Angle consistency on small knives

L

lonelyronin

Joined
Apr 22, 2011
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I was wondering if I’m alone in this or if not how you guys deal with the following problem:

Whenever I sharpen a knife with either a small blade and/or a small handle I seem to have a hard time holding the angle consistently. I don’t really „see“ what I’m doing wrong but the results are telling. I have a Bess sharpness tester and all my sharpest knives have either a larger blade or what seems to be even more important a blocky handle. I can only assume that my muscle memory in my hands has a harder time detecting angle inconsistencies when there’s not much to work with whereas when the handle is big enough small inconsistencies are easier to notice.

A couple weeks ago I sharpened the blade on a leatherman. The blade itself is rather slim but the blockiness of the handle made sharpening a breeze.
Anyway, did you guys notice something similar? I guess more practice will help but I also though about taping wood or something like that to the handle to sharpen smaller knives. The most difficult for me are small traditional slipjoints and such.
 
Lonely, what you describe is a real problem in freehand sharpening. For gents that use a gadget angle holder, it's not. When a customer brings me one like you describe and usually it's a pen blade or spear point. I will use my thumbnail under the spine to set the angle. And get an edge on a med. grit stone. And clean it up on that stone. Make sure it cuts decent and that's it. They mostly use this style knife for light duty, cleaning finger nails and such. So, I'm sure they have difficulty getting an edge on it too. DM
 
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Same problem here. Narrow knives take a lot more concentration for me than wider blades.
 
I use a Wicked Edge WE130. I get perfect edges on everything from knives to scissors and chisels. I can put perfect edges on any knife.
 
Yeah, tiny-handled knives make it difficult to grip securely enough to control both angle and pressure.

One trick I've used with such small knives, is to set the bevels with something like 600-grit diamond hone. Because the diamond hone will still cut aggressively when used at a moderate/light touch, it's possible to completely reset an edge in a minimum of passes on the diamond hone, in maybe as little as 5 - 10 passes per side on the very thinly-ground blades found on tiny traditional knives and in simple steels usually found in them. Reducing the number of passes and the pressure used goes a long way to reducing error brought by fatigue, so the diamond is ideal for the situation. After the bevels are set, refining and maintaining the edge can be done in even fewer passes at very, very light pressure.

And, as David Martin mentioned above, using your fingertip (or nail) placed on the spine, to set/maintain the angle on the stone, is also helpful for reducing the wobble and producing cleaner, flatter bevels. I usually place the tip of my index finger, of the hand holding the handle, on the spine (with cutting edge facing towards me), letting it gently graze the stone as I work, to maintain a steadier angle.

And avoiding too-coarse stones, when rebevelling, also makes it easier to keep things smooth & steady on the stone. Very coarse stones can make things too bumpy and/or trip up the sharpening pass, if one can't exert much grip pressure when holding the knife. Using some oil or other lubrication on the hone also helps with this (I use mineral oil on the diamond hone). Not to mention, a too-coarse stone will leave the edge on the tiny blade very, very ragged, needing even more work to refine it. Tiny blades don't need big grit to rework them - so a finer grit is ideal anyway, in these situations.
 
lonelyronin said:
Thanks for the replies and tips. Glad I’m not the only one with those problems.
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I did a small folding knife the other day. Blade was 2” at best, and the handle maybe 3”. I find modifying my grip helps. I wrap my fingers around the entire handle, almost like holding a golf club. Not in my palm at all. And lay my thumb only along the blade. I was able to hold a constant angle that way.
 
yeah. SAK are good example. few passes needed, thin blades. then stropping with violin technique
 
Once the total knife size gets down to penknife or so I get best results on a diamond plate, have a tough time holding the angle on vitreous stones when it comes to smaller tools - same for things like cuticle scissors.
 
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