Sorry in advance for the bad writing it's late and I just had this idea. I am no good at sharpening , I have a small stone for axes and a smith pocket pal sharpener. I've looked to buy a set of sharpening stone but they are not cheap money is tight, so here's the idea: buying sandpaper from 200 to 1000 grit, glue them to wood block, then make a homemade strop with some leather a wood block. Do you think this would work to sharpen most knifes ? Or since the sandpaper is for wood it will have no effect on a knife steel?
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Poor's man sharpening system
- Thread starter Nick18
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i believe there is sand paper for metal. but as for making it into a knife sharpener i have no experience so i dont know how well they look. sorry.
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You'd do better with some wet-or-dry sandpaper (the black stuff you find in the automotive area usually), which works great for sharpening knives. A lot of folks, myself included, have had a lot of success with some pieces of sandpaper and an old, thick mousepad. That works great for making or maintaining a bit of a 'convex' edge. Plus it costs literally the cost of the sandpaper, which is about as cheap as you can get.
I've heard a few woodworkers say they like using a piece of glass with wet-or-dry sandpaper glued to it, too, for sharpening plane irons and chisels and such.
Your idea should work fine. :thumbup:
I've heard a few woodworkers say they like using a piece of glass with wet-or-dry sandpaper glued to it, too, for sharpening plane irons and chisels and such.
Your idea should work fine. :thumbup:
You can buy a cheap norton oilstone, with a medium and fine, or coarse and fine. But yeah, you could use sandpaper, alot of people do it to get convex edges. A good deal of us literally use belt sanders. The sandpaper will work for steel, it's all gonna be the same thing; aluminum oxide or zirconium oxide etc. You can buy a pack of 220, 400, 800, 1000 grit 3m sandpaper for about 6 bucks, full sheets too.
I started out with the smiths trihone though, still have it; just don't use it. I do all my edges on a belt sander so they are convex not flat, so it wouldn't work on the smith being it's just three stones.
I started out with the smiths trihone though, still have it; just don't use it. I do all my edges on a belt sander so they are convex not flat, so it wouldn't work on the smith being it's just three stones.
Bill DeShivs
Knifemaker / Craftsman / Service Provider
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Use wet/dry automotive silicon carbide paper. Aluminum oxide is for wood.
BluntCut MetalWorks
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iirc, wood sandpaper abrasive is garnet. Garnet is sharper & less friable to reduce loading with soft wood particles; however ineffective for abrading metal. Fused Al2O3 should able to abrades metal, which contained in most oil & water stones. That said, AlO belts are ok for metal and excellent for wood.
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:thumbup:
It'll absolutely work for most steels, using SiC sandpaper, such as 3M Wet-or-Dry, or Norton's 'SandWet'. I sharpen and re-bevel most of my knives this way, as of late (I use sandpaper over glass).
As mentioned, avoid the wood-only papers (garnet), which won't be effective on hardened steel.
BTW, the AlOx (aluminum oxide) paper works well on steel too, and you'll often see it used in much finer grits (to sub-micron, in some cases) for high polish. AlOx is often used in mylar-backed polishing tapes & sheets, and woodworkers often use it to hone chisels & plane blades. I've used some of this stuff on glass backing, and it works great.
David
It'll absolutely work for most steels, using SiC sandpaper, such as 3M Wet-or-Dry, or Norton's 'SandWet'. I sharpen and re-bevel most of my knives this way, as of late (I use sandpaper over glass).
As mentioned, avoid the wood-only papers (garnet), which won't be effective on hardened steel.
BTW, the AlOx (aluminum oxide) paper works well on steel too, and you'll often see it used in much finer grits (to sub-micron, in some cases) for high polish. AlOx is often used in mylar-backed polishing tapes & sheets, and woodworkers often use it to hone chisels & plane blades. I've used some of this stuff on glass backing, and it works great.
David
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I've been using nothing but W/D s'paper to sharpen and reprofile for maybe 15 years now. You needn't glue it to a piece of wood, just use a countertop or flat wood block, I put the paper on glass for the finer grits. On a complete reprofile I'll drop to 320 but gen'ly for sharpening (depending on how dull) I'll start at 600 or 1000, take it to 1500. I have paper to 3000 but I find 1500, dressed w/ a handheld ceramic, is adequate.
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Putting the sand paper on glass will make the paper more rigid like it was a stone. I think that's the best option.
