It would be useful to hear some techniques that experienced freehand sharpeners use to work with blades that have challenging curves.
Most sharpening videos tend to focus on the straightforward sharpening cases like chef knives, or small folders, or straightforward field/utility fixed blades, that don't have much curve to them. But sharpening blades where the main body of the blade is curving in a continuous arc (like this ZT 0095), or where there's an unusual curve shape (like this Kukri), or where there's a very large belly area (like this Spyderco Lionspy), these can be challenging to figure out a freehand sharpening motion that enables you to create and maintain a consistent bevel angle.
On these kinds of curvy blades, it would help to hear how folks deal with 2 challenges:
Most sharpening videos tend to focus on the straightforward sharpening cases like chef knives, or small folders, or straightforward field/utility fixed blades, that don't have much curve to them. But sharpening blades where the main body of the blade is curving in a continuous arc (like this ZT 0095), or where there's an unusual curve shape (like this Kukri), or where there's a very large belly area (like this Spyderco Lionspy), these can be challenging to figure out a freehand sharpening motion that enables you to create and maintain a consistent bevel angle.
On these kinds of curvy blades, it would help to hear how folks deal with 2 challenges:
- The shaping/scrubbing stage. When you need to remove a lot of metal, say for an edge profile, what techniques do you use to keep it consistent throughout the curved areas?
- The apexing stage. When you're actually sharpening with whatever slice or stroke method you use, how do you keep a consistent angle throughout those curves to get a nice clean finished edge? I assume here, a common answer will be to use a normal sharpening stroke, but work the blade in small overlapping sections. This is what I've been doing, but to this point, not 100% satisfied with the results.
