One Thing You Must Do For a Sharp Knife

The one thing you must do when knife sharpening is form, and remove the burr. In this video I show you, up close, what the burr looks like. I also show what the burr looks like after minimizing on a sharpening stone, as well as after stropping. Fully removing the burr is ESSENTIAL for the sharpest knife possible. And if done properly, you can achieve very sharp edges even with coarse grits. The knife sharpening stone used in this video is a prototype stone made by us and is about 500 grit. We hope to have a range of these available soon. The strop and compound can be found on my website link below. Thanks so much!

Get the strops and diamond compound used in this video on my website⬇️

Time stamps
00:00 intro and explaining why forming a burr is important
00:39 sharpening the knife and explaining the apex
1:11 showing the burr close up right off a 500 grit diamond sharpening stone
3:20 Why do you need to form a burr when sharpening your knife?
4:09 Minimizing the burr on a sharpening stone.
5:54 Showing the minimized burr close up.
6:55 Stropping to further refine the edge.
8:06 Showing the stropped final edge up close.
8:26 Hair whittling up close
9:00 Outro again showing the burr up close.



My website⬇️

About⬇️
Hi, Im Alex, im a knife maker and YouTuber, based out of southern Pennsylvania and my youtube channel is Outdoors55. This channel started as an outdoor backpacking channel, but quickly grew into a knife/ knife making channel. Everything I do on my channel is family friendly. I primarily focus on knife / knife making videos but occasionally throw in something different. Thank you for watching!😀

#knifemaking #knife #knifemaker #outdoors55

Knife Sharpening stuff I recommend ⬇️
GREAT BEGINNER SHARPENING STONES For Mirror polish⬇️

Cheaper stones I use all the time⬇️

Folding knives I recommend
Best value for the money⬇️

Favorite knife as of now⬇️

Best cheap fixed blade⬇️

Camera gear⬇️

These are amazon affiliate links.
FULL DISCLOSURE

For entertainment only. I am not, and will not be held responsible for anyone re-enacting/ duplicating anything seen in these videos. Do so at your own risk. Do not duplicate anything seen in this video. Unless you are an adult responsible for your own decisions. Thanks

All my videos are copyrighted and not for sale or reupload. Unless you want to purchase them for $100,000 per video. In which case we can work something out.

Everything i say and do on this channel is protected free speech. I am simply exercising my 1st amendment right under the United States constitution. The supreme law of the land. I am exercising my right to protest. As well as my 4th and 5th amendment rights.

[OUTDOORS]

If you want to see more day to day stuff I do have instagram @alexgarland_outdoors55 I do the occasional live stream there as well that's always fun!
Thanks for all the support over the years! Its definitely appreciated!!!!
Because I get asked here's links for the camera stuff used⬇️
These are affiliated links and I earn a commission on qualifying purchases.

[Matt-wcbl]

0 clickbait, 0 filling, 100 quality... Thank you.

[mattwilliams]

Sharpens a knife to a level it will cut someones soul from 10 paces away but doesn't sharpen the pencil...

[chesshooligan]

No waffle, no annoying intros, straight to the point, and top-quality camera work. 10/10. Every YouTube video should be like this.

[lostpyper]

This is the first real time visual depiction of the burr I have ever seen. Perfectly explained. Well done, and thank you.

[RandomEngineerMan]

I don't know why this was recommended to me. I don't know why I decided to watch this.
But what I DO know, is that this was a quality video about an intresting thing I never knew about.
That comparison between the tip of the pencil and the edge of the knife was also pretty nice.
10/10, wholesome video by a clearly passionate man.

[josiahcarter]

This was sick. From here on out this will be the video I show to anyone to explain knife sharpening.

[marcst-antoine]

I give sharpening classes for a living and understanding the burr and how it can be used to get to the apex has always been the center point of my teachings. You've captured it in a way I've never seen before, it was really interesting seeing it from up close. Thank you for your work!

[genecatcher]

No matter how sharp a knife is, on a microscopic level it will always look like a saw.

[trini-rtxn]

This is literally one of the best videos I've seen on any platform on sharpening knives. What makes it so outstanding is the ability to articulate what's happening at each step of the sharpening process, and to zoom in to demonstrate finer details. Prior to this video, I only understood the concept of a burr, but I couldn't visualize it. I also learned for the first time ever that, with the very same sharpening stone, varying amounts of pressure can be applied to yield different results; more pressure yields more wear on the blade, and it's good when starting off the sharpening process, but less pressure on the same stone is needed right before stropping, or the stone will mar the metal of the blade too much (and you'll have to restart the process all over again, possibly wasting time and wearing doe and the metal of the blade).
Exceedingly good video! Keep up the brilliant work!

[Resolute]

You can see the knowledge, skill experience and passion this man has for this art.
Great video,
Great camera work,
Great explanation.
Thank you sir.

Its mindblowing when you think about the "resolution" difference between your eyes and fingers. I can make out the burr in good lighting due to reflections, but fingers feel it 99% of the time with no double guessing.

[MrSQAUD]

This is one of the most instructive video about sharpening that ive ever seen on this platform! thanks so much man!

[surq]

I've been sharpening since I was a kid but I have the utmost respect for you and your videos. Not only are you a master of your craft, you're teaching others. I love your videos and I'm not ashamed to admit that despite having years of experience, I've learned some new things from watching! I truly hope your channel continues to grow; you truly deserve it!

[gregmccarter]

This video is way better than most..zero drawing apex..zero wasted boring talk..straight to the point or apex😂

[nevyns]

i just started stone sharpening and was having trouble getting the blade sharp but didn't know about the burr until a different video mentioned it. After learning about making a burr and looking for glint it helped immensely. This is a really great visual for just how tiny the burr you feel actually is and how the stone sharpening and stropping effect the edge geometry.

[Jaster_Mereel]

This was one of the most educational videos on the technical aspects of sharpening that I've ever seen.

[geekmp]

I see a magnified view of a blade edge... I hit like. I don't ask much in life. This makes me happy somehow.... AND I learn something! Nicely done.

[Midnght_Rider]

Finally! You explained and showed me what sharpening actually looks like and is. I’ve been moderately successful but really had no understanding beyond a thumbnail sketch perspective- now I’ll be able to shave my back with my machete!

[mikemcaulay]

This is so great! I’ve recently joined the knife world and had been working on understanding sharpening. I pulled out a cheap pocket microscope I had and looked at the blade at each stage using the Work Spark Guided field sharpener. And it made it so much more intuitive. I’d never sharpened a knife to that sharpness before. It made me wonder why I didn’t see more videos about using something like a microscope to get a sense of what’s actually going on. I think many experienced people wouldn’t need it so probably wouldn’t think to use it.
I’m naturally inquisitive so just wanted to see. I didn’t really expect it to make the whole thing so much easier and obvious.
So thank you! I was considering trying to do a video showing the microscopic view, the way you have here. I don’t know if I will now given how well this is done.
I just wanted to share though and say for new people this sort of thing can help make all the difference between understanding and Black magic.

Great work!