I'm not able to get my latest GEC's sharp!

[knarfeng]

I walked away to late. Removed more metal than I should. It's unbelievably annoying to know you've done such damage to a new nice knife.

Misery loves company so you should enjoy this one. Here's a Charlow whose useful life was shortened by my impatience.

As you can see the blade profile is narrower than on a new one. Hard to believe that I've only had it for little over a month. Oh well, it cuts much better now.

- Christian

I'm another who has been there and done that. And didn't like it.
An expensive lesson to be sure. But I did finally end up with a sharp Queen D2 blade.

 

[Campbellclanman]

Boy, I am glad others have had this trouble, I had this on one of my favourite GEC's ( and first ever ), I did take out the belly somewhat by this experience, I recently HAD to take out the belly of my latest Barlow - my lovely Red Bone Clip-point, because I foolishly let my mate a knife, and he took 3 chunks out the blade - I nearly died when I got home and saw this -first and last lesson on lending knives - so I carefully re-profiled it

 

[sogflash]

It helps to know that others make mistakes as well.

I'm not giving up free hand sharpening. I've found some old inexpensive knives with thin blades to practice on.

 

[Woodrow F Call]

Gary, I'm convinced the Lansky is what allowed me to progress with freehand.

Stay with me on this... In a former life, I taught Alpine (downhill) skiing. Now, I do Telemark skiing which is sort of like skiing downhill on heavy duty cross-country skis. Like cross-country, you're heels aren't locked down and it's either super satisfying or an endless comedy of errors due to the resulting lack of control. When people ask me how to learn, I tell them to take downhill lessons first. It's easier to learn the basics with the extra support.

I struggled with freehand sharpening and eventually just gave up. Couldn't figure it out. A few years ago a buddy loaned me his Lansky. It taught me a feel for the burr and how to use different angles for different steels and uses. More than anything, I think it taught me a feel for sharpening.

When I want to put a good edge on a knife, I still go for the Lansky. But my abilities free hand have made leaps and bounds.

I'm using a DMT aligner and a 30X hand held microscope. I did freehand before, but I struggled. I could get something reasonably sharp, but not near what I wanted. The DMT and microscope has helped me understand the amount of work it takes to re-profile and edge, what a burr really is, and how much work it takes to work all the way down an edge. I have learned a good deal about how to sharpen and feel that I can do much more with freehand than I ever could have before.

I plan to get back into freehand after I get some more stones.

 

[okbohn]

Any time I am hand sharpening, I sharpen with a leather hone and sandpaper. It is the easiest way I have found.

Here is an explanation of how I do it...well mostly. This is specifically for convex ground knives, but I use it on everything I own.

Sharpening Videos

 

[J D Wijbenga]

Here is the video Gary mentioned a few posts back of Jackknife sharpening.
[video=youtube;SEMLu8e34ck]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SEMLu8e34ck&list=PLtzZXHg-rLn9lhijueT8dVve6wQ4rGkDg&index=2[/video]

 

[festerfromnzed]

Misery loves company so you should enjoy this one. Here's a Charlow whose useful life was shortened by my impatience.

As you can see the blade profile is narrower than on a new one. Hard to believe that I've only had it for little over a month. Oh well, it cuts much better now.

- Christian

Recurve Charlow lookws awesome!!...Ive done worse..............FES

 

[avoidspam]

Any time I am hand sharpening, I sharpen with a leather hone and sandpaper. It is the easiest way I have found.

Here is an explanation of how I do it...well mostly. This is specifically for convex ground knives, but I use it on everything I own.

Sharpening Videos

This is the method I follow except that I use a mousemat as backing (still maintain with a leather strop) (with the exception of my Puukko). I sharpen a lot of hand tools with my work and the tricky bit is that step from one person to the next. By this I mean that your knife for example will have had an edge put on it by wheel and by someone else. That transition from them to you and your method is where it gets interesting. Once a knife has been reprofiled (gradually or in one go) by you everything is a lot easier because it is set for your sharpening method. Hence I tend to reprofile with a convex edge bevel straight away, once set sharpening is easy. A word of warning though, if you are planning to keep the blade pristine then care is needed. Personally I'm not worried, by the time I have finished scratches are minimal as I will have finished with 1000 grit before stropping and all my knives gain a patina (covers a multitude of sins).

I also like the way an edge looks when it is done this way, more in keeping with a traditional

My Sharpmaker continues to gather dust.......

 

[getout87]

Here is the video Gary mentioned a few posts back of Jackknife sharpening.
[video=youtube;SEMLu8e34ck]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SEMLu8e34ck&list=PLtzZXHg-rLn9lhijueT8dVve6wQ4rGkDg&index=2[/video]

great video, thank you.

 

[sogflash]

I used the sandpaper and mousepad method and I got the cody scout very sharp. The eureka jack got sharp, just not as sharp as the cody scout. I think this will be my new method of sharpening traditionals.