southsamurai

I just checked the apps I use, and sync shows display names properly.

Well, the key to belt sanders causing problems is heat. You've got abrasives scratching metal at high speed.

That's a lot of friction on a very small area. That friction on a bigger piece of metal is no big deal. But a knife edge gets very thin indeed. It simply can't take the heat being generated at the edge and move it into the rest of the knife fast enough to prevent the edge, perhaps a few millimeters worth, from getting too hot.

This results in the heat treatment of the steel being undone. The little crystals of iron, carbon, and whatever alloying metals are present come apart from their neat little stacks and get disordered. The metal that's left is more randomly arranged, so you can end up with very brittle (easy to break) or very soft (easy to deform) metal instead of what you started with.

Now, it's only maybe half the width of a pencil lead at most, but that's happening on the part of the knife that you rely on to cut things. It won't stop cutting, but what happens is that it gets dull much faster than it otherwise would. This means that your knife not only wont last, but it needs sharpening sooner, which reduces the life of the knife.

By the time you would feel any heat, it's too late. There are ways to mitigate that to some degree, but most people aren't set up to water cool their sanders/grinders.

As far as the burr goes, there's absolutely one still there. That's the only thing that will cause one side of a knife to be duller than the other. The little V of a knife that is the edge, when the burr is absent, will always cut in either direction approximately equal. Equal enough that you'd have to do some very sensitive testing to tell the difference, and even that won't be there on a theoretically perfectly formed edge.

You simply can't remove a burr on a running belt. No matter how fine the grit, the speed involved curls the side away from the belt. Now, you could stop the belt, and use very low pressure strokes to remove the burr on that surface. Same as with a stone in that regard.

I can't recall which model you said in the post, but most of the ones I've either used or seen used wouldn't be my top pick up deburr on, but it should be doable as long as you go slow and the device is stable.

Unlike stropping on a piece of leather though, you do the movement with the edge leading, just like you would if sharpening on a stone. But you do it at a wider angle, and with the gentlest amount of pressure possible as you go. You're wanting to mostly wiggle the burr without also doing much material removal as you go. There's always some material removed, but with a light enough touch, it won't be enough to cause an even smaller burr.

Tbh, I stopped using leather strops at all years ago based on some of the microscope images and videos that got shared at r/sharpening on reddit. Doing it on the stone is just faster and easier once you get a feel for the degree of pressure needed. So, if you can position things right to give you a stable surface to use, no need to mess with a dedicated strop, assuming you'll keep using the belt grinder. I've had to improvise sharpening on sandpaper before, which is essentially the same thing, and you can definitely deburr on that kind of surface.

And, I agree, a loupe, or other magnifier that can get you to enough magnification to see the scratch pattern on the edge is a major plus. I had a usb microscope I was using for a while, and it's lowest setting was 50×, and that was plenty for checking a burr. Overkill tbh. So a loupe should be about perfect.

Fwiw, all of this stuff I'm talking about here, I picked up from knifesteelnerds, Scienceofsharp, and the guys at r/sharpening for the most part. The subreddit is essentially useless now, but there's info on it for how to access the discord server the really knowledgeable guys migrated to.

Yup, it can happen anywhere. The only question is if it will, and if so, when.

It won't be like people think it would be, but it's entirely possible.

Honestly? Don't use belt sharpeners, they fuck the metal up at the very edge. I'll explain more if you want, but people turn into assholes about the subject, so I don't go deeper without an invitation to do so.

That being said, what you're dealing with is a burr.

When you sharpen a knife on anything the very edge gets bent over a little. It kinda rolls, and that's what is behind a knife being sharp on one side and not another.

Doesn't matter what the angle is, what the surface is, it's about the physics involved in using abrasives and pressure on steel (or other metals). You can't avoid building a burr, so you don't try to. Instead, you work with it.

Since you're using a grinder, you can't use the usual method of "stropping" where you use the stone itself to gradually thin out and remove the burr (which, at a small enough scale, there's still some burr left).

So you'll have to actually strop, unless you have a stone handy. Any piece of leather will do because you don't need abrasive for this. I say that because they're are traces of silicates in leather, and some hides have more than others, so people tend to think you have țo strop om a leather that's more gritty. All you have to do is alternate running the blade from spine to edge across the leather on each side. This "wiggles" the burr until it snaps off, leaving a more even edge.

Most of the time, people get hung up on the angle being precise and even across the length of the blade and think that's the problem with their results. It very rarely is because the exact angle doesn't matter at all past a fairly obtuse angle (anything where the angle of the edge with both sides taken into account is less than about 45 degrees). It's a little less rare that it's the angle being the same along the edge because as long as the actual edge, the very tippy tip sharp part is even, the rest only matters in terms of how easy it will get through material that's thicker.

Consistent edges help cutting, but they aren't essential to sharpness or keenness.

Sharpness is the degree of angle behind the actual cutting edge, and keenness is how thin that cutting edge is. When you look at edges under a microscope, the difference is more discernable than with the naked eye (and the site knifesteelnerds can show you such images, and links to others). What it amounts to is that it doesn't matter what angle you sharpen at, or what you use to get that angle, what matters is that microscopic edge and how thin it is and how even it is.

So, with a belt grinder, use faster passes across the belt, use mild to soft pressure, and deburr once your angle is set.

You can test for a burr visually, but it's easier to run a fingernail from the spine of the blade down to the edge, on each side. The side with the burr is going to catch the fingernail. But you can't just strop that side. You gotta do both because that burr can switch sides. You actually want it to, because that gets it to come off, leaving the edge as clean as it gets.

Again, don't worry about the edges being even per se. That's only really important in details of use, not in getting a good cutting edge. A good cutting edge is about that microscopic edge being relatively even and as thin as possible.

