A question for freehand sharpeners

Do you switch hands when freehand sharpening?

  • Yes

    Votes: 11 31.4%

  • No

    Votes: 24 68.6%
  • Total voters
    35
D

dogstar

Joined
Jan 23, 2011
Messages
4,399
When sharpening freehand, do you hold the knife in either hand, depending on the side you are sharpening? Or do you just hold the knife in one hand only?

I think I get more even results when I use both hands, but I really need to concentrate on my off side.
 
000Robert said:
I normally only use my right hand even though I could use my left hand. Maybe that's why my natural freehand edge bevels are asymmetrical - 20dps and 17dps.
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It's not natural for me to use my off hand, so you can get asymmetrical either way. It definitely takes practice and mindfulness.
 
dogstar said:
It's not natural for me to use my off hand, so you can get asymmetrical either way. It definitely takes practice and mindfulness.
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I was a drummer, so I got pretty good with using my left hand, and also keeping time. When playing drums, especially playing metal music, most of the time your hands and feet are moving at different timing and with different power.
 
000Robert said:
I was a drummer, so I got pretty good with using my left hand, and also keeping time. When playing drums, especially playing metal music, most of the time your hands and feet are moving at different timing and with different power.
Click to expand...
Very cool. I hear drummers are the real brains of the band 🥁
 
Depends if I’m in a hurry, and also the geometry of which stone on what surface. In my shop I’ve built a stand with a raised platform for the stone, so I can hold a desired angle on either side.

On the job, with a thin stone or plate placed on the edge of a sawhorse or tailgate, I’m more likely to pull with one hand, then flip the knife over and push with the same hand. Likewise in a friend’s kitchen with a stone lined up on the edge of their counter.

On powered abrasives, it’s even more geometry dependent.

Parker
 
Usually only my strong hand. But I've been known to use both. Just depends on the day and my inclination. Either way, they're far from perfection...but sharp enough for my purposes.
 
I haven’t been a drummer for a long time, but when I was, too often I was the wallet of the band. My guitar pickers were always broke, especially at meal times.

They complained about the cost of strings. I had a day job, and was fairly generous with them.

If I had the money back I spent on burgers for bandmates, I could buy a nice drum set like I had back then.

Parker
 
When I first started I used only my dominant hand and flipped the knife over to sharpen each side. One side was always more even and I could better maintain my angles on one side vs the other, even though both sides were being controlled by the same hand.
Soon after I learned to switch hands depending on the side of the knife I was working on, and despite it being somewhat un-natural to me at first, my work improved and my bevels were more symmetrical, and my angle control is much more consistent.
Makes no sense to me, but thats how I do it now and when I try to flip the knife it feels so awkward.
 
I switch hands for each side of a knife, except for finishing deburring on the stone with alternating strokes and stropping.
 
For my kitchen knives on full sized stones, I alternate hands. When I use pocket stones on my folders I just use my dominant hand to hold the knife, and same when I deburr on a stone or when I use a strop
 
I only use one hand, however for few knives that has a protruding bolster, guard or front-of-scales it could be a bit annoying because they could hit the side of the stone. I find the easiest fix is to turn the stone slightly, about 2 o clock (in front of you is 12 o clock).
 
I bought my first sharpmaker in ~2007 been using it for 99% of my sharpening since then. And I've done a lot of it. (Bought another kit, with extra grit stones, then replacement stones) always use my left hand for sharpening. I'm sure my angles are not perfect but they are consistent for me. So as long as I sharpen my knives I am golden.
 
similar poll/thread:

POLL: Can you OR do you switch hands during freehanding?

Just curious. On a guided system it's easy and natural to switch the hand which holds and moves the narrow sharpening stone. But freehanding on a benchstone (or 204-freehanding) is a different matter oh boy. Michael Christy does it in his youtubes but i can hold the knife in my right hand only...
www.bladeforums.com www.bladeforums.com

me, i doht and caht switch hands. but it doesn't matter because in most cases i just do some lazy sharpening (RRS method) haha
 
I use both hands, switching to keep the edge of the blade facing me as I work. The goal being, so I can actually see flush contact with the bevels. I haven't always done that, but made the effort to train my non-dominant hand (left) for it. Surprising thing was, I noticed later my left hand seemed to have more of a finessed light touch than my right. I kept noticing the scratch patterns were more uniform-looking on the side of the blade controlled by my left hand. My right hand is physically stronger - but a little more shaky when using a light touch. I notice that tendency in other things as well, apart from sharpening. I realized I needed to attempt to adapt that finessed touch to my right hand. Jury is still out on that. But I'm making the effort once again to improve.

At times, I've also practiced using just one hand - either left or right - and flip the blade for each away / toward pass on the stone. I've done this also in the mindset of expanding my abilities and developing some muscle memory I previously didn't have. And training with the blade edge facing away from me is (hopefully) helping to further enhance my 'feel' for flush contact on the bevels, even if or when I can't actually see the edge making flush contact.
 
I switch hands when bringing the knife to stone (as with benchstones). I couldn't keep the angles even when flipping the knife over; the sight picture just was off. But I'm a lefty in righty world, so I'm semi-ambidextrous. When I'm bringing the stone to the knife (as with pocket stones for touch-ups or when sharpening large blades like machetes or khukuris), I keep the stone in my left generally, and flip the blade. Stropping I tend not to swap hands.
 
Obsessed with Edges said:
I use both hands, switching to keep the edge of the blade facing me as I work. The goal being, so I can actually see flush contact with the bevels. I haven't always done that, but made the effort to train my non-dominant hand (left) for it. Surprising thing was, I noticed later my left hand seemed to have more of a finessed light touch than my right. I kept noticing the scratch patterns were more uniform-looking on the side of the blade controlled by my left hand. My right hand is physically stronger - but a little more shaky when using a light touch. I notice that tendency in other things as well, apart from sharpening. I realized I needed to attempt to adapt that finessed touch to my right hand. Jury is still out on that. But I'm making the effort once again to improve.

At times, I've also practiced using just one hand - either left or right - and flip the blade for each away / toward pass on the stone. I've done this also in the mindset of expanding my abilities and developing some muscle memory I previously didn't have. And training with the blade edge facing away from me is (hopefully) helping to further enhance my 'feel' for flush contact on the bevels, even if or when I can't actually see the edge making flush contact.
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I've noticed this too in other areas that the finesse of the non-dominant hand makes up for it.

as far as knives go..... I freehand grind on my 2X72, and pulling accross the left side for bevels seems to be better for me.

I definately notice a difference when grinding and sharpening. It takes A lot of effort to even things out.
I'm happy with my results, but it just takes an incredible amount of time for me.
 
dogstar said:
Very cool. I hear drummers are the real brains of the band 🥁
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I'm not sure about that but a lot of drummers write lyrics, and some write music as well. I heard Lars Ulrich one time speaking of the Metallica guitarists say, "I play guitar with their fingers".
 
On a bench stone I face the stone lengthwise away from me and use both hands, I typically start with 5-10 strokes and then switch sides and do the same amount of strokes to try and keep the bevel sort the same. Freehanded the best I can do is sort of the same.
 
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