Murray Carter DVD

Am I understanding his sharpening method right ? Does the sharpening stroke start at the tip then move back towards the ricasso? Thanks for the link Ron, very interesting.
 
db His method of sharpening is very similar to what the people at razor's edge do re profile the hole knife making it thinner that means laying the knife down flat on the stone and putting your fingers at the spots that needs to have metal removed from.
That means the whole knife gets scratched up but you end up with a very thin knife. Thin knives cut better than thick ones.
From there he divides the knife up into sections and works on each section one at a time from the tip to the handle. You would not want to use your expensive knives in this thinning process.
He has what he calls his six steps to sharpening.
Hope this helps :) If I were to try this on any half way decent knife I would just use his steps five and six. You would not get the full effect but your knife would not like like it's been used for the last sixty years either.
 
ok, that's one method I won't be using. but why three fingers...one finger is enough?
 
spyken said:
ok, that's one method I won't be using. but why three fingers...one finger is enough?
You are probably less likely to apply enough pressure to cut yourself with three fingers. That is a very old method, around here though everyone reverses it and uses the thumb across the blade. It isn't very precise though, it is just a rough feell.

As you do it with more and more knives you will develop a more precise tolerance but for a beginner you would have trouble telling a sharp from very sharp, and rough edges would grab more, plus it would also be prone to passing burrs. To be complete you need to do it from both sides.

I would recommend a simple newsprint test instead. Take a phonebook or similar and pull up one page and hold it by one side, take your knife and push it down into the middle of the page and cut it straight down. That is a fairly sharp knife.

-Cliff
 
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