Sharpened two knives

[grepper]

I got two knives from a lady my wife ran into that she knows from her work.  They were both Classic Wusthoff's; a 3.5" parer and a heavy 8" chef's.  Both had their plastic handles melted from being left on a hot stove.  They were uncomfortable to hold due to sharp edges on the melted plastic.
 
I sanded the handles so they were smooth.  Not pretty, but much better with no sharp edges and are now comfortable to hold.
 
Using the Kally 1SM and a Kallyrest, after sharpening, handle to tip-
 
3.5” parer:  75, 85, 80.
8” chef’s: 70, 80, 65, 75
 
For the parer I used 150 Cubitron, very fine Scotch-Brite, rough side of leather belt no compound.
Same for the chef's except it was duller so 80 AO first to speed things up, then 150 Cubitron, Scotch-Brite, leather.

I don't use compound because I want to preserve as much "toothy" as possible.  Compound is a fine abrasive and reduces toothy.
 
Didn't take very long to do.  Then I cleaned the blades with liquid Barkeeper's Friend and polished the handles with Turtle Wax Seal and Shine Si02 ceramic spray.  I charged the lady $5.00.  A real windfall.  Now I can retire.

[Ken S]

Grepper, old friend,

I am glad to see that your practical wisdom and sense of humor have not dulled with time.
My Kally is sitting on my bench with Kallyrest installed and ready for initial use when Covid recovery is complete.

Ken

[grepper]

Happy that you are beating back the Covid Ken! I'm fully vaxed + booster and so far have been lucky with no breakthrough. Being attacked by that invader doesn't sound like my idea of fun.

But... Sharpening with the Kally + Kallyrest is fun! Almost more fun than anyone should be allowed to have. When you get a chance to use it, if you overdose on sharpening fun I hope it's more funner surviving that than beating back the evil Covid.

[BillMoody1]

Mr Grepper; I think you used to use trizact 180 belts. Are you now using cubitron 150 belts and is this cubitron II 1x42 belts. Where do you buy them. Still refer back to your Youtube videos; thanks for those. Bill

[grepper]

Hi Mr. Bill!,

I used to use 180, but now have switched to 150 Cubitrons. I like 150 better. The 150 Cubitrons are my favorite belts. I use them almost exclusively for sharpening knives. They are cool because the edge produced is toothy enough to easily stand up to deburring on the rough side of a plain leather belt without removing tooth.

Because I love toothy edges, I've tried belts down to 40 grit Zirc belts but have found anything much gnarlier than 150 is too gnarly. That said, with a really dull edge I'll grind with something like 80 grit just to speed things up but then finish with 150.

I use the 150 grit Cubitrons, not Cubitron II, because as far as I know Cubitron II's only go down to 80 grit. I have some of the Cubitron II belts and they are great belts. I only wish they had 150 grit versions of them.

The Cubitron 150 grit belts I use are these from R.S. Hughes, a great place to buy from:

https://www.rshughes.com/p/3M-Cubitron-7...111_67951/

[BillMoody1]

Dear Mr Grepper;
                        Thank you for you detailed reply. I am fortunate to live about 30 miles from the RS Hughs outlet 
in San Antonio Texas. I had ordered belts from them in the past, at your suggestion.( It was during the beginning of covid
and I had to go to the back door where they had put my order outside) I am going to order the 150 grit cubitron  at your suggestion. I see a few messages in this forum ( that are  back in 2017) that you tried some 120 cubitron II along with some 150 regular cubritron belts - was the 120 cubitron II  too abrasive? Thank you for all your replies in the past .    Bill
                        ps - reading the old posts I learned about using very light pressure on the belt - love the old posts between you and the late great Mr Reich -- thanks again
                        pss - would you have a link for the very fine scotchbrite that you use - I might have bought the wrong scotchbrite as mine seems a bit gnarly -

[grepper]

I like the Cubitron 150 grit for the finishing grind.  That 150 edge seems to be just what I’m looking for.  It makes me happy so that’s what I do.  I have tried coarser for the last grind but, for me at least, the edge was too rough resulting in a reduction of joy.  

You’re right.  The Cubitron II belts are available in 120 grit.  They are excellent belts, very sharp, cut like champs and last a long time.  But like I mentioned, just a bit too gnarly for the finished edge for me.

That said, having some 80 and 120 C II’s around is handy for really dull blades.  On the relatively slow light weight Kally, 150 grit can take a while when the edge is really dull.  In those cases I’ll go coarser than 150 until I see the first hint of burr and then switch to 150 to finish things up.  I would way rather keep light pressure with a coarser belt than more pressure with a finer belt just to try and speed things up.  Heavy pressure just generates unnecessary heat.

Concerning the Scotch-Brite belts, I use the Very Fine blue ones.  Looks like Tru-Grit has them:
https://trugrit.com/product/1-x-42-sb-av...w-stretch/

Here’s a post I made 4 years ago showing what the surface of the SB belt look like.  I was unsure about them back then but have since figured out how to use them.
http://bessex.com/forum/showthread.php?t...75#pid1175

When the Scotch-Brite belts are new they are very gnarly and can easily tear up the edge so they need to be broken in.  They get better for deburring after a bunch of use.  The whole belt gets softer, more flexible and the surface less coarse.  You can speed up the break in process:  Run the belt and press a large bolt or some piece of hard steel against the platen.  Use a bit of force but don’t overdo it.  Wear heavy gloves or pliers to hold the metal as it will get very hot quickly resulting in unpleasant epidermal discomfort and possible damage.  This will break down some of the globs of resin on the belt and smooth some of the surface abrasive particles.  

Even after that the SB is still aggressive and takes care and practice to figure out how to use it when deburring.  It’s easy to tear up the edge.  I use EXTREMELY light pressure and just “tickle” the edge of the blade against the open belt off the platen.  The idea is not to grind the edge with SB, but just to lightly touch the burr to slice it up and pry any stuck pieces off the side of the bevel.  Use the SB sparingly.  Only 1 or two super light passes generally seems to do the trick.  After that it’s much easier to remove the rest of the burr with leather.

The Very Fine SB belts are blue in color.  There is also the Super Fine (I think that is what it’s called).  It is gray in color.  It is less coarse then the Very Fine and may/may not work better for deburring.  I don’t know because I have not tried it.

But like I said, learning to effectively use SB takes practice and understanding of what the SB belt really is and why it works the way it does.  It helps to think about that glob covered SB surface, how it interacts with the burr and why you don’t want those globs digging into the edge.  With practice SB is great for deburring and makes mincemeat out of even very tough burrs.

I should add that all this stuff is just what I do because I like the results and it makes me happy. Other folks may prefer a different edge finish or deburring method, etc. To me sharpening is all about what makes you happy and finding whatever methods and equipment makes that happen.

[MaxtheKnife]

Mr Grebber............outstanding post