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

Sharpening direction question from a beginner

Started by roes76, July 03, 2020, 09:19:39 PM

Previous topic - Next topic

roes76

Since two days I have been practising with a T8 and I was wondering something. Hope you guys can explain this one...

Does it make a difference whether you sharpen a knife from heel to tip and then back from tip to heel. Or if you sharpen from heel to tip and then start over from the heel again working up to the tip? The official Tormek videos show the first way. Just curious if that would produce a different result..I find it much easier to get a nice even bevel (and tip) the second way.

Sorry if this question has been posted before if it is...:)

Sharpening direction question from a beginner

jeffs55

Gosh, I never thought about it. I go from heel to tip and then start over. Heel to tip, heel to tip. I don't see how it would matter though.
You can use less of more but you cannot make more of less.

John_B

To avoid having a concave section near the middle of the blade I think it is best to sharpen from heel to tip, pick the blade up and repeat heal to tip. This minimizes excessive sharpening in the mid section of the blade.

More discussion can be found here:

http://knifegrinders.com.au/06Procedures_straight.htm
Sharpen the knife blade
Hone edge until perfection
Cut with joy and ease

roes76

#3
Thank you for the link :) I haven't thought about it that way. I find it really difficult to 'land' on the tip with the same pressure as along the wider part of the knive. So when I started at the bolster it was easier to lessen it nearer the tip then the other way around. Especially with a course gounr the tip really came out not so nice...






cbwx34

#4
Quote from: roes76 on July 04, 2020, 08:06:02 AM
Thank you for the link :) I haven't thought about it that way. I find it really difficult to 'land' on the tip with the same pressure as along the wider part of the knive. So when I started at the bolster it was easier to lessen it nearer the tip then the other way around. Especially with a course gounr the tip really came out not so nice...

I think you hit on it... it has more to do with pressure.  These threads talk about it a bit...

https://forum.tormek.com/index.php?topic=3055.msg16519#msg16519

https://forum.tormek.com/index.php?topic=3200.0
Knife Sharpening Angle Calculator:
Calcapp Calculator-works on any platform.
(or Click HERE to see other calculators available)

roes76

It probably is related to pressure as well (and I think I might have been overlifting the handle when working on the tip). Thank you for your reply; the links are helpful  :)

Maarten

Ken S

With this question in mind, I watched a couple videos by sharpeners I respect (Knife Grinders and Sharpco). Both of them used carefully controlled technique slowly moving from heel to tip, only grinding in the one direction. A video by a sharpener I do not hold in such high regard moved more quickly in both directions. I did not detect the same feeling of control. These observations matched my gut feeling.

Maarten, whenever we sharpen, we build muscle memory and form habits. Why not use this opportunity to fine tune our technique?

Ken