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Amazing content and photography, you should compile/author a book utilizing all your photos on the subject of sharpening. Speaking of books, can you recommend any books on this subject (maybe some new video content on recommended reading). Your content and presentation format are fantastic, thank you Sir. You are making the world a better place, one edge at a time. My Sypderco Military's CMP S30V blade is wicked sharp thanks to you. 👍
Could you please recommend a good diamond paste. If you provide an Amazon link I'll order some. I've had great success using the stones you recommend, now I need a good diamond stropping paste. Its difficult searching through Amazon as many of the pastes are in a spray form, I'd rather use a paste in a syringe.
Modern day myth busters lol, I feel as if you may be getting close to breaking the internet with these space age thoughts 🤣 thanks for showing and the time invested it is greatly appreciated 👍
I wear my lighted dental loupes when sharpening. When stropping, I can feel the burr"scratching" the leather. When the scratching stops, the burr is usually gone. I have to watch your videos twice. Once to gawk at the incredible magnification views. Once to actually listen to what you are saying. THANK YOU, Alex!!
There can still be a micro burr after the scratching stops. Extremely small burrs that are straight (not favoring one side) can go by undetected with this method. Observe the apex closely (rotating the blade and observing light reflection), constantly feel the apex and get used to the feedback on your thumb pad, as to how a burr versus a burrless apex feels, observantly feel how it cuts through paper, glide the apex across your thumbnail and check for resistance, etc. all good methods, especially when combined, at finding the smallest and peskiest of burrs. And your loupe is a big help.
@@oceanwaves83 Initially I use my thumb pad to feel for the burr, then I look at the apex for any light reflections. When I get rid of those I then run the end of my thumb nail gently along the edge; this picks up any straight burrs that are usually removed with gentle stropping. I have just ordered a 60/90 magnifier as used by Alex in this video; I'm hoping I can step things up a level.
Alex, would love to see a “closeup” video of what’s happening to the edge during common mistakes (varying sharpening angles, over angles stropping, over aggressive pressure, failed apex’s, etc).
A cheap little 50x-1000x digital USB microscope for $25 was such a great tool for helping me understand my sharpening results. It really helped me get a feel for how much pressure to use as well as how burrs actually worked and the differences between diamond stones and whetstones and fine grit vs coarse grit. It taught me so much about how tricky burs can be with their false edges. Your channel and advice is spot on; I have also come to the same conclusion that diamond stones are the way to go rather than whetstones, and I also prefer getting a refined apex on a coarser stone. I too have experimented my way into preferring the method of apexing on a coarse stone, and then alternating edge-leading passes with lighter and lighter pressure. However, one last thing that I do to minimize the burr before the strop is I skip from my 300-grit diamond stone to an 8,000-grit diamond stone and do very light pressure alternating passes as well. I find this helps me maintain the geometry a little better than the strop. However, I am definitely not practiced enough to do any of this freehand like you, so I am doing this with a sharpening system that lets me get incredibly consistent customized angles, but still all of the pressure and movements are by hand.
Some diamond stones have contamination by few coarse crystalls. DMT 600grit that I use unfortunately have I guess around 20 bigger individual "dents" that tend to ruine surface, in fact, making it worse than prevous step 320 grit. I can clearly hear clicks and feel stops when trying that 600 grit. I tought they will split with time but in reality they strong as new even after many attempts. Maybe I will try to eliminate them one by one making 2d map and burn by sun light with magnifying glass or scratch it other way, no idea how. It is definitely nice idea to use nickel/steel diamond stone at low grit and go for resin embedded for finer. So, I fear to buy 1200 or 8000 DMT because of contamination risk. Not big deal really, 220+340 actually already so nice, easy to use.
OMFG. I think you just changed my life. I've hand sharpened and carried a pocket knife for about 30 years. I can always get mine very sharp, but I feel like they dull quickly, I always thought, well I sharpen too a fairly shallow angle guess that's to be expected. I tried this and I think I 100% have been just folding my burr. Thank you thank you!
