My sharpening skills seem to be improving...

Kaizen1

Kaizen1

Joined
Jan 4, 2006
Messages
6,294
...I just reached a new level, I was able to push cut newspaper:thumbup:.

And I still don't understand some of the stuff you guys talk about with sharpening and stropping. I don't know about micron sheets and green stuff you put on the leather for stropping. I sharpen freehand and I'm too cheap to buy a good flat stone, so my sharpening process is pretty basic. I freehand on the Spyderco triangle stones, first the fine, then the ultrafine. I strop on the back of a legal pad without adding anything to it and then I very lightly strop on the ultrafine rod at a higher angle. Got lots more to learn...
 
Very happy to hear your enjoying your efforts and have become proficient freehanding. It takes some time to develope the skill and you're using some excellent tools to get there. A couple of tricks to add to your skill set. You can add regular Crest toothpast (the stardard blue variety) to add some additional grit to your cardboard stropping. Don't know why, but it polishes the edge a bit more than just the cardboard. Following the cardboard stropping finish with stropping on newspaper. It polishes again in much the same way. Experiment with different papers on flat glass backing and you'll be surprised by the results (standard 20lb bond gives a different polish, more agressive finish, than newsprint). It's a bit of an addiction once you get started playing with different materials. And don't forget, you can pick up an inexpensive Norton Crystalon (silicon carbide) 6" dual grit f/c stone from Home Depot for about $5 (as well as an assortment of different grit wet dry sand paper used on a card board or mouse backing).

NJ
 
Native Justice said:
Very happy to hear your enjoying your efforts and have become proficient freehanding. It takes some time to develope the skill and you're using some excellent tools to get there. A couple of tricks to add to your skill set. You can add regular Crest toothpast (the stardard blue variety) to add some additional grit to your cardboard stropping. Don't know why, but it polishes the edge a bit more than just the cardboard. Following the cardboard stropping finish with stropping on newspaper. It polishes again in much the same way. Experiment with different papers on flat glass backing and you'll be surprised by the results (standard 20lb bond gives a different polish, more agressive finish, than newsprint). It's a bit of an addiction once you get started playing with different materials. And don't forget, you can pick up an inexpensive Norton Crystalon (silicon carbide) 6" dual grit f/c stone from Home Depot for about $5 (as well as an assortment of different grit wet dry sand paper used on a card board or mouse backing).

NJ
Click to expand...

Thanks NJ! I tried the newspaper last night an got imediate results. Sharpness just jumped up another level because of that. I'm going to try the other stuff later.
 
I keep my stropping pretty simple and cheap. I purchased some scrap leather from a Tandy store for $2.00. Then I bought one stick of white polishing compound and one of red from Sears fo less than $5.00 for both.

Cost less than $7.00.

I start with the white and crayon it to a strop sized chunk of leather unmounted just laying on the work bench. I then stroke edge trailing one side and then the other about 10 times per side give or take. I match the angle of the sharpening to the angle of the stropping. I then switch to a different chunk of leather loaded with the red and repeat.
 
I second what hard water said but instead of matching the angle I lay the blade flat to the leather. The strop will give a little and will reach the edge nicely with very little pressure. This will polish the edge and not deform it.

I have found that tacking the strop to a thin piece of wood contributes to scary sharp as well.Good Luck :thumbup:
 
As a wood carver for the past 19yrs I have been stropping my blades on either leather or pigskin glued on a piece of firring strip- something about 1-1/2 inches wide.and at least 3/4" thick.. at at least 14 inches long..there are alot of commercial stropping compounds from A to Z all do a good job. A world famous wood carver let the cat out of the bag that they were experimenting with good ol' toothpaste on a strop will polish a blade. When you see the black appear on that strop that is the actual steel being polished of the blade when that gets really dark you can scrape that black residue off the strop and add more compound to the strop.
Have a good day
bill
 
Glad to see you're having fun with it Phil. I just picked up some 600, 800, and 1000 grit paper this past weekend to start foolin' around with my Bark River Boot Knife's convex edge. I was also thinking about picking up some leather, but I have a legal pad on my desk and some toothpaste in the bathroom so I'm going to mess around with that for now, thanks for the idea. This sharpening stuff gets addictive;)

Cheers,
Jon
 
Kaizen, I was going to say your technique was fairly advanced until I started hearing about the toothpaste! ((( :D ))) Still, a Sharpmaker followed by cardboard was a pretty good start!

It's a funny thing. When I joined this forum a year ago, I was afraid to sharpen my knives. Most of them were *dull* and the rest weren;t sharp. For years, I used japanese waterstones and wet/dry to sharpen my wood chisels to where they would shave a continuous strip of hair from my arm, but still I was afraid to do my knives. I didn;t know it, but I already knew how to sharpen....I was just *afraid* to!

After listening to everybody's advice and techniques here and then investing in a Sharpmaker, I used it until until one day, while at Sportsman's Warehouse, I realized I could sharpen on a benchstone too! So now, while I consider myself a beginner, I'm a beginner who is getting results.... and things are working for me. It sounds to me like that;'s right where you are! :thumbup:
 
Thanks everyone for the tips and the props. I started another thread, but I should've just followed up on this one. Thanks to Native Justice's newspaper tip, I jumped up another level and started whittling hair! I'm going to be trying out some of the other stuff too.

StretchNM,

To be clear I don't actually use the Sharpmaker, I just freehand with the ceramics that go into the Sharpmaker.
 
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