A newbie with a new knife and some newbie questions

R

RRIris

Joined
Jul 3, 2013
Messages
2
Hello all,

I'm new to this forum and to serious knife ownership in general. I happen to have a couple of technical questions that I'm sure many of you are more than qualified to answer.

I've recently started to take up camping and bushcraft as a hobby, one of the essential items for this hobby is of course a knife. After finding some inspiration and a little shopping around I got a good deal on the 2013 version of the Gerber "Bear Grylls ultimate pro fixed blade" (I expect some friendly mocking for this admission :rolleyes:) Overall I like the knife and have been on two little adventures with it and it's prooved it's self useful for my purposes and I've very much enjoyed ownership of it thus far.

Now for the technical bit, having used it and dulled the factory edge I'm at the point where I have to man up and put it to a sharpening stone. I'm not going to waste anyone’s time by ignorantly expecting someone to give me a in depth, how to lesson on general sharpening. This forum and youtube both provide several good resources for learning this skill.

My first question is this, what angle should I sharpen my knife to? I have sent the manufacturer an email asking them the same in the hope of an honest and simple response. I've been told for a knife like this a 46 degree angle is best. My worry is that if I deviate from the factory recommended angle or box fresh angle then the sharpener that has been incorporated into the sheath will be useless. (it is a pull-through style carbide sharpener, unlike previous versions of this knife)

My second question is this, I've seen many folks sharpen their knife to the angles upon the side of the blade, this looks like it would make stone sharpening much easier however I am worried that this technique will certainly remove the attractive black coating on my blade. Should I not get attached to this attractive finish and just man up and strip it off as it'll scratch and fade over time anyway or be sure to avoid sharpening with this technique to protect the finish and sharpen at a steeper angle.

I'm sorry if this first post is a little too lengthy or wordy. I'm also sure these kind of questions are pathetically green to some of the more experienced campers, bush crafters and general knife enthusiasts on here. But thank you for your attention anyway.
 
No such thing as a stupid question. First off, welcome to Bladeforums, we're glad to have you.

I'm not intimately familiar with that knife, but if it has a pull-through type sharpener built in I would imagine it would be set to the correct angle for your knife. I imagine too that if you did deviate from that angle it would render the pull-through sharpener useless, or less useful at least. The angle isn't really that important provided it isn't too shallow, otherwise your knife edge would roll or chip and that would render it unusable fairly quickly.

Any type of sharpening will remove the coating where you run the knife against the abrasive. It is unfortunately the nature of all coatings that they will fade or rub off over time.

Hope that answered what you were asking, and if you have any further questions feel free to ask.
 
Thanks for your quick and helpful reply DerekH :)

My concern is that the factory edge is steeper than the side of the blade meaning the coating won't be stripped off if I maintain this edge. Am I correct in thinking this blade has three angles upon it? Flat, shallow then a steeper angle leading to a point (A question for some one who is very familiar with this knife I guess).

I got a reply from the email I sent to the email address given on the Gerber website. They didn't really confirm anything for me and only seemed interested in pointing me to a couple videos of Bear Grylls using the V pull through sharpener in a promo video. Not hugely helpful. They seemed more interested in how I got the knife as it's not technically avaliable in my home country yet (the UK) and has only just been listed on the Gerber UK site.
 
Carbide pull through sharpeners are garbage. I would recommend against using them. If you do a little research on them, you'll find out how bad they are.

As long as you maintain your angle, you won't scratch up the coating. If your gonna freehand sharpen, I'd recommend practicing on cheap knives you don't care about first. As for the edge angle, I generally sharpen at around 20 degrees per side for my fixed blade knives but really its your knife so whatever works for you.
 
RRIris said:
Hello all,

I'm new to this forum and to serious knife ownership in general. I happen to have a couple of technical questions that I'm sure many of you are more than qualified to answer.

I've recently started to take up camping and bushcraft as a hobby, one of the essential items for this hobby is of course a knife. After finding some inspiration and a little shopping around I got a good deal on the 2013 version of the Gerber "Bear Grylls ultimate pro fixed blade" (I expect some friendly mocking for this admission :rolleyes:) Overall I like the knife and have been on two little adventures with it and it's prooved it's self useful for my purposes and I've very much enjoyed ownership of it thus far.

Now for the technical bit, having used it and dulled the factory edge I'm at the point where I have to man up and put it to a sharpening stone. I'm not going to waste anyone’s time by ignorantly expecting someone to give me a in depth, how to lesson on general sharpening. This forum and youtube both provide several good resources for learning this skill.

My first question is this, what angle should I sharpen my knife to? I have sent the manufacturer an email asking them the same in the hope of an honest and simple response. I've been told for a knife like this a 46 degree angle is best. My worry is that if I deviate from the factory recommended angle or box fresh angle then the sharpener that has been incorporated into the sheath will be useless. (it is a pull-through style carbide sharpener, unlike previous versions of this knife)

My second question is this, I've seen many folks sharpen their knife to the angles upon the side of the blade, this looks like it would make stone sharpening much easier however I am worried that this technique will certainly remove the attractive black coating on my blade. Should I not get attached to this attractive finish and just man up and strip it off as it'll scratch and fade over time anyway or be sure to avoid sharpening with this technique to protect the finish and sharpen at a steeper angle.

I'm sorry if this first post is a little too lengthy or wordy. I'm also sure these kind of questions are pathetically green to some of the more experienced campers, bush crafters and general knife enthusiasts on here. But thank you for your attention anyway.
Click to expand...

Ok, I think I am understanding what u are saying here, but correct me if I am wrong because I'm not intimately familiar with your knife, but what ill tell u should apply. As you pointed out, your knife has three surfaces. The initial surface (starting at the spine) is flat. About halfway down starts the hollowgrind. That surface goes almost to the edge where the "edge bevel" starts. The edge bevel is what you are concerned with for sharpening. It is going to be somewhere in the neighborhood of 20 degrees on each side. It sounds to me like you are suggesting laying the knife flat and following the hollowgrind. This would never sharpen your knife, as the actual edge will not be touching the stone. (And would obviously remove the coating from your blade). The trick is to match the narrow edge bevel to the surface of the stone. If you do this correctly , the surface of the blade should never touch the stone. The best way to match that edge bevel to the stone is by feel. The more you do it, you will be able to "feel" whether you are sharpening in the "sweet spot" with the edge bevel flat against the stone. You can also get in good light and actually watch the edge as you raise and lower the angle until u can visually identify the exact angle at which the edge (actual edge) makes contact with the stone. Then try to hold that angle as you sharpen. Go slow at first and constantly check your angle. The more you practice, the easier it will get to just "feel" it. Another trick is to use a magic marker and color the small edge bevel. As you sharpen, you will be able to see exactly where you are removing metal and adjust your angle accordingly.

Ok, I hope I didn't misunderstand your question and I hope that was helpful. There is a lot more to learn, but my advice is to embrace and enjoy the process. Watch videos on youtube, read the sticky here on sharpening, ask questions and practice. You will also need some good stones. Its really not that hard and once you start to get the hang of it, you will enjoy it. You'll have your knife razor sharp in no time. Enjoy.

Lance
 
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