Purposeful burrs

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Gregory27
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Purposeful burrs

Post by Gregory27 »

So, in a former life, I was an oboist. Part of that involved making reeds, which involves very fine work scraping a piece of cane with a reed knife. I'll post a couple of pictures of mine when I'm able, though Google can explain them just fine. The method that you use is to scrape along the surface of the cane, pushing away from you, rotating your wrist and using the thumb on your off hand as a pivot point. I never really understood the process of sharpening back then, all I knew was rubbing the knife on a small diamond stone of an unknown grit until the knife was sharp (?) and spending a little more time on the side opposite of the scraping side. Basically, it seems like you want a burr that is angled somewhat to provide an edge that will accommodate this push-scraping method.

I know there's reed knife sharpening videos out there, but I don't feel confident that any of them REALLY know what they're doing. A lot of them seem like they're using way too much pressure and wasting a lot of material (and the poor profile of MY knife supports this.) I'd like to teach myself how to ideally sharpen this style of knife, because my former college professor wants me to teach a class on sharpening.

My first inclination is to sharpen like a normal double bevel knife, and then try steeling one side to push the edge over a bit. I can't imaging that my reed knife is hard enough that a steel won't accomplish anything.

Any other thoughts?
JayBee
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Re: Purposeful burrs

Post by JayBee »

I really enjoyed this series of videos by Peter Nowlan: https://www.knifeplanet.net/knife-sharp ... ne-course/

He discusses pressure (which is something that shockingly few videos seem to cover), and his videos have dramatically improved my skills.
Gregory27
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Re: Purposeful burrs

Post by Gregory27 »

Oh, he's been one of my video mentors since I started sharpening. I definitely want to work his pressure system into my reed knife sharpening.
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ken123
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Re: Purposeful burrs

Post by ken123 »

Check out Tom Blodgett of Jende Industries. Tell him i sent you.

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Lepus
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Re: Purposeful burrs

Post by Lepus »

The method you outlined is very similar to sharpening a card scraper. I think it would work well. When oboes came up last we talked about the degree of refinement and I still think that will be important.
Gregory27
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Re: Purposeful burrs

Post by Gregory27 »

Lepus wrote: Wed May 16, 2018 11:06 am The method you outlined is very similar to sharpening a card scraper. I think it would work well. When oboes came up last we talked about the degree of refinement and I still think that will be important.
Right now my to synthetic is a 4000 Nubatama. It'd be a shame if I had to get a new stone for this...

I'm kind of excited to relearn how to sharpen a reed knife, now that I'm approaching it with a year+ of knife sharpening under my belt. I really want to come up with something unique, given that my old college prof wants me to actually TEACH people something. Maybe that's insane to want, since people have been doing this for centuries, but I figure if I approach this with a unique eye, I should be able to come up with something that can help people who don't necessarily know what they're doing.
Gregory27
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Re: Purposeful burrs

Post by Gregory27 »

ken123 wrote: Wed May 16, 2018 4:56 am Check out Tom Blodgett of Jende Industries. Tell him i sent you.

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Ken
Thanks for sending me in that direction Ken, I had no idea they made reed knives. I saw on their website that they take their knives up to a 8000 Shapton. Darn. I definitely need a new stone...

That being said, I also learned that Tom is a clarinetist, so I'm not sure that I can trust him. They keep taking all the good grenadilla wood.
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ken123
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Re: Purposeful burrs

Post by ken123 »

Good instincts. When you are ready to buy stones and compounds come back to me :)

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Gregory27
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Re: Purposeful burrs

Post by Gregory27 »

ken123 wrote: Wed May 16, 2018 2:59 pm Good instincts. When you are ready to buy stones and compounds come back to me :)

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I think I'll at least do my wife the courtesy of waiting until I get the Aoto I have on order from you (and the Amakusa that you're sending back with it) before I order something else. Though if I lump it all together, that WOULD save on shipping...
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