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Started by Robert Burris. Last reply by Halicon Nov 19, 2011. 1 Reply 0 Likes
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That's Hal, I'm sure people will get help from you as time passes.
Just want to let everyone know that I monitor this group daily, so if you need help or have any questions about any form of sharpening feel free to type it out in full and if it's something within my realm I'd love to help anyone out.
Halicon, nice to hear from you! You're absolutely spot on about practicing. I really haven't taken the time that I should to become proficient with the stones I bought with your advice. Thanks for all your help, and I promise to spend more time practicing. I really don't want to give up and buy the Apex. Now that I have the stones, I want to make good use of them. Thanks again.
Terry, sharpening still isn't working for you? It's a subject that takes practice, if you say your hand-to-eye coordination is off then you have your solution right there or get something like the Apex (which I believe I mentioned to you some one year ago).
I'm closing in on 15 years in the hand-sharpening business and it took me almost a decade of daily practice to learn how to sharpen with "automatic" action as in that I don't have to check where the steel is touching the stone. Don't rush the process, stay off the powertools and get proper stones, not the tiny touch-up kit of a lansky but a proper bench stone the kind that I recommended to you before, the rest is simply practice until your hands do what you want them to do and you can pick up on the subtle feeling of when you have reached the proper angle, the feeling of where the steel touches the stone and how the feedback changes slightly when you have reached a flat.
'nuf said from me, I've given you more advice than I can remember doing for anyone else over the net, if you can't reach your goal with this I'd say you should just get the Apex so your problem of sharpening can be over finally.
Don and Robert,
Thanks so much for your very helpful responses to my question. I think one of my problems is that I have incorrectly sharpened some of my knives and have "rounded" their edges so the edge angle on them is not sharp enough anymore. Unless I'm wrong, before I can sharpen them really well, the blades have to be "re-profiled" so the edge has a flat-ground bevel of 17 to 20 degrees before it can be sharpened with a stone to a fine edge. Can this be my problem and the correct solution? If it is, what is the best way for me (with my limited skills) to re-profile these blades? Otherwise, what should I do in these cases? Thanks in advance for any suggestions you can give me.
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