That's fucking brilliant

Really bad overall. You can get lucky and end up with something that won't fall apart in a year, but it's one of those things that if you don't know the company, you're rolling the dice.

Used to be you could trust reviews to weed out the duds, but that day is long gone.

Of the two you mentioned, I don't have personal experience. So second hand is alli can give, feel free to ignore this part if that's not useful for you. Lothar is mid; not going to be a prized possession, but it'll get the job done as a brand. Bergkvist is sub mid, with a tendency to fail at the worst possible moments. Never buy a linerlock from either company, I know people that have gotten injured when the locks failed in use. Don't expect great steel from either company, though lothar is less prone to bad heat treats.

Tbh, I don't think there's a budget brand that's universally reliable. They all have flaws, and they cheap out in the worst ways when they are otherwise good. Take Rough Ryder as an example. Really solid slipjoints, bad linerlocks. Their "reserve" line of slipjoints is the best bang for the buck that's out there in that category, but their fixed blades aren't even mid tier.

Schrade is crap except for their stuff that's now being made in the US.

But the stuff with random chinese names in amazon is all crap (and that's not just knives for the most part).

You can't trust amazon reviews any more. Not only are there plenty of fakes, but the companies will pay people to remove bad reviews.

If you're balling on a budget, it comes down to specific models under 50 bucks.

I mean, you can cut the core out, stuff that bad boy with butter, bacon, salt and pepper. Pop it in at 350 for about an hour, resting on a ring of foil or something like that to keep it from rolling.

You end up with the center being soft and delicious with the outer layer being deeply caramelized.

Slice that sucker up and die happy.

Or! Core, chop and throw into a roasting pan, liberally butter it, salt, pepper, and bacon. Smash and mince a few cloves of garlic. Dice an onion. Lay the onion on top, bake at 350 for about a half hour, checking through the window to see when it starts getting golden on the edges. Pull it out, add on the garlic and toss it all. Back in for ten to fifteen, or the desired level of caramelization is reached.

Or! Core and chop while boiling egg noodles. In a large skillet, fry bacon. Set cooked bacon aside. Turn heat down to medium. Generously add butter, let it just barely melt, then add diced onion. Sweat gently until tender. Add cabbage, salt to taste, and cook until cabbage is tender and just beginning to brown up at the edges.

In a large roasting pan, mix the noodles with the cabbage and onion. Pepper generously. 350 for fifteen to twenty, checking for desired caramelization. Toss reserved bacon in before serving

Now, you could just roast the cabbage without all the butter and bacon. And it ain't bad that way. But, c'mon, even sex is better with bacon and butter, so why would you?

In any case, you could fry up a nice kielbasa to go with, or chop one up to roast with the cabbage. But that's more as a side to the cabbage, kind of a palate cleanser ;)

Afaik, there's no apps that do that. You're likely just going to have to block individual accounts

Being real though, I often have more than 20 comments a day. It really isn't that difficult to rack up if you're bored and have the time. I'm not much of a poster, but 10 a day isn't too far outside of feasibility for a person that's into memery. So you'd end up filtering out people that would likely be good to have access to over time, even if it's rare. If you do figure out a way to do it, might want to bump your threshold up a little.

Man, it used to be!

It would vary year to year exactly what was going on, but there was something.

In my twenties, I would mostly work my side job, as a bouncer. Since the place I mostly worked at was a drag club, it was always a party. Everyone would go all out. The queens would obviously go the extra mile ( and I do mean extra lol), but everyone could dress up, customers and staff, except for one person on the door and one inside. The rest would have security jackets to throw on in a pinch.

One year I dressed up as Jason from the Friday the 13th series, and did leatherface another year. Was going to do Krueger, but that year the boss wanted me on the door in mufti (which isn't a costume). Decided I didn't want to do Freddy the next time it came up.

But, sometimes it would be a party. I used to hang with a pretty wide range of people, so there were all kinds of groups the night of, or close to Halloween. My favorite ones were with pagans and wiccans. Those folk tend to go all out on Samhain lol. Feasting and fires and rituals and music and dancing. Just a damn good time.

A few years in there, I got into doing street performance. I did fire stuff. You know, breathing fire, spinning burning stuff, setting myself on fire and doing flashy stuff. Those parties were lit in multiple ways lol. There was usually some performance going on, but that crowd tended to get rather crazy. I'm talking people dancing on roofs, mini orgies, fireworks; you know, the usual :)

As I got into my thirties, I didn't exactly settle down entirely, but I was in a long term relationship, and we tended to hang out with more sedate crowds. Our friends were getting into their thirties or forties, had kids, etc, so the parties weren't as raucous. It was more about chilling, having some good music and food while handing out candy to kids that were out and about.

But the trick or treat thing died. Nobody really does it any more (which kinda pisses me off that something so fun is just gone). Now, me and my wife tend to just hole up and watch horror movies.

This year, we aren't even bothering to leave the light on. It's going to be just a movie night for sure.

I keep threatening to break out my old gear and do a back yard fire show, but my wife is scared I'll burn my beard off again lol.

You know, I tend to forget how much shit I packed into my twenties and thirties until something like this comes up. I was disabled by the time I was in my mid thirties, if not as bad as it got a little later. But fuck me, did I make some memories before that :)

I didn't discover the show until earlier this year, but it's one of the few YouTube things I actually eagerly watch when there's a new one :)

The Dinklage interview was awesome. He's a top ten actor for me, one of those that if he's in it, I want to watch it. Has been since the Station Agent. Sean and company killing it again made me really happy.

Judas priest! Hot ones is now meta for other outlets. Kinda fucking crazy lol

Daddy cat has a nice submissive ;)