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I've ground a telescope mirror and the process there is to switch to the next finer grit when the scratches visible under magnification are all roughly the same size. I.e., the visible texture is uniform. It's obvious after some practice, and you make a strenuous effort to clean the working area completely of the previous grit before starting on the next.
But when I was grinding my knife I couldn't tell when I was done.
I started with 500 grit and did a couple hundred strokes. Am I done? No idea. Went to 1000 for another hundred strokes but the resulting knife wasn't all that sharp using the paper test.
By the way, I still can't seem to make a burr even with 500 grit. Does that mean my edge angle is too blunt? Looking at it, it seems to be roughly 30 degrees. (It's an inexpensive Williams Sonoma chef's knife that I've used a Chef's Choice knife grinder on for 20 years. I wanted to see if I could fix the edge on that.)
Edit: Thanks for all the video links. I have homework to do this weekend. I got the sharpie to work. Now's the time to burr.
my knives are screaming sharp after 10ish strokes (per side) on a 2000 grit shapton glass. (for low carbide steels)
it's only a touch up anyway since i never get them get very dull. but 100 strokes each side is enough to completely redo the bevel if you're using a low enough grit.
you should try the sharpie trick to see if you're even sharpening the edge at all, your angle could be off a bit and you could just be thinning.
i agree you should go over a sharpening video.
unless you're polishing, you don't really need even scratch size, you just need to remove the burr and reform the edge.
depends on the knife but 12-15 degrees is what i normally see. it really sounds like you may not be sharpening the edge at all and are just thinning the bevel.
You’re welcome. We’re here to help others after all.
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run sharpie along the edge, then sharpen, then you will see if you failed to remove material along the edge or where you are misaligning your edge when you sharpen. it's a very good trick for people new to sharpening who are struggling as it can really show exactly where you're having trouble.