Sharpening session

The advantage to jigs is that there is no cost for a machine to do a precise primary grind, on wide thin blades, it's easier to stay perfectly square, and stiction of the abrasive isn't consequential.

Also, anyone with moderate understanding of geometry and the importance of getting the scratch pattern at the edge uniformly done - and appropriately - can get good results right away.

But hollow grind and hone will not dub an edge on a "non-stiction-ey" stone, and it is blindingly fast.

As mentioned above, hollow grind is only effective for the first honing.. With a final abrasive having grit size 1/30 of the first honing abrasive, there are 900 times as many grits per unit area. The force per grit is 1/900.

To get the same metal removal you would have to work 900 times as long on the 0.5 micron as I do. You would wear out the paper before you finished the first blade.

Somewhere in my web pages I discuss the speed of honing with and without micro bevels.

This is overanalysis run amok. Granted, when the hollow is nearly gone, poor technique, etc, you will not get good results, but the hollow grind is fine for far more than 1 honing. It may take a run through three grits if the edge has significant wear on both sides of the bevel, but you must go through more than one bevel if a microbevel is significantly worn, too.

One needs only look at the edge under a microscope to confirm that the scratch pattern gets all the way to the edge.

Hi Daw162
If you look at me web pages you will find I have done a lot of looking at edges under microscopes. The web site has 540 jpgs, many of which are photomicrographs. I have thousands of photomicrographs of edges.
My point was not that the first abrasive will not reach (leave scratches right up) the edge, it was that the finer abrasives will not remove enough metal (depth) to remove the scratches left by the first abrasive.
If you have a microscope, you will see that.
Amok?

These are fairly broad statements. a hollow ground edge that is off of a fresh grind is faster, and the edge is essentially the same from a stone that doesn't have stiction - generally speaking where the abrasive is similar. I have looked at the edges through a dissection microscope, and they are the same, and they are the same in use, so long as one avoids side sharpening.

Hi Daw

A hollow ground edge allows you to hone with the first abrasive ok, but you still need a jig to get the microbevels. The finer abrasives remove metal very slowly. If you hone the entire first honed bevel again with 5 micron, then with 0.5 micron you have to hone for much longer to get the same metal removal.

Because the slips tip the blade up onto the edge, each successive microbevel begins right at the edge. You cannot do this with a hollow grind.

thats scary sharp (:

Brent Beach is a sharpening Guru. With simple cheap tools (glass, home-made jig and 3M lapping film) he has assembled a fast, efficient sharpening system that works better than any other I know, and believe me, I know them all. Save money and get better edges with his techniques, Check his site for more info! Highly recommended!!!

Thanks, Mom. Just kidding Mr Skill. Thanks for the positive feedback.

Because grit is different between countries, micron is an international measurement, .5microns = 12000grit in the US or 30000grit in Japan.