Let's Talk About Sharpening Our Survive! Knives

Great old pics!

I lived in Japan for three years. The reason I went there was to study karate, and through my karate instructor I was fortunate enough to spend a little time in a kenjutsu (sword) school. To be clear, I am a TOTAL beginner that possesses nothing approaching competence with a sword or other traditional Japanese weapons. However, I did get to see some of the blades of the senior instructors at the school where I trained and a family sword owned by a fellow student with whom I studied karate. The craftsmanship of these blades (both were over 150 years old) was amazing, and the care given to the swords was almost fanatical. I have no idea how they were sharpened, but I was told that they were "super duper sharp."

edit to add...
I never heard about anything like sharpening with blood. Based on my experience with the Japanese culture, I have a hard time believing that is something that is practiced by anyone other than a few oddballs and silly americans.
 
I'll just throw this out there. I know I spend a lot of time worrying about which tool to use. However, as the video below demonstrated, you can create a VERY sharp edge with the most basic of tools.

[video=youtube;2tf414bkudE]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2tf414bkudE[/video]
 
calc said:
He claims it's a traditional technique that somebody recommended to him. I really don't care about cleanliness or anything like that, it's not hurting anything, but I really don't think there's any practical advantage to it.

[video=youtube;Gebk5W8YJc8]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gebk5W8YJc8[/video]
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Ouch! Doing it wrong! He just needs to slow down and as others have said, much less pressure.
 
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OK so I finally got some leather from a hobby shop tonight. I got a strop constructed. Once the glue is dry I'll get the excess leather cut off and get some photos. No compound yet. Any suggestions for a starter brand?
 
Texas_toothpick said:
OK so I finally got some leather from a hobby shop tonight. I got a strop constructed. Once the glue is dry I'll get the excess leather cut off and get some photos. No compound yet. Any suggestions for a starter brand?
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Started or pro.. Bark River compound. Hands down. I only use black anymore but the black and green will start to make your edge shine and the white is for surgical tools only haha

Black- 3000 grit

Green- 6000 grit

White- 12000 grit
 
The leather I got was not great just some scrap. It does not even have a smooth side. Will the rough side if leather still take compound. Or should I be using something smoother.
 
I just found some at ksf. I guess I should have done more homework. I didn't realize it wasn't so pricey or od have got thus stuff long ago. Lol. Thanks MoS
 
What's the difference in his compounds? I seen red, white, black, green. I'm new to all this but I figure he's got different grits as well.

Edit: I finally found it on his site. Thanks for the heads up. Its a little cheaper and more compact which is what I need. I'll be getting some soon.
 
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I'm a big fan of the Bark River compounds also but I bet they're all pretty much the same. I could be wrong though!
I've even read that the compounds from Lowes are ok.
 
Texas_toothpick said:
The leather I got was not great just some scrap. It does not even have a smooth side. Will the rough side if leather still take compound. Or should I be using something smoother.
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Either side will take compound. The rough will side will likely take more compound honestly. Heat it up with a hair dryer and it'll open up the pores and help the compound spread better too. The BRKT compounds are expensive but will literally last you years unless you're wasting the stuff. I've had the same 3 sticks for like 2 years now and I'm not even half way done with them yet. You can go with whatever stuff you want, I just know what works for me. A mirror polished edge is worth as much as and will last as long as a hot wet dog turd IMO so I'd save the money and skip the white compound. It's so fine that you might as well strop on bare leather as your final step if you want to get that crazy. Like I said I rarely use green unless someone wants a VERY fine edge. Black is plenty fine and is great for refining a nice shaving sharp edge and great for touching up your knife after some use between stone sharpenings. If you maintain it right and don't do anything crazy or roll your edge the black compound on your strop will help eliminate stone sharpenings and heavily extend the life of your knife. My edc gets stropped maybe once a week during normal use and if I really have to get it nasty and it gets cleaned and hits the strop at the end of the day and will be back to shaving in 2 dozen passes or so on each side.

ETA: my older strops are rough side up and the nap of the leather seems to help convex stuff because it makes for a thicker surface with more give. The newer ones are smooth side up but have been sanded and prepped for taking compound. For those that don't want to make your own, check out Flexxx Strops.. He makes all mine and is a good guy to deal with.
 
I'm not sure if anyone has checked out Murray Carter. Murray is a bladesmith who trained in Japan, and makes knives using traditional Japanese forging methods. At any rate, he has lots of videos on sharpening using synthetic Japanese water stones. He does it all with 1K and a 6 K King stones.
 
Thanks MoS! There's so much info out there, to a newbie its overload.

Hey MvM, been too long bud. I'll have to check him out. It be a while before I get to one of them stones. I'm still a grasshopper! :) I love seeing people using the Japanese stones though. Seem to be a little more skill involved.

How's Lucas coming along?:)
 
Texas_toothpick said:
Thanks MoS! There's so much info out there, to a newbie its overload.

Hey MvM, been too long bud. I'll have to check him out. It be a while before I get to one of them stones. I'm still a grasshopper! :) I love seeing people using the Japanese stones though. Seem to be a little more skill involved.

How's Lucas coming along?:)
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Lucas has settled in nicely. He is just a goofball. He was just perfect with the 2 grandkids last weekend. Oldest is 2.
 
Totally not trying to start a Stropman vs Bark River compound war. My experience was that the Stropman compound was much softer and easier to apply. Lots of folks like Bark River, but I think that is because of familiarity and availability rather than objective performance. I use Stropman black and white and think it is similar to Bark River black and green.

My personal favorite for stropping to a working edge is Flexcut Gold on their CHEAP strop. You can get the compound AND strop for $14 at knifecenter.
 
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