Thread: Japanese Stone Knive Sharpeneing Update - Pic Heavy

The other option if you can’t find a smooth steel is to take the knife and pull the edge through a piece of hard wood across the grain, this will rip the wire edge off.

As an aside I have now opened a knife sharpening service (knives, scissors, shears, chisels, planes), good prices, trying to set up a website. A few of the guys on here have used me, drop me a line if you want 021727546

@TeRei One of these

@hotbarrels I'm working on finding some suitable leather atm. I used the bridle leather just to experiment with in the meantime. My left arm and both thighs are currently hairless so I'd say they've been a success so far!!

@tanqueray The diamond steel most certainly does sharpen/cut material off knives and I have found the normal steel does refine the edge a little more, even if it is just straightening a burr.

On this note can anyone explain the difference between a diamond steel edge finish and a diamond stone edge finish ie how one is saw toothed and one is polished?

Originally Posted by suthy

@tanqueray The diamond steel most certainly does sharpen/cut material off knives and I have found the normal steel does refine the edge a little more, even if it is just straightening a burr.

On this note can anyone explain the difference between a diamond steel edge finish and a diamond stone edge finish ie how one is saw toothed and one is polished?

Its not the steel versus stone that creates the saw tooth versus polished - its grit size, and to some extent, the nature of the grit doing the cutting (diamonds have sharp angular grains, natural stones tend to be softer and less angular).
The larger the grit and the 'sharper' the grit the more saw toothed the edge will be.
A finely honed and polished edge will be 'hair popping' sharp and will shave your arm and push cut paper, where as a saw toothed one wont. That said, a saw toothed edge will likely cut course rope for longer, and handle impact with bone better.
If you are sharpening to a vee bevel, a saw tooth will work just fine, but on a convex grind, a polished edge will usually work better.

Because my wife abuses our chef knives, and I am sick and tired or hand honing the micro chips out of the blades, I now use the linisher with a 400 grit belt and a strop loaded with 800 grit paste. Instead of it taking me 30 minutes to hone a blade on a water stone, it takes me 30 seconds on the linisher, and they will shave your arm and push cut paper.

Originally Posted by suthy

@tanqueray The diamond steel most certainly does sharpen/cut material off knives and I have found the normal steel does refine the edge a little more, even if it is just straightening a burr.

On this note can anyone explain the difference between a diamond steel edge finish and a diamond stone edge finish ie how one is saw toothed and one is polished?

The diamond steels aren't really a steel they are abrasive and as such take material off. Usually they aren't used in the same way as a steel to straighten the edge when in use but are used for bringing the edge back like a stone but for blades with a recurve that wont sharpen on a flat stone