I know why my freshly sharpened knife gets blunt quickly. Because my wife keeps using it to cut the kids fruit and sandwiches on ceramic plates every morning. 😭
I was so full of myself to think that I can feel any burr with my finger or see it with naked eye by turning the knife a bit and catching the reflection of light from the edge. But I took a knife that had no burr (I was absolutely certain) and looked at it through jewelers loupe and surprise-surprise super small burr was still there! Few more alternating passes on extra fine DMT with pressure less than the knife weight and then 1 micron diamond strop and I got my first ever hair whittling edge! First time after 2 years being into knife sharpening. Cant believe that what I was missing is simply using as little pressure as possible at the end. And I WAS reducing pressure, I just didnt realize how little pressure I actually needed. Big thanks for your contributions to the knife community. Your videos are the best.
It doesn’t get any better or clearer than this…a strop with the proper compound is your best friend when sharpening! Outrageously good photography..next level! Seeing is believing..Thanks Alex ..awesome video MikeR. 🇨🇦
I kind of feel like on in a class when watching your videos. I fully understand this particular video. I once had this exact problem until rather recently. Your videos guided me to really recognize the burr and work properly to remove it. I still haven’t gotten to Hair whittling yet. More practice…
@@gigel99324 Oof, I can see that happening. Personally I think I've pissed off a chef at my culinary institute, I turned his gyoza class into 15 students asking for me to sharpen their knifes... its addicting to sharpen knifes and see people using them for the first time and realize they cannot go back to a dull knife 😂😂😂
Hello from Ireland. Just wanted to say thanks for all your efforts and teaching! I had tried a few times in my life to get good at sharpening and sucked at it, but your videos helped me to learn how to get an edge using the crap stones I had and after a while I got some diamond stones and made a strop and it's made a huge difference. It's a life skill I'd always wanted even though I'll only really use it for my family/friends kitchen knifes. It's nice to be able to have a few good steel knifes and not need to bin/live with crap knifes. Thanks again, I'll send whoever is interested your channel's way. Hope you go from strength to strength.
I've been watching sharpening content for a long time, but this is the first video that explicitly showed burr removal. Also discussing the relationship between the last stone used and the stopping compound chosen is very helpful.
I like to think I know how to sharpen a piece of steel. But this, this was a GREAT deep dive on the topic. You really laid out how the process progresses. We'll done.
I was just typing to comment on how these are your best photos ever on edges, burrs etc ( while still listening to you final words) and heard you mention how long it took, effort you put in. Clearly that effort showed today in what I think is one of your best videos on sharpening. I honestly don't think you could do any better at explaining and visualising. Amazing. thanks so much
Simply masterful. This stands so far above similar channels with its rigourous scientific approach, intelligence, clarity of explanation and quality of presentation. So many other channels suffer from long-winded, unclear, over-excited presentations and this one is a breath of fresh air. I come from a scientific and educational background and this is outstanding. Thank you.
I absolutely love the scientific approach of your videos. Out of all the knife sharpening channels out there, you're the one I always come back to, and the one I'll recommend without hesitation to friends looking for some tips/info. Understanding the process really helps. Your microscope shots are 100% worth it. Thank for the incredible work!
Just received and unboxed my knife sharpening kit. I was inspired by you and I know that all of your great videos will help keep my kitchen knives in top form. All the best. Cheers.
Master class in knife sharpening, making my decision easier to buy a stone and begin my knife sharpening journey. Thank you for all the work you do to spread knowledge, greatly appreciated!
This video really helped me focus on the burr removal process - I was not giving it enough fine attention and now that I am my sharpening is noticeably better! Thank you!
