Thread: Sharp in one place and not another

I am working on a W&B wedge. What I notice is that I have it shave ready from the middle to the tip. But from the middle to the heel it is not there. I am using Lynn's method of angling the blade at 45 degrees on the stone. I have norton and conticle stones that I am working with. I have tried putting a finger from my free hand on the bottom half of the wedge and applied some gentle pressure. But was wondering if there were any other techniques that you fella's have found that works.
jmsbcknr

I had a problem honing my W&B wedge I solved by the following method. I sent it to Lynn for honing. . That was a year ago and it is still super sharp.

Can't argue with success!
Ed

There are a few possibilities here. Maybe it was really messed up from the start so if the entire blade received equal treatment the messed up part stayed messed up. If it was equally sharp or unsharp when you started you might have been inconsistant in your honing and thats why one part is sharp and the other isn't.

At this point your going to have to work on the part of the blade that isn't sharp. Depending on how bad it is you'll have to use the appropriate honing sequence or pyramid pattern.

Or of course you could send it out to Lynn but do you really want to admit you've been beaten by that blade?

Originally Posted by thebigspendur

There are a few possibilities here. Maybe it was really messed up from the start so if the entire blade received equal treatment the messed up part stayed messed up. If it was equally sharp or unsharp when you started you might have been inconsistant in your honing and thats why one part is sharp and the other isn't.

At this point your going to have to work on the part of the blade that isn't sharp. Depending on how bad it is you'll have to use the appropriate honing sequence or pyramid pattern.

Or of course you could send it out to Lynn but do you really want to admit you've been beaten by that blade?

I know that Lynn can do it. I have had him sharpen other blades for me. They are always great when they return. But I am working on my own skill development. The blade came as dull as it gets. I had to start from the beginning with building the bevel. What I believe is that the blade is not exactly flat from top to bottom. Looks to me like the top and bottom don't always ride flat on the hone. Now that I have the top sharp I am looking for a way to get the bottom sharp without destroying everything I have done on the blade so far. jmsbcknr

If the blade has a warp in it I have my doubts that even lynn can sharpen it. At some point getting some blades right goes beyond exceptional skill and into the realm of magic. I'm sure if its correctable and anyone can do it its lynn. Keep us informed.

you can sharpen a warped blade, I got a new TI a month or so back that had a pretty good warp to it. if you made sure the heel was flat, the toe would lift off the hone a very noticble amount maybe 1/32", and vice versa. You have to just pay attention and use an x pattern in such a way that the contact point moves down the entire length of the blade.