Historical question for y'all regarding sharpening

Grease

Grease

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May 10, 2012
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My knowledge of the history of blades is limited. I know swords have existed for probably 7-8 thousand years, and I know Rome had some rather famous sharpening stones, but that's about it.

I've been wondering exactly how long we've known how to sharpen blades effectively. When did someone first pick up a rock and start scraping his bronze or iron blade with it, and realize that it helped?
 
Using sharp tools and sharpening them has been a parallel track. When wood was the material of choice it would have been rubbed against a stone to bring a point making it a spear. That would have been OK but a sharp flake of flint would cut it better and a point would be pokier. Stone points and edge flaking for maintenance like was said by others. Copper and bronze edged tools would have been easy to sharpen against a stone. Harder metals of iron and steel would need a harder stone...you crawl, you walk, you trot, you run and so it goes with all use of tools. At each stage we believe we are running until the next stage of advancement comes along and accelerates the efficiency.
 
willseeyalater said:
Using sharp tools and sharpening them has been a parallel track.
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+1. This.

When man first realized he could remove metal to form the edge, he realized he could modify the same process to sharpen her back up! Even when knapping flint (which I know nothing about, actually), you can knap more from the edge if there is enough material there to support the edge.
 
The Ancient Egyptians, who are generally considered to have made the finest flint knives, actually combines grinding and knapping. They chose their flint very carefully for purity, grain, etc., then ground it against other stones until it was nearly the shape they wanted and then, in order to take advantage of the natural property of flint (SHARPNESS), knapped the last pass. They really are something to see. They are kind of a peculiar almost pink color.
 
You would probably get a much more expanded, and specific answer in Bernard Levines forum.

EDIT: my guess would be that the development of effective sharpening happened about the same time as good grinding came about.
 
lead_grinder.jpg

this one is the mid 1800's.


Also a gent by the name of Perret, wrote a book for the French Academy of Science in 1772, and he detailed at great length the numerous methods available then. Clays, rusted metal grindings (emory cloth), and others used for higher levels of polish. This would all translate into good sharpening quality as well.
 
The Australian Aboriginals used napping & grinding. When grinding was used, it was the final technique, i.e. the edge was a ground edge.
I remember watching an archeology show on TV. They were digging up stone tools, not in Australia.
They decided to test the difference between napped, & napped then ground axes. 2 new heads were made by a napper, & one was ground.
The ground head won easily at chopping a tree.
 
Besides flint and obsidian, jade was also used long before metal knives came into being.

Because of its hardness, jade knives and axes were ground and then polished into final tools. This was done by neolithic cultures long before metal was introduced as a tool material.
 
Welcome to Bladeforums.

There are only one or two forums here that would tolerate posting sarcasm like that. I think it's funny, but you caught me in a good mood. Usually we keep conversations in more general forums something closer to "serious business" for the serious forums.

-Ron
 
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ron_m80 said:
Welcome to Bladeforums.

There are only one or two forums here that would tolerate posting sarcasm like that. I think it's funny, but you caught me in a good mood. Usually we keep to something closer to "serious business" in the serious forums.
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Is this in response to my post? If so, my apologies. Not trying to be a nuisance, just trying to take part in a new forum (for me) and shed a little happiness on this fantastic Friday.

P.s. Only my second post and I've already ticked off a fellow poster. Ugh.
 
SalemScott,

You could have taken my words in silence, but yes they were for you. I am not mad. I sincerely do not care what you did there.

But I was trying to suggest you read a bit more, check the rules, and look for like posts among the discussion of knives. It is easy to jump in with your real personality and start having a fun time. But what if you just fell into a square dance class for seniors? A little out of place eh?
 
My dad had a scythe blade that had been hammer sharpened. By carefully re-forging the dents out of the edge, it would allow the owner to "quickly" get an edge back if they did not have access to a large grind stone. I suspect that the process may have been also used on swords and such much earlier, although I have no proof of it.
I've also heard that the grinding/polishing process for straight razors in Sheffield was to use a large wooden wheel, with the axle running vertical, a layer of lead applied to the wheel, and various grits embedded in the lead. I remember reading it being referred to as "black polishing" as the steel would be so fine as to look black in the light (perfect reflection)

The thing to take into consideration with any ancient process is that time really wasn't a factor. The more time spent, the more premium the end product, so for a craftsman to several weeks on something for say a general, or months for the king, would be no big deal, once people had started to settle into a more agricultural society. Generations of passed down knowledge, and years of personal perfection would have made for very good work.
 
I'm not sure what hammer sharpening is, do you mean pounding out dents with a hammer? If that is the case, I can see how you could do this with soft steel but you wouldn't be able to do that with a tempered edge like on a sword. Hit a sword edge and you get a cracked or broken sword.
 
Hammering the edge of a scythe to thin it was pretty standard practice, at least on big mowing jobs. Small anvils were carried that could be pounded into a handy stump or log (think big sophisticated railroad spike with a stop on the shank to keep it from going in too far) and the edge of the scythe could be both thinned and work hardened by taping it with a hammer on the anvil. The edge was finished with a hand stone.
 
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