I used to be all about stropping with 6 or 9um diamond emulsion after a sub 1000 grit stone, but I was showed just fast that can polish the bite out of your working edge. I took his advice and have been stropping with no coarser than 1um diamond emulsion after a J400 or 800 stone finish, then a quick 0.5 or 0.25/0.1um strop to finish and it's a world of difference. Next level scary scary sharp instead of just scary sharp. A quality 1um diamond emulsion is MORE than enough to complete deburring after a coarse stone if you properly deburred on that last stone. That said, I really liked how you only did a few passes with the 6um strop to complete deburring. That's something I could get behind and have had success with, since it's unlikely to polish the tooth out. I think the issue is when people do a lot of passes. A few passes with 6um, then a few with 0.5 or finer and it's insane. Anyway, thx for the video.
That makes me really wonder what one should do to keep it sharp yet achieve mirror polish. I like to finish my knives sometimes to an impressive mirror polished edge. But as you say, often it feels a bit over stropped, perhaps the edge rounds too much and dulls faster. The fact that clean mirrored edges have no bite is clear but when it also loses its push cut ability faster, its entirely pointless and becomes less useful as a whole.
Bite is just the remains of burrs chipping away, causing a jagged edge. No burrs = no bite, technically. But yeah, many like the micro serrations. Stropping badly can go from reinforcing the apex and making it keener but overdoing can make it full faster from a more obtuse apex, or even worse you've simply dulled it by rounding the apex over.@@magicshon
@@mikafoxx2717 Ive found that over stropping is an issue only when you use bad technique or your strop is too soft. The point of stropping is not only deburring but also make the apex as small as possible so a good angle good polishing compound with no contamination of large grit and a relatively hard and flat strop is key for maximum sharpness.
Oh my gosh, thank you for this video!! This level of detail is exactly what I needed to really understand why my old man would sharpen a wood chisel once a week, and I have to do it every 30 minutes
No, Alex... I'm pretty sure we ALL know that the real reason our knives dull so fast is because of the elves that come at night and use our tools, which is also why they're never put back in their proper places. GD elves.
nice job!! I sharpened every knife in the fish house for around 10 years, millions of fish processed yearly. If you're short on leather for a strop, cardboard boxes work really well. Stacks of boxes for packing frozen fish, strop them right on the stack. Works really well. Can't say I'd strop everyone's knives but mine sure got it. Huge difference. Never looked with a loop but you can tell by feel if you're even slightly competent. Again, great video!
Would you be able to expand on pressure required during sharpening and stropping? Maybe having the stones and strops underneath some kitchen scales to show how much downward pressure is being used? 'Light pressure' and 'medium pressure' etc can be very subjective to each person watching, it would be interesting experiment to see how you perceve pressure compared to others
I picked up one of the lighted "card" magnifiers you used in this. Great advice. I was finally able to see exactly what was going on in a trouble spot I'd had on an M390 edge without needing to reprofile the entire edge, and fix it. 60x was the minimum magnification that let me find it. My old 20x loupe was no help. Thanks for the advice!
This particular video has helped me a lot. Alternating single light passes to gently eventually bend-break the burr - I finally get it! After stropping on leather the blade is oddly (unnaturally?) smooth when I rub my finger from the dull side and past the apex. But then I carefully test the edge in the cutting direction and it's quite sharp! Maybe after months of trying I've finally sharpened a blade properly! !!!
I watched your video. I wasn't exactly surprised, but it didn't come as a shock either. Sharpening knives is indeed a very delicate and complex job. It's great that you're sharing such videos-they are very informative for people working in this field.
I watched your video. I wasn't exactly surprised, but it didn’t come as a shock. I’m very familiar with various metalworking methods, but knives are a particularly delicate subject since many people don’t understand the intricacies of knife sharpening and the durability of cutting edges. Sharpening knives is, indeed, a very meticulous and challenging task. It’s also great that you’re sharing such videos-they are very informative for those working in this field.
