife Sharpening / Re: Zero BESS reading Baloney?
November 14, 2022, 07:50:33 PM
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.
#23
Knife Sharpening / Zero BESS reading Baloney?
November 14, 2022, 04:00:31 PM
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.
#24
General Tormek Questions / Re: Prices
March 28, 2022, 01:06:50 AM
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!
#25
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.
#26
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.
#27
Very interesting! What stone is that? How would one go about truing it?
#28
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.
#29
General Tormek Questions / Re: beyond grading
February 28, 2021, 02:10:39 AM
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.
#30
General Tormek Questions / Re: beyond grading
February 28, 2021, 02:07:56 AM
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.