Here is a nice view of two facets I created using the 1600# ceramic stones at 20° and at 25° so there is a 5° difference between the two facets:

I admit that I'm shocked by the image below. I changed the angle to 22° and completed 40 strokes with the 14um strops. There is almost no evidence of the junction between the facets - it's been almost entirely erased by the strops:



The only way I can even find where on the bevel to image is by the direction of the scratches. I'm now extremely thankful I used alternate directions with the 1600# stones when making the facets.

It's amazing to see how "plastic" metal can be. This is an incredible learning tool

WayneNicklin wrote:


Agreed! It really moves around quite easily. I think we're all going to learn a lot from each other on this forum

wickededge wrote:


I wanted to highlight this... I find this almost as interesting as the pictures themselves... had no idea it was this involved. That's dedication!

wickededge wrote:


The first time I saw this sort of thing was a still shot from a high speed video on a gun blog, which showed some metal bar stock being cut by a lathe and how it "bunched up" in front of the cutter as it turned. Here's the link to the article about it: Sliding Metals Show Fluid-Like Behavior

Metallurgy is some fascinating stuff! And keep up the good work Clay, from what we've seen so far it looks like that microscope is worth the work and the wait!

Oh yeah, this is a great video! I saw it a while back and it sort of transformed the way I look at metal. Thanks for the feedback. It's really fun to do these studies and share them with you guys.

Here is a shot of the same blade after I've restored it to basically super polished:



There are a few little marks that I haven't bothered to remove; enough of the surface is smooth that we can easily isolate whichever grit we're trying to study. The process to restore the edge was as follows:

Set the angle to 20 degrees> Sharpen with the 1200# ceramic stones until I almost reached the edge (verified by 60x handheld, lighted loupe), flattening out the bevel again> Sharpen with the 1600# ceramic stones until I do reach the edge> Strop with cow and diamond at 14um> 10um> 5um> 3.5um> 1.0um> 0.5um> I then used kangaroo leather and diamond at 1.0um> 0.5um> 0.25um and then 0.125um CBN on nano-cloth and then back to 0.25um diamond on kangaroo.

Do I dare ask how long did it take you to bring this all off restoring this incredible bevel?

WayneNicklin wrote:


I'm guessing about 1/2 hour give or take. I was doing about 50 strokes per side with each grit but my cycle rate is very fast, usually 100+ per minute. Cleaning between grits and switching grits takes the longest.