Sharpening resources

[backtrail540]

I know absolutely dick about sharpening knives and while i have a friend who does it as a hobby(has a nice belt setup and does my stuff for free), i think I'd rather learn to do it myself.

I was going to just buy a wicked edge and learn on that but it seems like a more valuable skill to know how to both hand sharpen and/or learn the science behind process if i do decide to go with a sharpening system, whether wicked edge or worksharp e.t.c...

I want to start with some reading on the subject. What are some good books to start with? I'm looking for both techniques/how to's as well as technical info such as edge profiles, sharpening materials, intended uses etc...

Just looking for a starting point as far as reading material and I'll work outward from there, eventually getting some hardware to start with. What do you use for resources?

[JHC]

I can't help you with the study. Or the skill. I can only help you cheat like mutha$%&@#r.

https://www.amazon.com/Tri-Angle-Sha...s%2C425&sr=8-4

Takes NO skill.

[backtrail540]

I can't help you with the study. Or the skill. I can only help you cheat like mutha$%&@#r.

https://www.amazon.com/Tri-Angle-Sha...s%2C425&sr=8-4

Takes NO skill.

I will certainly end with a hardware solution, just trying to get some education to go along with it before I dive in Thanks for the recommendation, it seems like a great value once I get started.

[blues]

Visit this section of bladeforums.com where every conceivable topic on sharpening is hashed, rehashed and then hashed again. There are some great threads and forum members there who can get you on your way. I also recommend videos these days though I have a shelf full of books on the topic. You will find many links there to instructive videos on how to sharpen.

The simplest useful jig style tool for sharpening is the Spyderco Sharpmaker...and you can move up from there. (You'll need the diamond or CBN rods for something coarser, however.)

I tend to freehand but I still get a lot of use from the Sharpmaker and, more rarely, an Edge Pro Apex.


Full Disclosure: I'm a super moderator on that site, (uncompensated), and have been for 20+ years.

[backtrail540]

Visit this section of bladeforums.com where every conceivable topic on sharpening is hashed, rehashed and then hashed again. There are some great threads and forum members there who can get you on your way. I also recommend videos these days though I have a shelf full of books on the topic. You will find many links there to instructive videos on how to sharpen.

The simplest useful jig style tool for sharpening is the Spyderco Sharpmaker...and you can move up from there. (You'll need the diamond or CBN rods for something coarser, however.)

I tend to freehand but I still get a lot of use from the Sharpmaker and, more rarely, an Edge Pro Apex.


Full Disclosure: I'm a super moderator on that site, (uncompensated), and have been for 20+ years.

Thank you! Any particular threads you would recommend as a starting point or just the stickies? Seems like a diverse section with a lot to wade through, a seemingly daunting task.

[RJ]

My experience has been as follows:

I attempted to learn to sharpen free hand using a Harbor Freight dual (coarse/fine) stone. It was a disaster. Knives were uneven and not keen. I then added a set of plastic "guide" blocks to rubber band onto the stone. These did not work much better.

In January, I ordered a "Work Sharp" guided field sharpener, $28.99 on Amazon:

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0...?ie=UTF8&psc=1



I have had good luck with this. The multiple diamond surfaces are large enough for small pocket and some kitchen knives. (Benchmade Mini-Grip, Spyerco Dragon Fly 2, paring knives, 4" cutting knives belonging to Mrs. RJ). The unit includes built in guide angles to help keep the blade steady. After a bit of practice, I can produce an edge that will easily slice through copier paper with virtually zero force. There is a coarse and fine diamond surface, a ceramic rod, and a built-in stropping surface already compounded. I do not use any lubricant. It is a really neat tool.

The primary disadvantage with the Work Sharp portable unit is the stability when drawing the knife across. The design of the feet does not let the unit lay "flat" and there is a tendency for it to tip or rock from side to side slightly. It would be better in a vice, but kind of defeats the purpose of portability / compactness.

Full disclosure: I am a knife noob, but am trying to get better.

[LittleLebowski]

Excellent thread, I can get knives sharp enough for daily use, but really can't get a very sharp edge.