Your passion and dedication to produce this high quality educational videos is rare. Thank you so much for sharing your knowledge and experience. Sharp knives are more controlable, safer and much more efficient under responsible hands. This vid in particular synthesizes (IMO) over 85% of what has to be done to produce a clean edge and a very sharp knife for most people every time one sharpens, with minimum tools. 😎💥👏👏👏
So with a properly deburred edge on a kitchen knife, how long should the edge typically stay clean? And what's the best way to 'touch up' the edge? Back to a fine stone then strop? Keep up the great content!
For touch ups, I just strop, it works to a certain degree. If it doesn't work anymore, fine stone and strop again. Wenn the edge is dull, you have to sharpen through the whole process again. The trick is to keep the knife sharp with stropping, so never let it go too dull, otherwise you have to sharpen too often and to remove more material over time than necessary.
Great job, thank you! Preasure is turned out to the key to true sharpening. Other “masters” of sharpening including japaness micro grid gurus are only thinning the bur instead of getting rid of it. You are a real scientist 👍👍👍
It's great to see a technical explanation that I learnt intuitively over many years of sharpening chisels. That reducing pressure came naturally and is really effective..
This is my go-to channel for sharpening. Just recommended you on Reddit. I learn much in EVERY Video, and the camera craft is soooo enjoyable. But please, just use a pull-through sharpener.
commenting simply to support your efforts. There is far too much conflicting, contradictory, or otherwise outdated information when it comes to sharpening, a scientific approach has my upmost respect. I will be recommending your channel to customers asking for a more nuanced understanding of sharpening!
From a physics standpoint, this makes perfect sense. This also explains why my last few passes always have to be really lit. I didn't really know why that made a nice sharp endge but I could tell from feel and experience that it worked. It is so nice to understand why now! Thank you for a really helpful fun and USEFUL video!
i thank you, kind sir, for taking the time to share your knife sharpening wisdom with us. also, i appreciate and am grateful for the effort you put into creating such a well put together educational video with such great visual aids. 🙏🏽 many thanks.
I bought one of the diamond hones a while back to practice freehand. It was from a diff seller as the SSATC brand was out of stock at the time. It looks the same and is same size and “grits”. Not sure if its the same quality but it seemed to work fairly well sharpening a super dull victorinox paring knife. Great video!
These closeups are fascinating. They really make think that the quality of the metal is so essential because I'm sure even if two knives look identical the difference after sharpening will be clear under the microscope.
This is a life skill. This is some thing everybody should watch a video on, easy to remember, but vital if you need it. You did a wonderful, I mean, a wonderful job, breaking it down. Thank you so much!
I'm so grateful to have found your channel! No ridiculous prices for blocks, keeping it real. Going to buy that strop and diamond block to replace my old stuff. Never knew that removing burr was dragging the knife on the block towards the blade, whenever I did that on my cheap blocks I would start cutting them!
I absolutely love your vids. They improved my sharpening skills so much and i recognized the mistakes i was making,such as apex stability and burr removal,as you just shown. Thanks and keep up the good work .
Great vídeo. Edge leading on stone is an excellent method for deburring. It's much better than trailing. Ten passes on pasted strop with diamond compound my create a foil burr. It's good practice to check for sharpness after a few passes on wood as you did. If it's still shaving it will have good durability. Congrats. Best tip I got for detecting burr is to pass the edge on a cotton cloth. If there is any burr it will catch fibers and is easier to detect than just with fingers. This helps during sharpening before testing on paper towels.
Since I follow your tips my pocket and kitchen knives are much sharper for much longer. Well, I still struggle with the really small pocketknives with a drop point blade, but I'll get the hang of it eventually. Thank you very much for your hard work and pristine presentation.
This explains something that’s been bothering me. Project Farm tested a bunch of knife sharpening kits for initial sharpness & how quickly knives dulled after sharpening. I couldn’t understand how the same knives sharpened to the same sharpnesses with different kits dulled at different rates. Burr formation & collapse explains that, so thank you! Now to remember to reduce pressure during the burr minimizing passes & finally get a strop.
