De-Burring

Mike Martinez

Mike Martinez

Well-Known Member
So, I've been sidelined by the reemergence of an old back injury coupled with bronchitis and have not been able to get in any shop time... naturally I've been looking for things to feel my unused grinder time and ended up playing with sharp objects once more. After sharpening a few knives I realized that certain steels lost their wire edge/ burr differently and on different materials. Using everything from rock hard felt to tightly wound cotton cloth the burrs all came off in their entirety. Anyhow, not I'm wondering how you guys knock off those pesky wire edges?
 
Great topic, Mike. I usually finish sharpening with a felt belt loaded with white compound. This is after a Trizact CF A30. With something like O1, there is little-to-no wire left after the Trizact belt. But with 3V, that wire does not want to come off! I've been trying different things and recently bought a 10x loupe so I can see the edge better when sharpening 3V. I'm looking forward to hearing from the other guys!
 
Shawn Hatcher said:
Great topic, Mike. I usually finish sharpening with a felt belt loaded with white compound. This is after a Trizact CF A30. With something like O1, there is little-to-no wire left after the Trizact belt. But with 3V, that wire does not want to come off! I've been trying different things and recently bought a 10x loupe so I can see the edge better when sharpening 3V. I'm looking forward to hearing from the other guys!
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Shawn, have you tried using a block or rock-hard-felt? You cut lightly into it and it pulls the burr right off. Also a plain leather belt will pull a burr right off. Through trial and error I have noticed that at times when a wire edge refuses to let go, it is because I didn't go far enough on the belts or stones.

What grit are you finishing with? I'm going from Chromium oxide (.50 Micron) to leather loaded with .25 diamond spray down to stropping on slick leather or on sugarcane paper backed with corian.

Part of the reason that I asked this was because there are a ton of posts were guys test and edge an realize that it cuts well, diminishes quickly but comes back razor sharp after a quick stropping. That sounds as though they had a wire edge posing as a clean edge prior to testing. Wire edges will shave hair, cut paper and cardboard, fall over after a few cuts and come right back after stropping. Of course a bunch of the time after cutting cardboard, it will fall off some.
 
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Mike928 said:
Shawn, have you tried using a block or rock-hard-felt? You cut lightly into it and it pulls the burr right off. Also a plain leather belt will pull a burr right off.
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I haven't tried cutting into a block or felt. Do you have a source for the felt? I've been meaning to pick up a 2x72 leather belt and I've thought about buying some leather and gluing it to wood for stropping.

What grit are you finishing with? I'm going from Chromium oxide (.50 Micron) to leather loaded with .25 diamond spray down to stropping on slick leather or on sugarcane paper backed with corian.
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When grinding the final edge on a new knife, I'll take it up to 30 microns, which I think is around 800 grit. Then I make light passes with a felt belt on the grinder with white compound. Using this method I've achieved great results with O1, CPM154, AEB-L, & 440C. When using 3V, I usually have to strop on some carboard and cut through some card stock before I get the wire to let go. I then go back to the felt belt w/ white compound. My 3V knives are usually my sharpest because I'm comfortable taking the edge so thin!
 
I deburr with a power stropping with leather on my belt sander when power sharpening. When hand sharpening I do a couple of LIGHT passes on the medium stone (1000 water stone or medium Sharpmaker) at double my normal sharpening angle.
 
Hatcher, the source that I had for blocks has been out of them for a while now. If I find a few more, I'll post it up.

Do you guys remove the burr after each stone or do you allow it accumulate until your last?
 
When power sharpening, I remove the burr at the end. When hand sharpening, I remove it on the coarse and medium stones, then take care not to reform it on fine and extra fine.
 
Nice chat about wire edges fellas.

I only remove the burr when I'm done shaprening.

I strop on leather loaded with white rogue.

I've also experienced those stubborn burrs. When I run into those I'll make a couple stropping strokes on my final stone to get the burr off then follow that with a couple VERY light sharpening passes on that stone and finally strop on my leather. Stropping on the leather in this scenario probably doesn't do much but it makes me feel better anyhow :)

-Josh
 
I sharpen on my 2x 72 at 25% speed or less and after I get down to a 600 g or a 9 micron I deburr on the while medium Muslin wheel loaded with green chrome.

you can use a old leather belt or I had good luck buying old woman's hippie full split hide purses at yard sales and cutting them into strips and gluing them flat on wood boards and loading with fabuluster white rouge.

Laurence

www.rhinoknives.com
 
We must all be talking about different types of burrs. I've never been able to strop off a burr on leather unless it was power stropping on the 1x30. All I do is scratch up my leather. I've also never been able to satisfactorily remove a burr drawing through wood. It's always still there.
 
I too have never been able to pull a burr off using stropping when that burr was made at lower than 8k on a japanese stone. But even then, the burr came off in small wire-like sections. As for wood, I've had good luck using the end grain of a Basswood block.

As to my earlier remark about deburring in between grits... I have found it useful to deburr when going from my coarse stones, to medium and after fine (I typically use one to three stones in each range) because the formation of a burr helps me determine whether or not I am keeping my angle.
 
me2 said:
We must all be talking about different types of burrs. I've never been able to strop off a burr on leather unless it was power stropping on the 1x30. All I do is scratch up my leather. I've also never been able to satisfactorily remove a burr drawing through wood. It's always still there.
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If you are still having burrs? Try the Muslim medium buff loaded with green chrome rouge.
It's works for me.

Laurence

www.rhinoknives.com
 
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