BESS Testing

[RickKrung]

Guys!  The comment about liking the floss clips was strictly in regard to flossing my teeth - NOT - about using them for BESS testing, which would be silly.

The only serious point was that my experience with the floss clips being preferred to the spooled floss is that I actually use the clipped floss, daily like my dentist has wanted me to for decades.  In years past, when the dental hygienist offered me a new spool of floss, I'd say, "sure, but I don't know what I'd do with it..." (as a joke, I totally knew what...)

The point about clips vs spooled is that maybe I should try the BESS clips to see if I liked them better than the spooled BESS filament material for BESS testing.  I have some clips, but have literally never tried one. 

[Ken S]

Rick,

And here I thought dental floss made my knives sharper   

Ken

[BPalv]

In regards to the clips... when I use a clip the results are about 20 points lower than using cutting the media with the stainless platform with the media stretched across.

For me, the BESS tester was life changing in the way I stropped and what compounds I use.  It shortened the time I spent honing dramatically as well as making it possible to measure sharpness.

It may not be exact but honestly I do think it's fairly consistent if used slowly as in the directions.  I can test a blade in the same spot and get the same readings multiple times.

[John_B]

One thing I saw that will help with consistent results is to use a weight (100g) and a clip to tension the test media. This way the variable of tension is held constant. I would also practice on moving the knife fairly slow, trying to be consistent.

[hansen]

There is a automated BESS sharpening meter sold by Vekato:
https://sharpeningtool.eu/de/catalog/accessories.
I did some modification on my own:

• Replaced the clamp arm by a 3D printed arm with magnets to allow higher blades,
• Tuning the stepper driver current settings to give the motor a slightly higher momentum which easily lifts now 1-2kg knives (theoretically a Nema 11 stepper with 0,07Nm should lift 5.6kg) and
  
• slowing down the downwards speed to 12 rpm giving a cutting speed of 0.4mm/s to ensure accurate measurements,
  

it's working quite well now.

Not commercialzed but worth to read about another BESS testing apparatus in a scientific style is available under the following link published by Dr. Martin Henschke. It's in German but maybe you find an online translater. I think it's really worth to read.
https://www.henschke-geraetebau.de/dr/Schaerfetester.html