Tough day in the office

[wallydouglas]

I need a few suggestions about why it's taking me so long to get a burr or edge on the knives I'm sharpening
Got the angle right
Setting jig right
Relatively a newly but sharpening plenty the last few months but today was a nightmare
Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated
Thanks

[micha]

You got a T8, right?

If your settings are correct, a somehow glazed stone might leave that impression. I'd use the truing tool and see if that changes things.

[cbwx34]

I need a few suggestions about why it's taking me so long to get a burr or edge on the knives I'm sharpening
Got the angle right
Setting jig right
Relatively a newly but sharpening plenty the last few months but today was a nightmare
Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated
Thanks

If most of your sharpening is going well, but "today was a nightmare"... could it be the knife?  Some knives simply take longer than others.  (Sometimes it's also just the day).

If you're using the SG wheel, as micha suggested, truing also reveals a fresh surface that will cut better.  Also don't be afraid of grading the stone more often, keeping a rougher surface if needed.  You can also try a tad more pressure, don't overdue it, but small changes might help.  If diamond, it might need cleaning.  (Don't add pressure on diamond).

[Ken S]

Tough days in the office will happen occasionally. My best defense is something "known good". In my years in the photo darkroom it was a negative which I knew printed easily and well. If my known good negative printed well on a tough day, I knew that my equipment, paper and chemicals were all good. If not, I would investigate them.

With sharpening, we need known good tools and/or knives. I would use a 3/4" bench chisel, the simplest edge I know.
If your known good tool or knife sharpens well, you know that your Tormek and grinding wheel are working properly. In that case, examine the tool or knife. If known good isnot sharpening properly, try truing your grinding wheel.

Known good cuts down the number of variables.

Ken

[wallydouglas]

Thanks guys for your suggestions I will try the truing tool before I do anything this morning

[Ken S]

Wally,
I just posted this on the planer blade part of the forum. It will also cover the TT-50 truing tool. I will be watching it and recommend the same for you. Class will air on Nov 29.


Live Sharpening Class - Planer blades & TT-50
This week we will guide you on how to sharpen HSS planer blades with SVH-320 and show you how to use the TT-50 Truing Tool to make your stone flat again. Like always, we will answer all your questions on this topic during the stream. Stay tuned!

The entire class will be published on our YouTube channel afterwards.

Ken

[wallydouglas]

This might be a very random question but in general terms how long does it take to sharpen a knife is your shed fellas
Cheers

[John_B]

This might be a very random question but in general terms how long does it take to sharpen a knife is your shed fellas
Cheers

The answer depends on a couple of things:

How dull is the knife and does it have chips in the cutting edge? Really dull knives with chips can take me up to a half hour sometimes; especially if reprofiling is required. Note I do not have a belt sander so this is more tedious than it has to be. Knives that I have previously sharpened and are in good shape can be done in under five minutes. I am normally not in a hurry and I take some time to inspect the edg during sharpening with a magnifier.
https://www.amazon.com/Bausch-Lomb-5X-21X-Magnifier/dp/B007JIMP9U/ref=sr_1_28?dchild=1&keywords=bausch+magnifier&qid=1603896208&sr=8-28


Do you use a jig for setup? Using the same distance for the jig to knife edge and preset USB height reduces time considerably. I also have a second USB along with a Front Vertical Base (FVB) for honing that is preset for my standard jig distance. A few passes on the stone rotate and hone. Very fast if everything is preset.

[cbwx34]

This might be a very random question but in general terms how long does it take to sharpen a knife is your shed fellas
Cheers

johh.jcb gave a good answer... I'll turn the tables a bit... what kind of times are you talking about here?

[John_B]

I thought about this thread this morning as I restored a very old kitchen knife   It was taking me a long time to sharpen. What I discovered with this dull knife is that someone had sharpened it a long time ago,I am guessing by hand. What I discovered was that the back 8 inches or so sharpened pretty quickly while the final 2 inches were not. Inspecting the edge with my glass it became obvious why. The 2 inches of tip had different angles on each side and neither matched the back 8 inches. It was not a huge difference but enough to matter.i returned to the wheel and sharpened until the entire blade was uniform on both sides. After honing it was extremely sharp from tip to heel. It made me think thatt little things like his can make for longer sharpening 6times.

[cbwx34]

Another tough one... knives (usually factory sharpened) that are deburred at a high angle (often in the high 30°s), usually on one side.  Getting rid of that tiny "microbevel" can sometimes take a few extra minutes.

[BradGE]

I thought about this thread this morning as I restored a very old kitchen knife   It was taking me a long time to sharpen. What I discovered with this dull knife is that someone had sharpened it a long time ago,I am guessing by hand. What I discovered was that the back 8 inches or so sharpened pretty quickly while the final 2 inches were not. Inspecting the edge with my glass it became obvious why. The 2 inches of tip had different angles on each side and neither matched the back 8 inches. It was not a huge difference but enough to matter.i returned to the wheel and sharpened until the entire blade was uniform on both sides. After honing it was extremely sharp from tip to heel. It made me think thatt little things like his can make for longer sharpening 6times.

On a related note, I get a lot of knives belonging to chefs that have been honed with a steel to oblivion, and when I put them on the goniometer the whole spectrum lights up in a smear.  Sometimes when I sharpen these I get what looks like a nice bevel on each side, but sharpness wise is rubbish. I think what's happening is there is a bevel, but then a flat spot at what should be the apex (so two bevels, but not meeting at the tip).... It can be deceiving because it feels like there is a burr. 

Nowadays when I get this sort of knife I try to remember to work on the bevel until I can feel a burr, then I make sure it 'flips' from one side to the other as I do alternating passes.  That way I know I've got a true apex.  I don't have this practice down as a habit yet though, so once in a while I forget to check for the flip and go all the way through to honing only to find BESS at around 300...  Each time this happens I have to go back to the start again, and my hourly rate for the knife in question gets cut in half, so hopefully I'll soon learn my own lesson;)

[RickKrung]

...I am normally not in a hurry and I take some time to inspect the edg during sharpening with a magnifier.
https://www.amazon.com/Bausch-Lomb-5X-21X-Magnifier/dp/B007JIMP9U/ref=sr_1_28?dchild=1&keywords=bausch+magnifier&qid=1603896208&sr=8-28
...

I nearly always inspect the entire length of both sides of bevels.  The best magnifier I've found for this is the Kingmas 60X hand microscope.  I've tried a variety of others but none provide the detail and actually the ease of the Kingmas.  The closest I've come has recently been with the 40X loupe that came in the Vetako gionometer (that did finally arrive).  It is great for a wider field of view, but again, for really seeing the burrs and the apex, the Kingmas is king, for me. 

Rick