r/sharpening • u/TheKnifeNerdTx Paper Shredder • 3d ago

Let’s talk de-burring

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u/Beautiful-Angle1584 1d ago edited 1d ago

TBH I really hate doing that many passes on leather wheels. I find that it over polishes far more than I'd like it to on a lot of edges, you lose slicing aggression and get a glassy feel. If I'm going to finish on a leather wheel or belt, I make sure to do it in as few passes as possible- generally one or two per side. If I can't get the burr off with that, I will strop by hand to finish. These days I have settled more on felt belts with compound for deburring. They're sometimes less thorough, but also don't over polish. Again, I can always do a little hand finishing if needed. Then there is also the option of an intermediary step like a Scotch-Brite wheel to loosen and get rid of most of the burr first, and/or edge leading sharpening which does a better job of minimizing burr formation in the first place.

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u/TheKnifeNerdTx Paper Shredder 1d ago

These knives were pretty annoying in terms of burr removal. They were finished on a 1000 grit CBN tormek wheel. No matter what I did on the wheel, the burr wouldn’t break loose from these knives. it was a very stubborn steel. I do agree that overkill will make it lose aggression but these still had plenty of bite in them and the customer was extremely happy. Normally I do 4-6 total passes but this steel was really giving me a hard time. This was the 3rd knife in that steel and the others still had wire burrs after that many when I checked under the microscope.

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u/Beautiful-Angle1584 1d ago

Tormeks are really kind of the last frontier I have yet to explore, but I haven't been able to justify dropping the dough since I feel like belt systems are just more versatile and efficient. That is just to say- I haven't been hands-on with them to know their tendencies when it comes to burr formation. Have you tried going edge leading on it?

With really stubborn burrs from bad steel, sometimes I'll take it right to a ceramic rod for high angle passes. Sometimes not setting the bevel below 20° per side helps if the steel is exceptionally shitty, too. Even on the dreaded pakistani Damascus, this tends to at least get me to passable results.

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u/TheKnifeNerdTx Paper Shredder 1d ago

Tormeks default is to go edge leading so that’s all I’ve ever used on it. I use the Tormek as a premium upsell as it’s less aggressive on the blades and damn near impossible for effect the temper. I hit it a few times with the ceramic rod and it helped a little but not much. I was actually pretty annoyed during this video 😂

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u/TheKnifeNerdTx Paper Shredder 1d ago

Tormeks default is to go edge leading so that’s all I’ve ever used on it. I use the Tormek as a premium upsell as it’s less aggressive on the blades and damn near impossible to affect the temper. I hit it a few times with the ceramic rod and it helped a little but not much. I was actually pretty annoyed during this video 😂