The alternative for a sharpening steel?

[eddosedge]

Rupert,

I just sharpened my EDC yesterday and it showed 182gf using test clips.  I just pulled the Razor's edge Mousetrap steel out and gave the blade a few passes.

Now it shows 239 gf   

Ed K.

Ain't it great Mr. Eddosedge! I've got $500.00 worth of sharpening tools and crap sitting in a box that the edge tester proved either don't work or even hurt my edges. I'm still out the $500 but I'm not out the time wasted using them anymore. You say you use clips. Never tried them myself so, if you don't mind, why do you use them and do you like them?

Bud, I'm about to go to a gun show and do some sharpening - I hope.  One of the things I will offer is free edge testing.  My thought is that using the clips will be much faster so folks aren't waiting for me to reload the spool.  They are more expensive at 20 cents per test if you include the shipping cost.  I've been using them for my testing recently just to get an idea how accurate they are.  Since I'm here I'll ask the group - are the BESS scores using clips close to the scores using the spool medium?

If there is another thread on clip versus spool please admonish me gently and I'll head over there.

Ed K.

[grepper]

Test clips are accurate, but will show 20% sharper than spooled media in the media fixture. In other words if spooled media in the media fixture showed 100 sharpness, the test clips would show 80.

Please see:
http://bessex.com/forum/showthread.php?t...01#pid1101

[Rupert Lucius]

Rupert,

I just sharpened my EDC yesterday and it showed 182gf using test clips.  I just pulled the Razor's edge Mousetrap steel out and gave the blade a few passes.

Now it shows 239 gf   

Ed K.

Ain't it great Mr. Eddosedge! I've got $500.00 worth of sharpening tools and crap sitting in a box that the edge tester proved either don't work or even hurt my edges. I'm still out the $500 but I'm not out the time wasted using them anymore. You say you use clips. Never tried them myself so, if you don't mind, why do you use them and do you like them?

Bud, I'm about to go to a gun show and do some sharpening - I hope.  One of the things I will offer is free edge testing.  My thought is that using the clips will be much faster so folks aren't waiting for me to reload the spool.  They are more expensive at 20 cents per test if you include the shipping cost.  I've been using them for my testing recently just to get an idea how accurate they are.  Since I'm here I'll ask the group - are the BESS scores using clips close to the scores using the spool medium?

If there is another thread on clip versus spool please admonish me gently and I'll head over there.

Ed K.

Mr. Ed K.

Excellent results form here in Louisiana, excellent results.

We are purchasing ours from https://www.sharpeningsupplies.com/Dispo...7C286.aspx

Excellent people to do business with.

Rupert

[KnifeGrinders]

Bud, I'm about to go to a gun show and do some sharpening - I hope.  One of the things I will offer is free edge testing.  My thought is that using the clips will be much faster so folks aren't waiting for me to reload the spool.  They are more expensive at 20 cents per test if you include the shipping cost.  I've been using them for my testing recently just to get an idea how accurate they are.  Since I'm here I'll ask the group - are the BESS scores using clips close to the scores using the spool medium?

If there is another thread on clip versus spool please admonish me gently and I'll head over there.

Ed K.

Ed, if i mare shay our experience from the shows.
We did free sharpness testing in two modes: 
at the Sydney knife show it was just a huge 3m poster at our desk offering free edge sharpness testing;
and at the Adelaide knife show it was a Sharpest Knife Contest with a prize.
Adelaide went craze compared to Sydney.
At Sydney no one even asked where to buy the PT50; at Adelaide we could easily sell 4-5 of them on the spot.
Obviously, to get the Contest announced the show organizers must be involved.

In both cases some Sharpness Certificate was given to all participants similar to the below (with our contact details on the back)

[EOU]

Would only add this, Ed, to what's been discussed here. Clips are favored by our medical/scientific customers because of their precision and repeatability in measuring highly polished and extremely sharp edges. People who deal in the 7-20 BESS range don't give a hoot about how their edges compare to razor blades or chef's knives. They just know that a 10 worked well on their last laboratory slide and will likely work well again on the next. We sell lots and lots of clips, industrial and consumer, for plenty of other good reasons as well. Clips may be de-tensioned prior to use by wiggling the upright arms back and forth which will then yield precise BESS scores or... you can add 20% to any tensioned clip score to arrive at a very close approximation of a BESS C score. We don't de-tension around here, we just add 20% if we're interested in comparing to traditional BESS scores.