Free hand sharpening question

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kasumi

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Jan 30, 2024
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I hope someone here can give a good answer to my question as I can not find a good answer/ explanation on this forum and elesewhere on the internet.
When I am freehand sharpening , I master the technique well and I can keep a constant angle, raise burr on both sides and get my knives consistently sharp.
However when I do push or pull the cutting edge over my DMT diamond stone it is unavoidable that the the further along the blade the cutting edge is much longer in contact with the stone during the whole sharpening process than the part at the handle side that slides of the stone rather quick. . Hence that part of the blade is getting sharpened more strokes and will wear more.
I have after 10-15 sharpenings of a knife with a nice gradual belly taken off part of the belly (at approx 50-75% of the cutting edge away from the handle)
So if you make your strokes freehand on a stone how can you avoid this happening as when I start my strokes at the handle side the cutting edge at the handle side will flow off the stone much earlier than further on the edge.

Hope you can help out here.

( I solve this “issue” by starting with straight srokes one part of the knife till I got a burr and then do the next section of the knife where no burr is formed yet and try to create a as nice as possible transition. This way I get at least an equal amount of “stone contact” along the sharpening process.)
 
Welcome kasumi,
This is a common problem.
I don't think sharpening just one area and then moving to the next is a good solution. You want the edge sharpened in a continuous stroke if using a DMT stone. If using waterstones, you can do rapid back-and-forth strokes and slowly go up and down the blade

Even pressure is one cause. When you start the stroke, you may unknowingly press down on the blade and push forward firmly to overcome the friction of the stone. As soon as it gets moving in the stroke you automatically lower the pressure and control the stroke by the sound it makes against the stone. Start with deliberately smooth and light strokes.
In the same way, some people may start with a light pressure and push down harder to "cut" more as soon as the blade starts moving. This causes a deeper grind just past the start point.
Unequal pressure during the stroke is the same reason why a stone wears in a deep curve.

The second issue can be the angle of the blade to the stone. When you start a stroke, the blade may not be totally flat against te stone and digs intpo te edge more.

Also less aggressive stones can help.
 
kasumi said:
I hope someone here can give a good answer to my question as I can not find a good answer/ explanation on this forum and elesewhere on the internet.
When I am freehand sharpening , I master the technique well and I can keep a constant angle, raise burr on both sides and get my knives consistently sharp.
However when I do push or pull the cutting edge over my DMT diamond stone it is unavoidable that the the further along the blade the cutting edge is much longer in contact with the stone during the whole sharpening process than the part at the handle side that slides of the stone rather quick. . Hence that part of the blade is getting sharpened more strokes and will wear more.
I have after 10-15 sharpenings of a knife with a nice gradual belly taken off part of the belly (at approx 50-75% of the cutting edge away from the handle)
So if you make your strokes freehand on a stone how can you avoid this happening as when I start my strokes at the handle side the cutting edge at the handle side will flow off the stone much earlier than further on the edge.

Hope you can help out here.

( I solve this “issue” by starting with straight srokes one part of the knife till I got a burr and then do the next section of the knife where no burr is formed yet and try to create a as nice as possible transition. This way I get at least an equal amount of “stone contact” along the sharpening process.)
Click to expand...
I give the heel a little extra when I first start much like you are doing now by concentrating on the heel next to the bolster through pressure and some straight scrubbing passes to remove material evenly before my usual heel to tip passes.

It's all pretty intuitive and you already see what is going on and where you need to remove more material. I would just give it some extra scrubbing strokes each time I sharpened and get the profile back gradually rather than put it on a coarse stone and fixing it all at once, but you can if it really bothers you.
 
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Lots of people recommend putting sharpie black marker on the edge before sharpening. It really does help Show you where you are contacting.
we might think we are doing something, but the marker doesn't lie.... the shiny parts/removed will actually show what's happening. Maybe you can then "correct yourself" and your hand positioning?

I know I do something similar as you.
I now tend to correct myself with pushing my finger tips closer to the edge, pressing down gently on the stone.
*I DON"T recommend doing it. It is dangerous. I will cut myself..... but I have been better with sharpening my tips this way.
 
Agree with using sharpie on the edge to really show where you're hitting. I find that it's easier (for me anyway) to go with edge trailing strokes towards the heel while making sure the blade is as flat on the stone as possible to make sure I actually hit the heel adequately. Not too many strokes or else you'll just make the bevel (more) uneven. Then just even things out with a few edge leading strokes across the whole bevel from heel to tip. Since you're using DMT's, be mindful of pressure for sure. Should be very light pressure, just enough for the diamonds to do what they need to do.
 
Thanks a lot for all advices.
The sharpie does indeed help showing if you are hitting the right spots but not how much time you are hitting those spots. I do not have a problem picking / starting and keeping the correct angle but the amount of time the part of the blade at the heel is in contact with the stone is just shorter than the part closer to the tip by the nature of the whole process of moving the blade over the stone.
“playing” with pressure as was suggested I will try as that sounds feasable..
Any more comments and tips are very welcome ! Thanks again .
 
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I had the same problem, I’ve learned to sharpen from heal to belly. Like you would sharpen a wharncliffe. Keeping it perfectly straight.

Then sharpen belly to tip separately. Other wise you wear down the belly.
 
eveled said:
I had the same problem, I’ve learned to sharpen from heal to belly. Like you would sharpen a wharncliffe. Keeping it perfectly straight.

Then sharpen belly to tip separately. Other wise you wear down the belly.
Click to expand...
Thanks ,
Well this is exactly what I described I am doing now. How do you deal with the smoothing out of the transition area between the two ?
 
view
 
I can’t see your picture, but the above knife shows what I mean.

You can see how uniform the edge is from the choil to the beginning of the belly. Then a little blip where I sharpened the belly to tip. A couple strokes will blend that blip in.

Think about sharpening a tanto. Sharpen the straight edge first then the tip separately. If the blade is short enough, I keep the entire straight portion on the stone for the entire stroke. Longer blades require a little different technique, but the important thing is to be aware and try to keep the entire edge in contact with the stone for the same duration.

I start to sharpen the tip like I would a chisel pushing into the stone, then turning my wrist to get the belly. This technique also prevents rounded points. It also keeps the micro scratches perpendicular to the edge.

view
 
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Sorry for not posting the picture correctly. Should be good now.
https://flic.kr/p/2pRoeGq

You see that what you described is exactly what happenend and your “cure” is exactly what I had to find out the hard way by “destroying” the blade /belly vs original (that is the black Bugout blade below ).
I am amazed that this issue is not rised more often as it looks an unavoidable matter to me when handsharpening with full blade strokes . Wether you start at the tip or at the heel the proces will be the same with unequal “contact time” on the stone of different parts of the blade. With a bandsharpener it is easier to avoid this as you will pull thenblade along the band creating more or less equal abrasion time at all spots of the blade .
 
Noooo!!!!! Haha… that is a lot of practicng in 1 picture. So now you gonna buy the “final” 110 soon right ?😂😜
 
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