1st attempt at sharpening

E

embeth

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May 10, 2009
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I ruined a perfectly good $10 paring knife. Not to be too blunt;) what did I do wrong? I have a bench stone (my dads) and a block of wood cut at 30 deg. Dad does our knives, unless I was at PSU then I'd take mine to the Amish. He's getting arthritic so I thought I'd take that job over. Can I be taught, or is this something you just "know"?
 
Yes it can be learned but takes many years to perfect, get rid of the block and set the stone flat like intended. Sharpening is easy, learning how to follow the edge is the hard part.

What type of stone do you have?
 
embeth said:
I ruined a perfectly good $10 paring knife. Not to be too blunt;) what did I do wrong? I have a bench stone (my dads) and a block of wood cut at 30 deg. Dad does our knives, unless I was at PSU then I'd take mine to the Amish. He's getting arthritic so I thought I'd take that job over. Can I be taught, or is this something you just "know"?
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Sounds like your wooden jig is cut at the wrong angle. Cut at your 30 deg, it'll make your bevel come out to 60deg (30 deg per side), which is too obtuse.

Try a jig cut to about 10-15 deg. That'll make the sharpened edge come out to 20-30 deg.

All is not lost on that paring knife. Just resharpen at 10-15 deg per side.
Once you get comfortable with holding the blade at the proper (and constant) angle, you can skip the jig and do it freehand...just takes practice. BTW, practice on really cheap knives 'til you're getting good results.

Also, there are several commercial sharpeners that make it easy (easier, that is) to get it right, but since I freehand sharpen, I don't know the best ones.

You CAN be taught, but the best sharpening is part "knowing" also, but that knowing comes with practice.
Use this search engine to search BF for "sharpening":
http://www.google.com/coop/cse?cx=011197018607028182644:qfobr3dlcra
 
The easiest for me is the DMT Magna Guide, which includes the fine and extra fine DMT Diafold stones, and runs around $40 most places on the net. It's very simple, and adjusts to 7 different angles. You'll be putting a shaving edge on your blades within minutes and, more importantly, it will teach you about proper angles.

Hope that helps.
 
embeth said:
I ruined a perfectly good $10 paring knife. Not to be too blunt;) what did I do wrong? I have a bench stone (my dads) and a block of wood cut at 30 deg. Dad does our knives, unless I was at PSU then I'd take mine to the Amish. He's getting arthritic so I thought I'd take that job over. Can I be taught, or is this something you just "know"?
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Buy crock sticks (cheaper than a Sharpmaker) set to a combined total of 30 degrees.
Get a cheap wal-mart knife a practice with that on the stones.
 
How did you ruin the knife? Its pretty tough to ruin a knife with hand stones unless you were using a DMT XX Course and really not paying attention. With some practice, I'll bet the knife can be saved and put back to use. If you cut the bevel too steep, thats easy enough to fix. Just grind it shallower until you hit the edge. If you cut it to thin, then add a micro bevel at an increased angle. It will look a little odd for a while, but it will even out eventually. Its a knife meant to work, so it will eventually wear down past any current bevel damage.

Does your block hold the knife horizontal or vertical? I've used both and found I prefer vertical for speed reasons. I have much more practice at it that way, so to be fair, I may just need practice on the horizontal set up. FWIW, raising one end of the stone and holding blade horizontal, or using a vertical setup, is still free hand sharpening. You've just turned things so the angles are easier to see and hold (flat horizontal or straight vertical) without something clamped to the blade. After doing it this way for a while, sharpening with the stone flat on the table, or held in the opposite hand, will come to you much easier.
 
It does take some practice. I think what helped me also was listening to the steel when I had the right angle. Also go slow and light.
 
I'm in the same boat....got a two stage diamond sharpener that took the edge right off two of my knives. One is a cheap CRKT Fulcrum lock, the other was my benchmade morpho. Followed the instructions right as it said. The CRKT was noticeably duller, the morpho, not so much, but the edges didn't look right on either one. Fortunately benchmade resharpens your blade so long as you didn't take it to a griding wheel. Still though, for a foolproof sharpener I sure do feel like a moron now.
 
embeth said:
I ruined a perfectly good $10 paring knife. Not to be too blunt;) what did I do wrong? I have a bench stone (my dads) and a block of wood cut at 30 deg. Dad does our knives, unless I was at PSU then I'd take mine to the Amish. He's getting arthritic so I thought I'd take that job over. Can I be taught, or is this something you just "know"?
Click to expand...

60° is too much. You want a total of 30° preferably less. Cut a board at around 10° and go easy. You'll get to the point you can feel/hear it working. Freehand is doable but takes time to get the feel. So I'd stick with a board/jig setup, and keep practicing on the cheapest knife you can buy/find. You'll get it eventually.
PS how about sending some snow. It's 112° in the shade.
 
that CRKT fulcrum has now been relegated to the knife for me to practice sharpening on. Cheapest and the one I use the least. I did get a lansky hand held sharpener, and that put a ridiculous edge right back onto my morpho. Then again that knife is D2, so I suspect that I did less damage to the edge of it with the diamond sharpener and it was therefore easier to re-sharpen with the Lansky, which uses tungsten carbide. I'm far from an expert though as you can probably tell.


The crkt was sharp enough to shave with before easily, with almost no pressure required to shave. Now it can't even cut a sheet of paper unless I stab it through the paper first, and that's after trying to re-hone it with both sharpeners. The benchmade on the other hand absolutely decimates much thinner material than the CRKT.
 
In wood working a paring or drawing knife is usually chisel ground.

I think most kitchen paring knives are V-edge, double beveled, or convex edged. Wikipedia defines it as similar to a chef's knife but smaller. Chisel edges are more popular in Japanese kitchen knives, Mora's, and bushcraft knives.

sharpen102.jpg


Some Japanese knives are chisel edged (single bevel). Deba's come to mind but they are often bigger then a paring knife and not called a paring knife.

Mora's are chisel edged (scandi ground) and are used as a paring knives a lot.

I am sure someone makes or has made a chisel edged paring knife. All mine are some variation of a double bevel.
 
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