How to sharpen????

D

dwenslen

Joined
Oct 5, 2000
Messages
430
OK, I know this is basic, but I've been around knives all my life, but never learned how to sharpen one correctly. I have a lansky kit with the three "bars" and the clamp. I have 2 benchmades (1 in m2) and some others that I would like to put a good edge on-I just want to know how to do it right and not screw up what is already there.
any help or suggestions would be much appreciated.
thanks in advance,
cheers,
Derek
Birmingham, AL
 
You're gonna get a lot of "Do a search on sharpening stuff" but I'll try to give you a real answer.

Regardless of what shapening system you chose to use the principles are the same:

Work one side of the blade with a coarse grit until a burr forms all along the opposite edge. A burr is a thin wire edge that can be felt with your finger nail. It means that one edge is actually making full contact with the other edge and forming a true point.

Once you develop a burr on one side start sharpening the other side until you form a burr on the opposite side.

Switch grits and start the process again.

With successively higher grits you will use less pressure and form a thinner burr. At the very end, just lightly stoke each side to remove the burr on one side without pushing it over to the other side.

Basically this is how you sharpen. Hope this helps.
 
Welcome to the sport. Do yourself a favor and listen to a guy who has screwed up more times than he can remember--buy old kitchen knives at garage sales for practice, and get a magic marker and a magnifying glass. Practice on the cheap stuff--and read, read, read. This is a great sport and the guys here are very helpful. Don't frustrate yourself. Tell us how you are doing.--OKG
 
Derek-

You're just a couple of mouse clicks from the answer right here in BladeForums. There is an excellent article of sharpening by Joe Talmadge at http://www.bladeforums.com/features/faqsharp.shtml. There is a reference in that article to an excellent book on sharpening: "The Razor Edge Book of Sharpening" by John Juranitch. After reading these you will understand the principle and then you will be able to sharpen.

-Steven
 
The angle markings are wrong. If you have half an inch of the blade sticking out from the
clamp, the actual angles are about 13, 17, 21, and 25 degrees. This varies slightly by
how the blade is clamped and what part of the blade you are sharpening (farther from
the clamp angle selector, the lower the angle).

For Benchmades, I would suggest using the second to the top hole (labeled as 25, but closer to 21). Actually, Benchmade has relatively steep grinds, and it will take awhile to reprofile the edge down to 21-degrees (I prefer lower angles, though Benchmade prefers higher anles). If you want to save time, go with the very top hole.

I personally would spend an hour reprofiling the edge with the extra coarse stone, but I have no life....

BTW, another tip.... cover the blade in masking tape before clamping. The clamp will scratch the knife. The masking tape will help prevent this. Then gently peel the part that is near the edge, so you can grind at the edge.

[This message has been edited by Comrade Chang (edited 10-06-2000).]
 
LANSKY.JPG


Look at the blade, and the little rolled over part of the edge. It is exaggerated, but that is what the burr will be like when you have ground all the way through. You can feel it from the other side by brushing your thumb across the edge. Raise it from both sides, and then progress to the finer stones and gradually the burrs will be smaller. Once you are on your finest stone, just remove the burr with only light strokes. Push the stone so that the knife would be almost like cutting into the stone.

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Chang the Asian Janitorial Apparatus
 
Some people notice that the tip area is always ground at a lower angle than the rest and it therefore takes longer to reprofile the tip area. The image below shows their flawed clamping. Notice that the tip is farther from the holes than the base of the edge. Sometimes you will need to lean the blade in slightly to make the tip about the same distance from the hole guide as the base. In a right triangle, one of the legs is at a fixed length (this is the height to the clamp guide hole). But the other leg (base of clamp section with holes to knife edge) is longer at the tip area than with the base. Hopefully that makes some sense. It would be hard to show without 3-D. Maybe I will make Lansky Tutorial 3-D sometime.
smile.gif


ANGLE.JPG


In that picture, it shows how the base is going to be at a higher angle compared to to the tip portion of the edge if you clamp the knife completely straight.

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Chang the Asian Janitorial Apparatus
 
Sometimes if your knife isn't really worn, you can just use a sharpening steel to restore the edge. Here is how:

steeling.jpg


The weight of the blade is all you need on the final strokes! Push lightly, but not too hard at first. You don't want to blunt your edge. Practice makes perfect.
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Chang the Asian Janitorial Apparatus

[This message has been edited by Comrade Chang (edited 10-06-2000).]
 
WOW! Thanks guys for going to all this trouble-it will give me something to do this weekend, keep me away from the wife and out of trouble.
thanks again!
cheers,
Derek
 
Dwenslen, be careful and start with a cheaper knife. If I messed up my BM's severely, I'd cry.
smile.gif


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Chang the Asian Janitorial Apparatus
 
I did a little work on them last night and took it slow and did improve the edge, but I still don't think it is as sharp as it can get. I did some practice on a huge british para knife and a glock knife.
I had much less trouble with the chisel ground bm 970 than I thought.
Again, thanks for all y'alls help and the great diagrams.
cheers,
Derek
Birmingham, AL
 
Today, while being dragged through the mall by my evil wife, I wandered into one of those over-priced knife shops. I was asking around about sharpening kit they had and the guy really rec'd a diamond sharpener, with the two sticks set up. It seemed too simple to do to be good-what is the story on this? I'm using the lansky kit with teh 3 stones and the clamp-but is there an easier/better way? I am not so concerned about easy, but the right way.
thanks again,
Cheers,
Derek
 
Those diamond things works fine for quick working edge, but they aren't very versatile.
 
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