Sharpening question.

[Skyman]

At 2000 grit paper and above, aren't you doing more polishing than sharpening? I did a knife today and found at 2000 grit, the edge got smoother and shiny.When i cut paper it slid through more smooth but not any better.

Thoughts?

[choombak]

Typical sharpening grits are ~300-400 for taking out a lot of metal, and ~800-900 for sharpening. At 2000 you are effectively stropping it to hair splitting sharp (yes, I have seen knives that can split hair into two, there are youtube vids as well). Stropping compounds do the same thing. You are polishing the edge, and the cut will be more smoother through paper as a result.

[Mack The Knife]

When i cut paper it slid through more smooth but not any better.

Because you did not sharpen the very edge properly.

I have said this often enough that the actual edge must be formed at th start - whilst using the coarsest hone. Othrwise you are merely polishing a blunt or not so sharp edge.

[Lanceman]

I found the site below interesting for how to achieve that edge

http://sharpeningmadeeasy.com/index.htm