knife edge retention tips 4 the burr

if you have a knife that you just sharpened, and it will shave hair and cut paper without a sound and you think you have finally reached the pinnacle of sharpness. then you go into your first real cut and the edge starts to cut and then just fails, you might have a problem with removing the burr. caltoncutlery.com

[@muhammedk470]

So much knowledge condensed into an 8 minute video

[@joecalton1449]

thank you for the kind words!

[@atquevale6059]

Your words come from first hand experience; you are very good at communicating; and it's transparent you love sharing your knowledge. It's a real pleasure listening to you talk about rubbing steel on a rock. Thank you, Joe

[@joecalton1449]

thank you for the kind words! yes, i do like helping folks get more out of their knives and sharpening :}

[@tayloralexander291]

Best explanation I've heard on burrs/sharpening. Thanks Joe ☮️✌️

[@joecalton1449]

Glad it was helpful!

[@radoslawjocz2976]

For bread I use Victorinox serrated knife which is possible to sharpen on one side because serrations are cut on other side so entire edge can be sharpen relatively easily, it works very well. For everything else I use Japanese knives but all of this knives are stainless and full tang. For sharpening I use mainly King 800 and King 1200 and natural hard jade stone from China. For jade stone I use fine nagura as additional abrasive, so jade stone works mainly as flat surface. King stones are used for general sharpening and jade stone is used for finishing or for micro bevel depending what is needed. I have got also Norton India Fine and Japanese 8000 stone and couple of rough silicon carbide stones which I use mainly for tools sharpening. I use one cheap silicon carbide stone only for Japanese stone flattening.

[@DaryooshF.Sh.P-vq6mu]

It’s really a free university for pro sharpeners your channel. Thanks 🍻🔪

[@joecalton1449]

thank you for the kind words!

[@filipefaria898]

Great content my friend! Greetings from Brazil!

[@joecalton1449]

Thanks for the visit!

[@ericasedc]

Great video Joe!!! Been loving this series. Very helpful and informative! 🎉❤😊

[@joecalton1449]

thank you for the kind words and i am glad to hear that you are enjoying them!

[@vinceLi3096]

I find my palm is more sensitive to feel a burr than my fingertip. Not entirely sure why. Very informative video! Thank you for making that.

[@joecalton1449]

i have seen that also, not always, but often enough that it is worth mentioning.

[@GaryGraley42]

Nice series Joe, thanks for sharing with us. Your mentioning about stropping on your palm reminded me of what Jerry Fisk said, he said he jokes with folks that his one hand is coarse grit and the other hand is fine grit ;-)

[@joecalton1449]

thanks for the kind words! i can see having two grits on hands. usually your dominant hand holds tools, and the non dominate hand holds the work. so your dominant hand should be cleaner and therefore a finer grit :}

[@JohnDoe-zb7dz]

Once light stop reflecting off the apex I quit. My edges are better and last longer than when I use to chase a burr. Your milage may vary. Thanks for sharing Joe.

[@joecalton1449]

that is a great way to sharpen if you have good eyes or are using optics and have good light!

[@JohnDoe-zb7dz]

@@joecalton1449 Yes, very important. I always like to quote Todd from The Science of Sharp. "It's easier to prevent the burr than to remove it."

[@joecalton1449]

@@JohnDoe-zb7dz it could be slightly easier. but its best to learn to control the burr and make it do what you want it to do and then remove it cleanly. once you have control of the burr then you can decide to make one or not, and make it do what you want.

[@JohnDoe-zb7dz]

@@joecalton1449 that's a very good applicable explanation. 👍

[@mannynieves493]

That happens to me to many times, good video and good info 👍 thanks.

[@joecalton1449]

Thanks for watching!

[@thiago.assumpcao]

Edge leading really helps. You can also do it on soft aluminum oxide stones but they need to be well flattened and clean of slurry. I cut paper towel out of them on most knives.

[@waynebean1521]

Super series! Thank you!

[@joecalton1449]

Glad you like them!

[@saldomino1639]

Great Video Joe thanks !

[@joecalton1449]

Glad you enjoyed it!

[@DuxLindy]

this was my biggest problem when i started sharpening. I could get what I thought was an insanely sharp edge and felt no burr with my fingernail, but that initial sharpness would be gone very quickly and I could only shave hairs in one direction. my solution at the time was just a slightly higher angle and more time on the strop.

[@joecalton1449]

thats pretty common, yet great at the same time, because if you can get there, then you are only one step and one more small skill away from getting some great edges!

[@herbertgearing1702]

I used to be really good at judging my burr situation by feel. Sadly after many years of having fun with sharp and dangerous things and learning the hard way to polish my axes before I put the final edge on I have lost a bit of sensitivity in my very scarred fingertips. I will occasionally miss a very small burr so I use a little jewelry loupe to visually inspect the apex if I am not sure.

[@joecalton1449]

those loupes are really handy, I have them in the shop, and a couple in the house for splinters and such :}

[@S.Vallieres]

Hi Joe, nice video again with your usual practical approach to sharpening. I like that a lot. I'm not sure however if I understood why removing the burr on the Atomas by grinding a micro-bevel doesn't work like with other diamond plates... Well I"m pretty sure I didn't understand actually... 😊 😂 I've never tried them (Atomas), maybe if I did I would figure it out.. Anyways, I'm looking fowards to watching the next video of the edge retention series.

[@joecalton1449]

the atomas that I have worked with and looked at under my scope show that the pattern of diamonds are much different than my favorite dmts and smiths. with the dmts and smiths, if you shrunk yourself down to the size of an ant, and looked across the surface of the stone, you would see a relatively flat plain with what looks like glass shards sticking out of the ground and mostly sticking up with the points exposed. the atomas look much different, in that they look more like rounded heaps of diamonds with flat ground around them. the diamonds are also much more rounded, looking more like rough boulders than glass shards. in my mind the dmts and smiths do a great job of shearing the burr off, whereas the atomas dont cut as cleanly or as agressively so dont work as well with that burr shearing tecnique.

[@S.Vallieres]

@@joecalton1449 Thank you very much for the precisions/added info. Thumbs up!

[@twatmunro]

I don't have a problem creating the burr when I'm using my Kuromaku 320 or my 400 grit diamond stone, but I really struggle if I start on a 1000 grit stone -- even though that'll get my knife sharp. I might be creating a burr, but I can't feel one or see one with the naked eye. And it's even harder if I go to finer grits, like a 3000 or a 6000. I suppose I should spring for one of those cheap microscopes but it seems like overkill?

[@joecalton1449]

i can reliably feel a burr up to about 6000 grit waterstones with just my fingertips. i have also tried stropping on the palm of my hand as well as my forearm and sometimes can feel the burr better with one or the other. the cheap usb microscopes that I have used dont help much as the pixelthingys are larger than what it is that we are trying to look at is what i have been told. but you can get a pretty good jewlers loupe for not much money that will show you a lot, and no pixels to worry about so you get all the detail that there is.

[@danielbottner7700]

Question if you sharpen at a 15º angel then strop the Apex will be rounded to some extent. Has anyone actually measured the converging angles that make up the apex after stopping ?

[@joecalton1449]

i have not tried to measure them, and am not sure how you would go about that.

[@danielbottner7700]

@@joecalton1449 If in fact we still have to distinct converging angles a laser light bounced off the surface would likely be one of the simpler ways to measure it. - More likely than not the edge will be rounded, then we would be measuring the width of the radius where it converges to the secondary bevel.

[@rickwhitson2804]

Good info Joe!!

[@joecalton1449]

Thanks! 👍