I was surprised to see that there was no sticky created for the basics of knife sharpening in this forum. If it exists elsewhere and I'm missing it somehow I would appreciate if someone could direct me to it.
That's not to say I didn't stumble upon some in-depth threads in this forum on all the various finer points of obtaining and maintaining the perfect edge, that's all fantastic information and excellent discussion by obvious enthusiasts of the craft. But I feel its also way over the top for beginner-to-medium knowledge of many. Sometimes having too much information is a bad thing, it paralyzes us and prevents us from acting and this is why I think a sticky on the basics would be an excellent addition here. Here is a general phenomena I have observed on forums of all types, be it for home audio, cars, knives, whatever, basically anything people are passionate about:
As you can see, there is invariably a 'sweet spot' in the middle where you get the most bang for your buck (not just money-wise but also your time invested, etc). If you go too low on the graph you get an inferior product, or in the case of the actual sharpening you do it shoddily and you wind up with a poor edge because you didn't invest the time and technique to do it properly. Conversely at the top end you get expensive products and complicated techniques and equipment (much higher learning curve too), and yes, while they do improve on the overall final outcome it eventually becomes a product of diminishing returns.
My story is pretty simple, growing up I had pocket knives and hunting knives for camping and stuff and I learned how to sharpen them from my grandad who was a master at it and all he had was a couple stones and a wooden base that he'd built himself in his workshop. He also had a set of small stones to take out into the field and a little bottle of oil to keep his blades protected from rust. I guess my point of all this is that grandad didn't have any of the fancy technology or equipment that we do today and still was able to get a razor sharp edge that would hold up admirably so I feel like that would be a great starting point for me to re-learn the skill from the bottom up.
So where should I begin? What would you buy for stones? (both for home and field use) What about a knife guide to maintain the angle, is that a good idea at first to learn how to perfect it? What's a good model for a simple guide? What angle would you start with? 25? 20? other? What technique would you use in how you draw the blade against the stone (how much pressure, etc) Anything else you can think of?
Apologies for the long post, thanks for reading!
That's not to say I didn't stumble upon some in-depth threads in this forum on all the various finer points of obtaining and maintaining the perfect edge, that's all fantastic information and excellent discussion by obvious enthusiasts of the craft. But I feel its also way over the top for beginner-to-medium knowledge of many. Sometimes having too much information is a bad thing, it paralyzes us and prevents us from acting and this is why I think a sticky on the basics would be an excellent addition here. Here is a general phenomena I have observed on forums of all types, be it for home audio, cars, knives, whatever, basically anything people are passionate about:
As you can see, there is invariably a 'sweet spot' in the middle where you get the most bang for your buck (not just money-wise but also your time invested, etc). If you go too low on the graph you get an inferior product, or in the case of the actual sharpening you do it shoddily and you wind up with a poor edge because you didn't invest the time and technique to do it properly. Conversely at the top end you get expensive products and complicated techniques and equipment (much higher learning curve too), and yes, while they do improve on the overall final outcome it eventually becomes a product of diminishing returns.
My story is pretty simple, growing up I had pocket knives and hunting knives for camping and stuff and I learned how to sharpen them from my grandad who was a master at it and all he had was a couple stones and a wooden base that he'd built himself in his workshop. He also had a set of small stones to take out into the field and a little bottle of oil to keep his blades protected from rust. I guess my point of all this is that grandad didn't have any of the fancy technology or equipment that we do today and still was able to get a razor sharp edge that would hold up admirably so I feel like that would be a great starting point for me to re-learn the skill from the bottom up.
So where should I begin? What would you buy for stones? (both for home and field use) What about a knife guide to maintain the angle, is that a good idea at first to learn how to perfect it? What's a good model for a simple guide? What angle would you start with? 25? 20? other? What technique would you use in how you draw the blade against the stone (how much pressure, etc) Anything else you can think of?
Apologies for the long post, thanks for reading!
I wish I could remember the stuff he taught me but its been too long and I was young when he was alive. Thanks for the solid tips.
