Knife jig for scary sharp method?

L

looker

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Jun 4, 2007
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I have seen many jigs/ honing guides for chisels, planes, but not one for knives. Does anyone make one or have some sort of creative diy ideas?

Thanks.
 
Look for the DMT products, Razor edge... among others.

There are numerous jigs and guides for sharpening cutlery. There is one from a Japanese company that looks like a chip bag clip.

You can even use a paper clamp as a makeshift guide.
 
Like a DMT Aligner kit?

I use my Sharpmaker and that is as scary sharp as I want it. Once it's floating hair off my arm I generally stop unless I want to push cut atoms.
 
Josh K said:
Like a DMT Aligner kit?

I use my Sharpmaker and that is as scary sharp as I want it. Once it's floating hair off my arm I generally stop unless I want to push cut atoms.
Click to expand...

Humble recommendation: Start right. Start from the start. Start with a good stone and a strop. Before you know it you'll be sharpening knives the right way and you'll have the sharpest knives in the planet, excluding mine ;)
 
mendezj said:
Humble recommendation: Start right. Start from the start. Start with a good stone and a strop. Before you know it you'll be sharpening knives the right way and you'll have the sharpest knives in the planet, excluding mine ;)
Click to expand...

What is the right way? Is it using a bench stone and guiding by hand and eye across the stone at the desired angle?

The goal is to have the two sides of the edge meet in as fine of an intersecting line as possible. Hopefully the angles will be even and neat.

If that is the case and the sharp blade is the desired outcome and the sharpening is not the hobby in and of itself then what is wrong with using a jig or rod to guide the blade across the stone or the stone across the blade?

Replace your hand and eye maintaining the angle with a jig and fixture.

You can learn a lot about sharpening in starting out with a guided system. It will be less frustrating to start and may or may not lead to freehanding. In my case it has not except in spcial cases.
 
I can do a pretty good job most of the time, freehand with stones, but I’ve seen how effective these honing guides are with chisels and planes. So I’m curious to know if I can better results and prevent the cosmetic oops that I get when I make those inevitable errand free hand strokes with something made for knives.

Hard H20 – I’ll give the paper clamp a go tonight, do I need to do something to it?
 
looker said:
I can do a pretty good job most of the time, freehand with stones, but I’ve seen how effective these honing guides are with chisels and planes. So I’m curious to know if I can better results and prevent the cosmetic oops that I get when I make those inevitable errand free hand strokes with something made for knives.

Hard H20 – I’ll give the paper clamp a go tonight, do I need to do something to it?
Click to expand...

Never done it myself. I would think that it would engourage light strokes as it would seem to me that the clamp would not stay rigid on the blade.

Clamp one on and give it a go. The key is to have both sides of th edge meet when you are done.
 
looker said:
I have seen many jigs/ honing guides for chisels, planes, but not one for knives. Does anyone make one or have some sort of creative diy ideas?

Thanks.
Click to expand...

I was looking for a DIY jig a while back, the easiest i found was here:

http://www.knifeforums.com/forums/showtopic.php?tid/807025/

I just used what i had laying around so it wasn't an exact copy, but it works pretty good.
The edges came out much neater than i can do freehand and it really helped to visualize the angles.
If you do make it, use temporary spray adhesive on the sandpaper so it can be replaced easy.
 
mendezj said:
Humble recommendation: Start right. Start from the start. Start with a good stone and a strop. Before you know it you'll be sharpening knives the right way and you'll have the sharpest knives in the planet, excluding mine ;)
Click to expand...

Can you sharpen a Hawkbill on that stone and strop? ;)
 
I've tried it all, and for me, no jigs, angle holders, gimmicks,etc. I go totally by feel and eyeball. Practice,practice,practice. And if you don't want to srew up your $400 folder, practice on cheap kinves till your confident and good enough to produce a sharp edge.
It's all old school I know, but works for me, and I need less gear. BTW, recurves,HG,Scandi,Chisel,etc...makes no diff to me, you get good at them all, given time.
 
hiwa said:
I've tried it all, and for me, no jigs, angle holders, gimmicks,etc. I go totally by feel and eyeball. Practice,practice,practice. And if you don't want to srew up your $400 folder, practice on cheap kinves till your confident and good enough to produce a sharp edge.
It's all old school I know, but works for me, and I need less gear. BTW, recurves,HG,Scandi,Chisel,etc...makes no diff to me, you get good at them all, given time.
Click to expand...

I'm saying, how do you sharpen this

t2.jpg


On this

Diamond_Bench_Stone.jpg
 
Josh K said:
Can you sharpen a Hawkbill on that stone and strop? ;)
Click to expand...

It's definitely possible to sharpen a hawk bill on a stone. They predate most guided systems by many years. People have been sharpening them some way or the other ( probably by stones) for at least a hundred years. People sometimes forget that people were sharpening knives before Louis Graves came around.:D
 
OmarTrader – she’s a monster!

HardH20 – I’m playing with one now. I can see quite a bit of movement, just sliding my knife across my desk. It’s gonna need some sort of wedge like a wooded match. It’ll probably eat the stones as well. Something that rides on bearings or completely off the stones would be better.

I didn’t mean to open a can of worms between sharpening freehand or with a mechanical device. I enjoy rubbing a piece of metal against a muddy rock as much as anyone. Doing it freehand is all I know, but there are times when I don’t want to mess with the stones and for whatever reason (bad day, spend the morning weed whacking, etc) where it’s just not happening. It would be more helpful to me to hear about the ones you've tried, what worked or failed and why.
 
I have two. Both are rod guided. The GATCO and the KME are the two that I have.

The GATCO is the one I favor. It has enough angle adjustments for my taste. The stones are wider than the Lansky. The price is not bad. I have the extra fine and ultimate finishing hones. I finish on strops no matter the system used.

The KME is nice. I think you are a bit limited in stone choices. The spherical bearing is not needed in my opinion. It is a bit pricey compared to the GATCO.

I think the DMT aligner is used with the guiding portion off the stone and only the blade edge contactig the stone.

It seems that with most any system you can sharpen a blade if you do your part.
 
Josh K said:
I'm saying, how do you sharpen this

t2.jpg


On this

Diamond_Bench_Stone.jpg
Click to expand...

My comp doesn't show your pic, but if its a hawkbill blade , it's pretty tough,if not impossible to use a flat stone. If it was my knife, I'd go to rods,and take my time,especially on the tight radius part.
 
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