[Borderland]

I use one of these.

https://www.benchmade.com/guided-fie...e10d0021d.html

I'm not sure why it works so well but I've had good luck with it for smaller knives.

For larger kitchen knives I use a diamond steel. Some people prefer the non diamond steel. Butchers mostly use those.

https://www.knifemerchant.com/produc...productID=9062

[blues]

Thank you! Any particular threads you would recommend as a starting point or just the stickies? Seems like a diverse section with a lot to wade through, a seemingly daunting task.

You're very welcome.

This thread should be a good overview with some videos included:

https://www.bladeforums.com/threads/...redux.1628756/

Here are some links to videos / sites that may prove helpful (in no particular order):

https://www.youtube.com/user/stefanwolf88/videos

https://www.youtube.com/user/MrEdgy81/videos

[Maple Syrup Actual]

I'm fairly convinced that the reason people struggle to sharpen knives really well is that they are misapprehending the problem.

I have sharpened a zillion knives and my dad was obsessed with this when I was a kid and I inherited the fixation so I sharpen everybody's knives for them if they're coming by. I can't remember if I ever posted the pictures of me shaving my face with an axe but I did that, years ago, just to make the point that you could really take anything to literal razor sharpness. I then used that axe for limbing a tree with no adjustments to the edge or anything. Having it razor sharp didn't weaken it, because the sharpness is not the result of thinness. I keep all my axes razor sharp now, because the job they do is basically that of a big, self-hammering chisel.

Sharpening knives is one thing: making sure the sharpened surface is an even width, smooth, flat surface, with a corresponding one on the other side.

Technically I will allow that "smooth" is not strictly speaking necessary - some duties are better performed with a saw-like edge so kitchen knives I leave a little toothy.

But to think about a sharp edge, imagine a perfectly machined cube of aluminum, cut to square down to a billionth of a baby corn, or whatever unit the imperial system uses to measure small things. Every edge on that thing would be sharp as hell. If you rapped your knuckles on it, it would cut the hell out of them. I know this because I once broke a bolt loose inside a transmission and rammed my knuckles into the moderately-well machined hydraulic channels inside the thing and wow, blood everywhere. If they'd been machined on both surfaces down to a microscopic level I'd have no fingers. And that was a ninety-degree edge, much more obtuse than any knife.

Anyway this is just to illustrate the concept that all you are trying to do is leave both sides of the edge with a perfectly machined surface, down to a microscopic level. That's why the guides make it easy: it's hard to end up with anything but a smooth, even surface if the angles are controlled by a simple machine.

If you want to do it manually, the easiest way to get your head around this is to colour the surface you are going to sharpen with a marker so you can see what metal is coming off really easily. Then it's just a matter of paying attention to what area needs to be lowered to get that smooth, flat surface on side A, before you flip it over and get a smooth, flat surface on side B.

I think it's the scale that messes with people's heads, so I sometimes tell people to think of it like this: imagine you had a big berm of dirt that was piled up in a long windrow by dump trucks. That's your factory edge from a lot of companies, they dumped it in a perfect line but the surfaces haven't really been smoothed. A better company will have driven some kind of grader along each side and flattened the surfaces down so it approximates a triangle in cross-section.

So that's all you're going to do, you're just going to go along and grade those surfaces until at any point along the berm, you could take a cross-section and it's going to be a perfectly identical triangle to any other cross-section. If the surfaces of the berm are graded to 1 foot, the top edge will be chunky and dull. If they're graded to 1 inch, it's going to look like a knife. If they're graded to 1/1000 of an inch and somehow soaked with epoxy or whatever so they're hardened into that shape, if you fall on the top of that berm it will cut you in half. Grading it smoother and smoother on each surface turns it into a knife.



I realize this is not really technical instruction, but it's the piece that I think is missing for most people. They sort of see knife sharpening as an art, but it's really just a simple procedure. Applying marker to the surface and checking repeatedly to see what area you're working is usually a pretty good light-switch-flipper for people. I think they often overestimate how much metal is coming off, or they don't have the feel built up in their hands to know what part of it is being worked. But once you can see, easily, what area is getting worked, and you think in terms of grading the berm, it's actually a pretty easy process.