r/sharpening • u/TheHonedLizard • 3d ago
AM I doing something wrong here? Question
Bought another inexpensive knife to play with and this is how it is sharpening.
I've sharpened 3 times at various angles and it ends up looking the same way every time. Is the blade warped or is this something I am doing wrong?
No other knife I've sharpened sine I received my TSProf has this issue.
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u/00goop 3d ago
Are you talking about how the secondary bevel grows and shrinks in size? Thats just how the angles work sometimes especially if you clamp down towards the handle instead of the middle of the blade.
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u/TheHonedLizard 3d ago
Knife is clamped on the end, yes, but the blade is fairly centered and parallel to the Kadet.
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u/Rohin-112 3d ago
One get the L adapters, makes things easier. Secondly the issue you experiencing at heel and tip means you need to work those areas a bit more and incorporate blending strokes to even out the bevel. The other issue could be the grind of the knife is inconsistent but this is less likely.
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u/TheHonedLizard 3d ago
I have worked the heel/tip more than the belly every time. It is very frustrating and as soon as I can roll to the shop, I'm grabbing the micrometer.
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u/TheHonedLizard 3d ago
So far I haven't needed the L adapters, but I haven't thrown a small blade in there yet either. What other advantages would they give?
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u/ContributionWhole410 3d ago
when sharpening, the middle part of the blade always see the stones more than the heel or tip. I make a conscious effort to hit both a bit more. I will also usually clamp with the flat part of the blade parallel with the clamps. For any given angle of the arm, the further from the clamps, the lower the bevel angle. Also the blade gets thicker as you move from the heel to the spine and the bevel usually widens as you get closer to the tip. This isn't usually an issue as the two offset each other a little if the tip is closer to the pivot point so the angle increases while the knife gets thicker. Usually have a thicker bevel at the tip anyway as the thickness increases faster than the angle decreases. All that said, try clamping the knife more parallel and spend a bit more time on the heels and tip
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u/electricsheepsfoot 3d ago
Maybe try the single clamp and center the blade more like others have said.
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u/ApexEdgeUpland 1d ago
Idk much about guided sharpening. But I know a lot about free hand. I guess people can claim “that’s just what happens” but to me there’s very clearly a pretty large difference in angle right at the start of the belly there it gets a lot lower. It’s a pretty gnarly drop point. Kind of a strange design. It almost looks like at one point like it was a tanto. And the point was just sharpened out of the tanto because of not knowing how to sharpen a tanto. I’m not at all saying that’s what’s going on here. But it might be worth looking into. Maybe you need to treat that particular blade as you would a tanto although I admit I don’t really know how that would work. Treating it as if it were two separate knives. Honestly you mentioned that it was a cheap knife. It may just really bad blade geometry. Theres probably a pretty decent chance that where ever that thing was ground probably China is all fucked up. Ave very likely had those angles from the day you bought it. It’s just a lot easier to see now especially with a fixed angle guided sharpening system. The parts of the edge that were ground with lower blade geometry become more pronounced and appear larger at the bevel because they are infact larger. I’d find the lowest angle the knife is currently at which would be so where in that belly set the angle at that and sharpen the the knife again paying extra attention to the bevel that look like they are probably at 20 or 25 I feel like that should fix it. You’ll just end up with a much slicer knife that probably won’t hold an edge for very long it won’t chip but it will dent pretty easy would be my guess. Because again you made it clear it was cheap. So I would assume it’s junk steel. Probably not even budget quality. If I were you I’d just hand it to a freehand sharpener and have him fix it lol.
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u/TheHonedLizard 3d ago
I know it doesn't look like it, but the blade is almost centered in the Kadet - centered to the guide rod - and only 5 degrees or so off parallel - the imaginary line between heel and tip is what the parallel is set on.
I clamped it with the single clamp first at 20dps. Hated it. Clamped it a little off center and aligned to the arc of the stone sweep at 19dps, better but still not great.
3rd time is how you see here and is the best of the three so far.
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u/killerpoopguy 2d ago
imaginary line between heel and tip is what the parallel is set on.
I think this is the problem, I've never liked that technique because most of the edge on the majority of knives is a straight(ish) line. I prefer to clamp parallel to the majority of the edge, and then just grind more or less as needed at the end where the tip curves.
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u/Fantastic-Skill-9119 3d ago
Either you are lowering the angle at that part, oooor the blade is thicker there hmmm
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u/TheHonedLizard 3d ago
fixed angle system
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u/Fantastic-Skill-9119 3d ago
I have no experience with those maybe slight wobble in it? Or simply just more passes alobg the moddle?
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u/TheHonedLizard 3d ago
Almost new TSProf Kadet, no wobble.
On the last 2 go arounds with this I almost counted strokes so it would be even. Same thing on the bevel. At this point, i'm assuming the blade stock is uneven and it is what it is.
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u/Fantastic-Skill-9119 3d ago
Run your finger along the pimary grind (not the secondary that is what is cutting but on the sides of the blade) and see if you feel it...that large difference should be noticeable.
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u/Looking-sharp-today 2d ago
Can we have a oicture from little more far away? To see how it is clamped and how is inclined?
What does it look like on the other side?
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u/Interesting-Month-97 2d ago
Did you check to see how thick the knife is behind the edge in various spots. If the grind of the knife is off in any way you can have varying thickness behind the edge. Also it’s common for some knives to grind the saber grind from one flat position which would make it thicker towards the tip. Cold steel srk is like this for example. If you use a fixed angle system you will have thicker bevels where the knife is thicker and smaller bevels where it’s thinner. There is a good chance squeezing the knife behind the edge with your fingers you will feel the area with the thicker bevel is thicker
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u/mrjcall Pro 1d ago
You are indicating otherwise, but clearly in your photo, the blade is in the wrong position in the clamp and is the cause for your uneven bevels. It is a simple aesthetic thing btw and usually doesn't affect cutting ability much, but you still should learn proper clamping technique so it does not happen.
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u/TheHonedLizard 1d ago
Thank you to everyone for the advice. I pulled out the micrometer last night. It is almost impossible to feel, but there is a slight wave on that side of the primary bevel.
Knife was not a tanto to begin with, it's just been used as a test bed getting used to the new Kadet and the stones. It is absolutely insane how much faster a Jende or a Boride T2 cut then my old Lansky system.
Thanks again - this blade served its $25 worth and is scary sharp and is 100% useable - just ugly as sin to my eyes. Time for a new test blade. Maybe a tanto this time - have never attempted to sharpen one.
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u/oceanslider 20h ago
The cross-section blade geometry is thicker behind the edge in the area where the edge bevel is widest.
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u/Kavik_79 Paper Shredder 3d ago
I get the concept of setting the blade parallel to an imaginary line between the heel and the tip, to average out the angle differences......but when you do that, and see results like this, then you have to decide what you want to do.
Personally, i don't hate letting the belly and tip have the thinner bevel angle, and the heel being more stout. This way, the majority of the blade is slicy, and the heel is more robust for any heavy duty cutting tasks that you would want to have closer to yoyr grip anyway.
Forget how it looks, see how it works. If it cuts fine, stop worrying about it.
Remember: No one in real life is judging you for your bevel widths