I had an idea to lookup what happens with knife edge while sharpening under microscope. Want to do it sometime and share with people, but now i see that it's already done and i don't need that work. Thank you for save my time! 😂❤
When going through ~ 300-600-1000 grit, would you do "reducing pressure" technique just on the final 1000 stone, or would you bother to weaken the burr on every lower grit stone before switch to a higher grit? Thanks.
Am interested in his answer in this. I personally do alternating passes before going to the next finer grit when i use waterstones, but less so when i use diamond stones. I also tend to wipe the blade off before going to the next finer grit (no matter the sharpening utensil) to avoid cross contamination and to not bring useless metal debris onto the next stone. (even the diamond particles are only glued on and can come loose under too much pressure or over time. At least that's what spyderco writes in their manual for their diamond and bcn things ;-) )
Also wondering, the video and explanation makes perfect sense but would moving on to finer grid stones not have the same effect as reverse sharpening on the courser grit or would it be recommended to follow this on every grit?
Yeah, work your way throu the grits and deburr on the final grit. The burr will get smaller and smaerr the finer the grit. So only on the last stone is it necessary.👍
Best tip i heard is "Make the knife the sharpest it can be on each stone, don't rely on the next stone to fix it" Its probably not necessary to completely deburr and refine the edge on each stone, but a few passes to make sure youre even and the next stone doesnt have extra work to do are always a good idea.
Magnification is very important if you want the sharpest knife. I also like that you address the burr and pressure, sometimes the lightest touch is necessary during burr reduction.
When I was young, the term my dad used for the burr is "wire edge." He often would simply use the skin of his palm as a strop to "break off the wire edge."
I really like your videos, thanks. I usually remove the burr on paper, newspaper works best. I use light back strokes and just bend the burr back and for until it bends off, which usually happens pretty fast. I just use paper cut method to test if burr is gone.
Only video you need...timeless beauty even 5000 years from now if youtube exists some one will watch it mate...thanks love from Australia... If they use the knife then, though...
When someone asks me how stropping on leather removes metal burrs, I tell them it's similar to folding a piece of metal back and forth at the same point until it weakens and gives way. Incrementally finer abrasive changes just makes the apex cleaner and cleaner until it becomes a true apex. I would say most people who sharpen their knives need to view this video to realize just how far from truly sharp they were.
Great video and very informative as always. Another way to remove burr that works well and is perhaps simpler is to have a strop with rough leather on one side combined with a ‘coarse’ compound. That will do the same job as the alternating passes on the stone. Then a smoother strop with finer compound to finish as per this video. Same result in my experience (also checked with microscope and tested for sharpness)
I've always just stroked or lapped a freshly sharpened edge with a broken piece of glass at an angle that removes material away from the edge and with the proper technique produces a cutting edge better than any other method
This was very helpful. I’ve had a hard time moving past a certain level of sharp where it will pop hair off but not cut paper towel or pop hairs off like I’ve seen some other edges do. I don’t think I’ve been doing proper burr removal and thank you for the better explanation and demonstration of your burr removal process on the stone
I look for burr and defects on the blades with the reflection of a light. A good apex doesn't reflect anything, dulled knives have spots, burrs and even more bent burrs reflect all the way.
Thank you so much for putting me on the right path. My last sharpening session was about 5 weeks ago, and every blade in my kitchen is still better than they were after 2 weeks before I found your channel. Question: After a 1200 grit diamond stone, should I strop with a 3.5 or 5 micron diamond paste for easiest burr removal?
A fine presentation on the subject, and articulated in a manner for effective technical comprehension. It was worth the care and effort and i do appreciate the numerous relevant photos with explanations. Thank you.
I have a smooth translucent Arkansas stone that I switch to after raising a burr on the 1000 grit diamond stone. It works great for getting rid of the burr prior to stropping. You can actually feel the burr dragging on the stone.
