- Joined
- Jan 12, 2009
- Messages
- 3,198
I was lucky when I started carrying around a knife. My Dad sharpened my Montgomery Wards BSA style knife for me once and made me study every move. I had access to the "stones" any time I wanted them, an old Norton of unknown origin and grit, and two different Arkansas stones. He would provide me all the instruction I needed if I asked, but refused to sharpen my knife for me. I worked hard a as a kiddo for a couple of years until I could get a reasonable edge.
Somewhere, sometime in the mid 60s I found dear old Dad was not using the most efficient method of sharpening a knife. I saw a card that came with a CASE or BUCK knife that was a "care and sharpening of your knife" pamphlet, and it was totally different than my Dad's method. It instructed to cut into the stone as if one were cutting a very thin slice off the top of the stone. Later I found something like this (just the first two or three pages) as a leaflet on sharpening:
http://www.buckknives.com/pdf/WEBKnifeSharpeningDocument.pdf
Everything changed. No more dragging the knife edge across the stone, no more swirling motion on a stone, no more folkloric methods passed around as instruction around a campfire. At about 10, my knives were sharper than any of the adults I was around except my Dad. (They had fallen prey to folklore as well!) After using my Boker stockman themselves after trying out my edge, a couple of my scoutmasters even had me sharpen up their knives!
The only knife shape that proved to be too much for me was a saber edge. Using stones was easy on my CASE knives as the large blades all had a small hollow grind on them, and equally easy were my Boker knives that had thin blades to begin with. The saber grinds had such obtuse angles on them I could never get enough metal off the blades to get a thin edge.
Bought a Lansky, and wasn't real happy. Operator error. It sat in the drawer for a couple of years. I ran into an article that was something like "getting the most out of your sharpening gear" in a magazine and found that I was using the Lansky incorrectly. Worse, I was skipping grits thinking I would get a better edge. Followed the instructions in the article, and then no traditional was safe again, regardless of factory grind. I found the joy of setting an accurate bevel I liked, then the ease of keeping it once it was set. A few swipes on the stone and I was back in business. With an accurate bevel, it even made sense to strop!
The Lansky even fixed this one:
The knife was given to me by an older fella that told me it wasn't a good knife, wouldn't hold and edge, and couldn't be sharpened. It had sat so long in a dirty drawer with no use it was nearly rusted shut. When we were talking about it, he told me that likewise, it was given to him for all the reasons he explained to me. This knife is about a '69 model, and with 2 owners had spent almost all of its time in a drawer because the owners couldn't sharpen it!
The grind is steeply obtuse as the main blade is about 1/2" at the kick, and an 1/8" thick! That means with its sabre grind it went from 1/8" to the cutting edge in about 1/4". Really steep...
Reprofiled and ground, it is now a favorite work knife for the Fall/Winter seasons with its carbon blades.
I use different devices for different blades, and can get my knives as sharp as I want. I would suggest to anyone that they remember that knife sharpening is a skill, and a skill that takes practice. But once you "get it", oh boy.....! Your enjoyment of your knives goes through the roof! Carrying knives daily for over 50 years, I never tire of pulling out a really sharp knife to use for any task, however menial. And better yet, once you get the hang of it you won't be thinking of how hard a knife design or profile might be to sharpen, you will only consider whether you want it or not!
Robert
Somewhere, sometime in the mid 60s I found dear old Dad was not using the most efficient method of sharpening a knife. I saw a card that came with a CASE or BUCK knife that was a "care and sharpening of your knife" pamphlet, and it was totally different than my Dad's method. It instructed to cut into the stone as if one were cutting a very thin slice off the top of the stone. Later I found something like this (just the first two or three pages) as a leaflet on sharpening:
http://www.buckknives.com/pdf/WEBKnifeSharpeningDocument.pdf
Everything changed. No more dragging the knife edge across the stone, no more swirling motion on a stone, no more folkloric methods passed around as instruction around a campfire. At about 10, my knives were sharper than any of the adults I was around except my Dad. (They had fallen prey to folklore as well!) After using my Boker stockman themselves after trying out my edge, a couple of my scoutmasters even had me sharpen up their knives!
The only knife shape that proved to be too much for me was a saber edge. Using stones was easy on my CASE knives as the large blades all had a small hollow grind on them, and equally easy were my Boker knives that had thin blades to begin with. The saber grinds had such obtuse angles on them I could never get enough metal off the blades to get a thin edge.
Bought a Lansky, and wasn't real happy. Operator error. It sat in the drawer for a couple of years. I ran into an article that was something like "getting the most out of your sharpening gear" in a magazine and found that I was using the Lansky incorrectly. Worse, I was skipping grits thinking I would get a better edge. Followed the instructions in the article, and then no traditional was safe again, regardless of factory grind. I found the joy of setting an accurate bevel I liked, then the ease of keeping it once it was set. A few swipes on the stone and I was back in business. With an accurate bevel, it even made sense to strop!
The Lansky even fixed this one:
The knife was given to me by an older fella that told me it wasn't a good knife, wouldn't hold and edge, and couldn't be sharpened. It had sat so long in a dirty drawer with no use it was nearly rusted shut. When we were talking about it, he told me that likewise, it was given to him for all the reasons he explained to me. This knife is about a '69 model, and with 2 owners had spent almost all of its time in a drawer because the owners couldn't sharpen it!
The grind is steeply obtuse as the main blade is about 1/2" at the kick, and an 1/8" thick! That means with its sabre grind it went from 1/8" to the cutting edge in about 1/4". Really steep...
Reprofiled and ground, it is now a favorite work knife for the Fall/Winter seasons with its carbon blades.
I use different devices for different blades, and can get my knives as sharp as I want. I would suggest to anyone that they remember that knife sharpening is a skill, and a skill that takes practice. But once you "get it", oh boy.....! Your enjoyment of your knives goes through the roof! Carrying knives daily for over 50 years, I never tire of pulling out a really sharp knife to use for any task, however menial. And better yet, once you get the hang of it you won't be thinking of how hard a knife design or profile might be to sharpen, you will only consider whether you want it or not!
Robert
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