The burr is the key?

[kahunter]

Well, I think I may be finally figuring out how to get that "razor edge".  I've had my KME knife sharpener for a week or so now, and have been playing with it quite a bit.  Up until tonight I was getting a sharp edge, but couldn't get the shaving edge on either broadheads or knives.
 
I did some searches on sharpening and this evening I decided I may have been "oversharpening".  I decided to start paying more attention to getting a uniform color on the bevel(per Eclipse broadhead site).  Once I got that uniform color I tried to pay close attention to shaving off the burr on each side rather than just doing a certain number of strokes per side.
 
If you lay the stone on the blade and just slightly move it you can actually feel the burr coming off!  It seems like the burr gets smaller with progressively finer stones.  I'm sure that's old hat to most of you, but I thought it was cool  :cool:  
   
Anyhow, I got a very sharp edge that still isn't "hair-popping", but I'm hoping with some more practice I can get it.  
   
So back to the original question: is the burr the real key to sharpening?

[Hawkeye]

YEP!  I sure think so...

Daryl

[George D. Stout]

A good leather strop is really handy for deburring that edge.  An old belt will work fine.

[david_lewis93]

IF you are CAREFUL(!) you can use the palm of your hand to strop your blades too.Trick I learned from an old retired surgon when I first got out of nursing school many years back,,it works.
David    Out

[madness522]

Another trick I find very useful is to color the edge with a Sharpie to make sure my strokes are even.

[Daddy Bear]

Originally posted by david_lewis93:
IF you are CAREFUL(!) you can use the palm of your hand to strop your blades too.Trick I learned from an old retired surgon when I first got out of nursing school many years back,,it works.
David    Out

David,

Like most, I'm completely comfortable with the image of the barber stropping his straight razor along a leather strap affixed to his barber chair. But, I'm having a hard time dealing with your thought of having a surgeon palm stropping his scapel prior to laying me open for surgery:^)

Daddy Bear

[Tom Leemans]

We learned the palm of your hand trick on cabinet scrapers in wood shop in high school. It was only if you didn't have anything to strop with though.

Establish the burr, then remove it = sharp!