A new sharpening technique?

F

flybri

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Nov 4, 2005
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131
Has anyone seen this vid?

http://www.theblaze.com/stories/2014/04/27/are-you-sharpening-your-knife-all-wrong/

Never thought of sharpening a knife that way before. I do it the "traditional" way by "cutting into" the stone. But the video claims that this technique creates a more consistent angle and is more effective because you're sharpening in all directions.

Can any experts here chime in as to whether this technique is more effective than the traditional way? Does it change the way a burr forms, or does it affect whether stropping is needed/useful after the sharpening?
 
It works with any stone, has nothing to do with diamonds. I think it works very well with scandi grinds, and have had good success using th circle method with a mora and a water stone. At the end of the day, all that matters is if you can keep your angle even.
 
IMHO a big reason this tends to produce a more consistent edge angle is that you're using smaller movements - reducing the amount of mechanical adjustment the wrists need to make. It was my experimenting with dime sized circular grinding that led me to shorten the length of my pass - led to a nice jump in angle consistency.
 
Different people have different techniques. I experimented with several different ways to sharpen a knife, even tried that circular motion they showed and it kind of worked for me but not really. I found normal back and forth motion works better and than I do a more unique way of finishing off the blade on the stone which I don't recall seeing anyone else doing and I am still refining that technique.

The best technique to use to sharpen a knife is the one that works for you.
 
I've tried sharpening like that before and I actually find I'm less consistent that way. Different strokes for different folks. :) get it?
 
By this guy alternating his angle, and maintaining no consistency, he is cutting his edge into a convex .

I do all my freehand stuff that way. When I use my Jet, I go both directions, and I alternate the angle on each stroke.
 
No matter what technique you use, the goal is to get an even grind all the way to apex, remove burr = sharp edge. Whether you can achieve more consistency with short forth-back motions, circular motions, long strokes, micro bevelling etc. is up to you.
 
First time I saw that was on buck knife literature.
40years ago
 
This is timely. I just finished thinning the edge on a fixed blade using this circular/scrubbing stroke on a F/EF DMT 6" hone (Dia-Sharp). I like it because it does really speed things up; the grinding is getting done in all directions, and as HH mentioned, the somewhat shorter reach in any one direction helps to stabilize the angle; I find it simpler to essentially lock my wrists, to minimize any movement there. I notice when I re-bevel this way, the bevels tend to be more consistently flat.

I find the technique almost essential on smaller hones, in particular. I also like to use DMT's credit card sharpeners, and it's really impossible to get a lengthy linear stroke on that small surface area anyway. Not to mention, it saves the fingertips too, when I don't have to quickly halt the stroke near the end of the hone (I hold the hone in one hand, sharpen with the other).

Having said all that, when doing the finishing touches, I still like to finish with linear edge-leading strokes, to get the grind lines nicely oriented on the bevels. I reserve the circular technique for quickly shaping the bevels, mainly.


David
 
I think stones have been around long enough for there not to be any more new techniques.
 
I don't know about it being a new technique. Our scout master taught us to do it that way when I was a kid. That was over 50 years ago. It worked fine with the old carborundum stones that were what we had back then.
 
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While this seems decent enough, his explanation and demonstration do nothing for me. Saying that the "wobble" makes it work just doesn't make sense. Watch what he does. I don't think he ever touched the last inch of the blade until his final finishing passes, which will NOT make the front sharp. I'm only picking on this because this reminds me of all the bad advice I was given in sharpening over the years. Incomplete explanations. Voodoo without any science. There is a wealth of information available now and I think he just confuses matters. Maybe with a longer video he could actually teach you something, but this alone seems nearly useless to me. Just MHO.

Brian.
 
bgentry said:
While this seems decent enough, his explanation and demonstration do nothing for me. Saying that the "wobble" makes it work just doesn't make sense. Watch what he does. I don't think he ever touched the last inch of the blade until his final finishing passes, which will NOT make the front sharp. I'm only picking on this because this reminds me of all the bad advice I was given in sharpening over the years. Incomplete explanations. Voodoo without any science. There is a wealth of information available now and I think he just confuses matters. Maybe with a longer video he could actually teach you something, but this alone seems nearly useless to me. Just MHO.

Brian.
Click to expand...

I'm not real crazy about how this particular video demos sharpening technique in general. I agree, his explanation of 'wobbling the hand' to 'control the angle' seems not to make sense at all. I'm assuming he's attempting to communicate how the hand will be free to adjust, to follow the curvature of the edge and the typical widening of edge angle from heel to tip, i.e. lifting the handle when working near the tip. But, to a novice trying to understand what he's doing, I'd think his explanation would make one tear their own hair out. He mentions early on, that the blade he's sharpening 'already has a decent edge on it'; to me, this means he's just lightly working the very edge itself (something akin to microbevelling), and not really trying to grind new, flat bevels. In that regard, it reminds me of the light & fast way one would use a steel to quickly put some bite back into an already thin edge. Viewed from that perspective, even that relatively loose technique could be somewhat effective.

My own 'circular' technique involves using my index finger to monitor feedback, positioning it just behind the portion of the edge being worked, so it's easier to feel the flush contact of the flat bevel on the hone. I don't like to attempt it without having that finger in place, as the motion gets much more 'sloppy' and loose (for me, anyway), if I'm not able to feel that feedback through the pad of my index finger. The circular motion itself is really the only thing I have in common with the demo in the video; beyond that, not so much.


David
 
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