- Joined
- May 6, 2019
- Messages
- 101
Hello CPK family members. Today I've decided to make this thread to share bit of my experience with you. I won't start talking about how much I love sharp knives (and things) and how my obsession started because it goes back when I was kid age of 4 or 5 and talking about all it would take hours (and even without that I will probably steal a lot of your time).
First of all I'm sorry for my spelling and grammar mistakes as English is not my main language (I'm from Georgia, small country under big Russia).
Today I went to monastery where I usually go (if you are curious about monastery, we Georgians are Christians, Orthodox, so we have many religious monasteries). Place is beautiful, located in mountains away from capital, amazing place with amazing nature and people of course. Monks here live in old fortress which was built in 4th A.D. which is surrounded by mountains and forest. People stopped living is this castle around in 18th century and it was mostly ruined, just main walls where left which are at least 5 feet and largests are almost 10 feet in thickness. Monks came here in 2008 and restored this place and made very beautiful monastery. So to cut it short, for practical use they need cutting tools, sharp tools (knives, axes, saws, even sometimes short swords, but mainly knives are their everyday helping tools) so with that I'm helping them whenever I can.
So today I took my DMT Dia-fold set with me to sharpen their stuff. And while doing it I've decided to sharpen my Field Knife also and take some pictures and write this thread.
So lets start (more than enough for an intro lol)
Sharpeners
I regularly use these Dia-folds for 3 years already. I love them because of their size and easy to use shape (tho I also have same grit Dia-sharp 6" stones but I still prefer Dia-folds). At beginning I've bought 2 (blue/red and green/tan) but after 2 years of use blue's 320 grit became finer and it wasn't as efficient as before, and I needed strong cutting power for re-profiling and for fixing nicks and badly damaged edges, so I purchased black/blue Dia-fold for fresh cutting power 1 year ago. It will work for me next 2 years max, then I will need to buy new coarse stones (hope DMT will produce silver one as Dia-fold as it's 120 grit is what I would love to have in my hands)
Technique
There are lots of ways to sharpen your knife. I prefer free-handed as I can do it anytime and anywhere and any tool (no matter 3" knife or 6" or 18" sword or axe). Also there are different methods for free-hand sharpening. But I think it is all about personal preference, and it isn't thou shalt for free-hander to put stone on table and move knife on it there. There are people out there who can hold stone in one hand and knife in another and sharpen it better than Wicked Edge or Edge pro lol. About whom I am talking about is Michael Christy.
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCC-cvUqhuR--z1uUAXqMzaw
Here is his youtube link so you can check his channel for his different sharpenning videos and reviews and some lessons. Honestly he is one who got inspired and influenced me. I've tried his method but it was to exactly for me, somethig was missing for me, it needed to be tweaked for me. So with some experiments I found my position and technique for free-handing knives. I was back and alone at home when I took pictures so you can't exactly see how I hold stone and knife, but you can have an idea (just I had to hold mobile phone instead of stone lol)
This is how I hold knife and stone
I'm left handed and I can't hold same angle with right hand. So I always hold knife in left hand and stone in right and I put stone on knee of my left leg with its tip so it is more fixed and won't move freely around. And for sharpening different sides of knife I just simply flip knife over. As for sharpening itself I move knife up and down or right and left.
Some people say you must not move knife up and down while sharpening and always do right to left motion, but I think they say this because they can't keep same angle during up and down motion. I say during sharpening your goal is to remove material, so I make parallel with cutting wood with saw and sharpening. When you cut with saw you move saw back and forward right? Do you put saw on wood pull back and cut and then lift it up and move forward and then put it back on wood? Or just put saw on wood and pull and push it while it is on wood? Normally people do it second way, so same is happening while sharpening.
Also some people say you must deburr between each grit but I almost never do it because I win time with not deburring and I don't see much difference eith deburring or without between grits, I only deburr at the end of sharpening.
In my experience up and down movement is faster but I don't always use that motion on every grit, usually I switch motions between grits, so I can see scratch patern of different grits. That helps me to determine when I have completely finished one grit after another. As for finishes, for toothy edge I prefer up and down motion because of micro saw I get on edge with its vertical scratch patern. And for polished edge I prefer right and left motion because of it gives more clear reflection with its horizontal scratch patern.
