How to square the spine of a knife?

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sisk61

Joined
Jun 24, 2011
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I didnt know whether to post this in the knifemaker's forum or here, so sorry if i was supposed to post in the Knifemakers forum!!

I have a lot of knives that dont have very sharp spines. and id like to know how to sharpen them... I always find it way too hard to use my ferro rod with the back of the spine of my knives when i need to. My Koster Bushcrafter seems to be sharpened on the left edge.. so if i wanted to use the spine to spark the ferro rod, i would need to do it with the knife in my left hand and the rod in my right. well that is just awkward to me, and id like to be able to sharpen the spine on both sides.

I dont know if blade steel makes a difference, but my Koster is 3v, Izula is 1095, and most others are 01 tool steel.

Does anyone know how to go about squaring up a spine or sharpening the spine of a knife?

Thanks!
 
sisk61 said:
I didnt know whether to post this in the knifemaker's forum or here, so sorry if i was supposed to post in the Knifemakers forum!!

I have a lot of knives that dont have very sharp spines. and id like to know how to sharpen them... I always find it way too hard to use my ferro rod with the back of the spine of my knives when i need to. My Koster Bushcrafter seems to be sharpened on the left edge.. so if i wanted to use the spine to spark the ferro rod, i would need to do it with the knife in my left hand and the rod in my right. well that is just awkward to me, and id like to be able to sharpen the spine on both sides.

I dont know if blade steel makes a difference, but my Koster is 3v, Izula is 1095, and most others are 01 tool steel.

Does anyone know how to go about squaring up a spine or sharpening the spine of a knife?

Thanks!
Click to expand...

I use a bench grinder with a guide plate. You can also use a belt sander, or a good old file. =] File is probably the cheapest, and a new file will take off material faster than you might realize. It doesn't have to be perfectly square; it only has to have a sharp enough edge and feel right to you.
 
Yep what Remy said. If you just take any old stone and grind the spine so that the blade perpendicular to it, you will form a burr on both sides of the spine
 
This is how I square the spines of my Moras and blade blanks.

Lay a sheet of 320 grit on a pane of glass or marble or other hard flat surface. Hold the knife with the point away from you and place the spine on the sanding compound. Now slowly draw it towards you so that the spine wears evenly across the grit paper. Do this about 5 minutes and you will have a perfectly squared spine.
 
RemyKaze said:
I use a bench grinder with a guide plate. You can also use a belt sander, or a good old file. =] File is probably the cheapest, and a new file will take off material faster than you might realize. It doesn't have to be perfectly square; it only has to have a sharp enough edge and feel right to you.
Click to expand...

I think for the Izula it would be okay, but those other steels a file won't do much to.

You don't really need to square the spine either. If you hit the corner at a 45 degree angle and put a little bit of a "chamfer" on the spine, it will also form a burr and you will have to do a lot less work.
 
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