Removing a burr with waterstones

[John Crawford]

Hi Everyone:

I'd be interested in hearing your thoughts:

I have been sharpening with waterstones (but I'm not partisan!). Sometimes I need to raise a burr that is larger than normal--repairing a chip in a blade, or re-shaping a cambered iron.

With an ordinary tiny burr, I usually just wipe it off on my polishing stone as my last step.

But if I have large burr, it really gouges up the polishing stone, so I go looking elsewhere.

In this situation, what to you use to take care of the burr? I'm interested more in quickness and workflow here.

Thanks, and have a good rest of your weekend!

[Jim Ritter]

A strop works for me.
Jim

[Jim Koepke]

This is a good use for an intermediary stone.

Another technique might be to remove the burr before it gets big enough to be a problem. This would work well with a piece of leather or a stone.

jtk

[Derek Cohen]

Take it off a little at a time ... before it gets too big.

Regards from Perth

Derek

[lowell holmes]

I have moved from water stones to 400 wet sandpaper on a granite plate. It is incredible to see the edges on plane irons, chisels, jointer irons, or planer irons.

If the mood strikes me, I may use diamond hones.

Burrs come off fairly easy.

I have water stones, but I don't like the mess.

Touch up sharpening is done on diamond hones.

[Malcolm Schweizer]

I have moved from water stones to 400 wet sandpaper on a granite plate. It is incredible to see the edges on plane irons, chisels, jointer irons, or planer irons.

If the mood strikes me, I may use diamond hones.

Burrs come off fairly easy.

I have water stones, but I don't like the mess.

Touch up sharpening is done on diamond hones.

Are you saying you finish with 400 grit? That is extremely coarse. I suggest you go at least to 2000 for a much finer edge, followed by stropping. If you are getting a better finish with 400 sandpaper then either you were using a very coarse waterstone or sum'n was wrong there. Not knocking you here, just saying.

[lowell holmes]

Are you saying you finish with 400 grit? That is extremely coarse. I suggest you go at least to 2000 for a much finer edge, followed by stropping. If you are getting a better finish with 400 sandpaper then either you were using a very coarse waterstone or sum'n was wrong there. Not knocking you here, just saying.

I have used 1000 but I don't polish the edge.

Actually I keep a fine diamond hone and a water spray out. When something needs an edge touched up, I free hand sharpen on the diamond stroking right to left and then strop it 30 times on mdf charged with green honing compound. I go back to woodworking.

The granite plate comes out when a planer or jointer knife needs sharpening. As far as the sandpaper grit is concerned, the grit changes with what is available. I have used 1500 on occasions.

I don't have any edge issues. I sometimes do a back bevel if the mood strikes.

[bridger berdel]

Just to be contrary...
After some heavy grinding, nick removal or the like- remove the heavy burr at that point by slicing into a scrap of soft wood. The edge straight off of the grinder is going to go away when you take it to the stones, so the damage from breaking off the burr is at that point meaningless. That grinder burr is huge and obscures the edge. Just get it out of there. Next go to the finest stone that will do the necessary work for the next step, probably in the mediumish range. It will leave a burr that you can deal with in more gentle ways- progressively reducing pressure, finer stones, etc.

[lowell holmes]

Just to be contrary...
After some heavy grinding, nick removal or the like- remove the heavy burr at that point by slicing into a scrap of soft wood. The edge straight off of the grinder is going to go away when you take it to the stones, so the damage from breaking off the burr is at that point meaningless. That grinder burr is huge and obscures the edge. Just get it out of there. Next go to the finest stone that will do the necessary work for the next step, probably in the mediumish range. It will leave a burr that you can deal with in more gentle ways- progressively reducing pressure, finer stones, etc.

:)
And to also be contrary, I don't remember nicking a cutting edge. I have reground some plane irons on a belt sander and finished them on the diamond hones.
If you put an iron in Lee Valley roller jig, you can carefully put the iron onto the belt, being careful not to overheat the iron. I have a bench grinder, but the belt is quicker. Use a 120 grit belt. Also, safety glasses and gloves are required.

[Dave Parkis]

I simply turn my polishing stone on its side and remove the burr with the side of the stone.

[Robert Hazelwood]

Something else to try is to take a pass or two on the bevel side at a very high angle- say 70 degrees - on the fine stone. The idea is to cut off the burr. Then back-sharpen to get rid of the tiny bevel you just created. This is something I do with knives sometimes.

[Archie England]

I simply turn my polishing stone on its side and remove the burr with the side of the stone.

Thanks! This is a keeper idea!!!!!!

[Chris Hachet]

:)
And to also be contrary, I don't remember nicking a cutting edge. I have reground some plane irons on a belt sander and finished them on the diamond hones.
If you put an iron in Lee Valley roller jig, you can carefully put the iron onto the belt, being careful not to overheat the iron. I have a bench grinder, but the belt is quicker. Use a 120 grit belt. Also, safety glasses and gloves are required.

Now see, I really don't like the thought of what happens when my glove gets caught in that belt sander. I keep a coase water stoena round for taking care of things such as chips and large burrs. I ahve a bench that has a melamine top that also doubles as an outfeed table for my table saw and an assembly table. I can clean up any mess from water stones with a rag in about 20 seconds...

[lowell holmes]

I understand your concern, it could be messy, but it never has. You have to keep your fingers in a safe place. I typically don't use gloves, but I have.

[Stanley Covington]

John:

I don't quite understand how you managed to create a burr big enough to damage the stone.... Or the kind of blade that could create such a big honking burr....

If you need to remove a lot of metal from the edge in order to eliminate a nick, for instance, then I suggest you stand the blade up more or less vertical on your FLAT, rough stone and pull it towards yourself until the nick is just gone. Keep the blade square to the stone so it doesn't get skewed. This removes a lot of metal quickly and creates a flat on the edge without a burr at all. Do not despair, you have just saved yourself a lot of work.

Next, sharpen the bevel on your rough stone until the flat is gone and you have just a tiny tiny barely discernible burr. Then work just the bevel on finer and finer stones. After a few strokes of the bevel on the finish stone, your burr should be gone already. Work the flat last on only the finest grit finish stone.

Stan

[Patrick Chase]

John:

I don't quite understand how you managed to create a burr big enough to damage the stone.... Or the kind of blade that could create such a big honking burr....

Depends on the polishing stone. Harder ones like the Shaptons and Choseras deal pretty well with "chewy" burrs, but softer stones like L-N's Ohishis are vulnerable (picking on that one because I witnessed somebody leave tracks all over a #10000 with a heavily burred tool at L-N's showroom).

If you're happy with a waterstone-based workflow then I think Jim Koepke's suggestion of an intermediate stone is worth pursuing (~2K should work nicely).