First of all I'm sorry for my spelling and grammar mistakes as English is not my main language (I'm from Georgia, small country under big Russia).
Today I went to monastery where I usually go (if you are curious about monastery, we Georgians are Christians, Orthodox, so we have many religious monasteries). Place is beautiful, located in mountains away from capital, amazing place with amazing nature and people of course. Monks here live in old fortress which was built in 4th A.D. which is surrounded by mountains and forest. People stopped living is this castle around in 18th century and it was mostly ruined, just main walls where left which are at least 5 feet and largests are almost 10 feet in thickness. Monks came here in 2008 and restored this place and made very beautiful monastery. So to cut it short, for practical use they need cutting tools, sharp tools (knives, axes, saws, even sometimes short swords, but mainly knives are their everyday helping tools) so with that I'm helping them whenever I can.
So today I took my DMT Dia-fold set with me to sharpen their stuff. And while doing it I've decided to sharpen my Field Knife also and take some pictures and write this thread.
So lets start (more than enough for an intro lol)
Sharpeners
I regularly use these Dia-folds for 3 years already. I love them because of their size and easy to use shape (tho I also have same grit Dia-sharp 6" stones but I still prefer Dia-folds). At beginning I've bought 2 (blue/red and green/tan) but after 2 years of use blue's 320 grit became finer and it wasn't as efficient as before, and I needed strong cutting power for re-profiling and for fixing nicks and badly damaged edges, so I purchased black/blue Dia-fold for fresh cutting power 1 year ago. It will work for me next 2 years max, then I will need to buy new coarse stones (hope DMT will produce silver one as Dia-fold as it's 120 grit is what I would love to have in my hands)
Technique
There are lots of ways to sharpen your knife. I prefer free-handed as I can do it anytime and anywhere and any tool (no matter 3" knife or 6" or 18" sword or axe). Also there are different methods for free-hand sharpening. But I think it is all about personal preference, and it isn't thou shalt for free-hander to put stone on table and move knife on it there. There are people out there who can hold stone in one hand and knife in another and sharpen it better than Wicked Edge or Edge pro lol. About whom I am talking about is Michael Christy.
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCC-cvUqhuR--z1uUAXqMzaw
Here is his youtube link so you can check his channel for his different sharpenning videos and reviews and some lessons. Honestly he is one who got inspired and influenced me. I've tried his method but it was to exactly for me, somethig was missing for me, it needed to be tweaked for me. So with some experiments I found my position and technique for free-handing knives. I was back and alone at home when I took pictures so you can't exactly see how I hold stone and knife, but you can have an idea (just I had to hold mobile phone instead of stone lol)
This is how I hold knife and stone
I'm left handed and I can't hold same angle with right hand. So I always hold knife in left hand and stone in right and I put stone on knee of my left leg with its tip so it is more fixed and won't move freely around. And for sharpening different sides of knife I just simply flip knife over. As for sharpening itself I move knife up and down or right and left.
Some people say you must not move knife up and down while sharpening and always do right to left motion, but I think they say this because they can't keep same angle during up and down motion. I say during sharpening your goal is to remove material, so I make parallel with cutting wood with saw and sharpening. When you cut with saw you move saw back and forward right? Do you put saw on wood pull back and cut and then lift it up and move forward and then put it back on wood? Or just put saw on wood and pull and push it while it is on wood? Normally people do it second way, so same is happening while sharpening.
Also some people say you must deburr between each grit but I almost never do it because I win time with not deburring and I don't see much difference eith deburring or without between grits, I only deburr at the end of sharpening.
In my experience up and down movement is faster but I don't always use that motion on every grit, usually I switch motions between grits, so I can see scratch patern of different grits. That helps me to determine when I have completely finished one grit after another. As for finishes, for toothy edge I prefer up and down motion because of micro saw I get on edge with its vertical scratch patern. And for polished edge I prefer right and left motion because of it gives more clear reflection with its horizontal scratch patern.