Hey Nick, how ya doing?
The sandpaper would work, but it's not a choice I would make. You say you have a small stone for the axe, what kind of stone is it?
I would suggest just practicing the old free hand sharpening with that stone. It's easier than you think. Main thing is not to think about it too much, because if you over think it, it becomes over complicated. Don't worry about angle and micro bevels and all that stuff. Get yourself a dry erase felt tip marker to color the blade edge with and go to work.
Take the knife, and with the stone laying on a table, make like you want to cut the stone in half, with the blade contacting the stone surface at 90 degrees. Holding it there on the stone in the middle, lay the blade over half of that. This puts you at about 45 degrees. Now cut that distance in half again, and you are in the neighborhood. Start honing the blade edge in a small circle movement, keeping in contact with the stone while honing. Do this starting back at the kick, (base of the blade near the handle,) and slowly take a full minute to work your waay to the tip of the blade, keeping in contact the whole time. When you get to the tip, turn the blade over and do the same thing on the other side. Repeat as needed. Use the felt tip marker to keep track of what your doing. After a while, your kife will have a pretty good edge, and you will develop a feel for it using less pressure as the knife gets sharper. A stropping on leather after this will give you a shaving edge on your knife. This is the old way the boy scout manual had to sharpen back in the 1950's. It works fast, anyone can do it, and it's effective on a wide variety of mediums, like the bottom of a coffee mug, a piece of brick or smooth stone, or pocket size hones.
I've tried all the wauys to sharpen a knife, and I even went the diamond route. I eventually went back to what worked grat when I was a kid. Sometimes the simple old ways are still the best. It will let you resharpen literally anywhere, at any time. It ain't rocket science, and don't waste your money on fancy gizmo's. A small pocket stone and practice is all you need.
Carl.
The sandpaper would work, but it's not a choice I would make. You say you have a small stone for the axe, what kind of stone is it?
I would suggest just practicing the old free hand sharpening with that stone. It's easier than you think. Main thing is not to think about it too much, because if you over think it, it becomes over complicated. Don't worry about angle and micro bevels and all that stuff. Get yourself a dry erase felt tip marker to color the blade edge with and go to work.
Take the knife, and with the stone laying on a table, make like you want to cut the stone in half, with the blade contacting the stone surface at 90 degrees. Holding it there on the stone in the middle, lay the blade over half of that. This puts you at about 45 degrees. Now cut that distance in half again, and you are in the neighborhood. Start honing the blade edge in a small circle movement, keeping in contact with the stone while honing. Do this starting back at the kick, (base of the blade near the handle,) and slowly take a full minute to work your waay to the tip of the blade, keeping in contact the whole time. When you get to the tip, turn the blade over and do the same thing on the other side. Repeat as needed. Use the felt tip marker to keep track of what your doing. After a while, your kife will have a pretty good edge, and you will develop a feel for it using less pressure as the knife gets sharper. A stropping on leather after this will give you a shaving edge on your knife. This is the old way the boy scout manual had to sharpen back in the 1950's. It works fast, anyone can do it, and it's effective on a wide variety of mediums, like the bottom of a coffee mug, a piece of brick or smooth stone, or pocket size hones.
I've tried all the wauys to sharpen a knife, and I even went the diamond route. I eventually went back to what worked grat when I was a kid. Sometimes the simple old ways are still the best. It will let you resharpen literally anywhere, at any time. It ain't rocket science, and don't waste your money on fancy gizmo's. A small pocket stone and practice is all you need.
Carl.
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:thumbup:
This is why I've started using it on glass. The very hard backing of the glass will make the abrasive work more aggressively, very much like a SiC stone, which is helpful on more wear-resistant steels like S30V. I had been using sandpaper on hardwood previously (on the backside of my oak strop block), but sometimes even that was a little less aggressive than I needed for some steels. And sticking it to the glass with some temporary adhesive will add another notch in aggressiveness; it digs deeper when it doesn't move under the blade.
David
Thank's for all the answers, before going to the hardware store, I will try Carl's technique with the small, no name medium-fine stone that came with a Axe my boss bought at canadian tire. If i still can't get a good edge on, I will go to the store and give some news in this thread in case someone later needs a guide to ''build'' this.
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Glass backing for sandpaper has been a very popular method among woodworkers for a while, and is sometimes referred to as the 'scary sharp' method. A decent piece of pane-glass is almost always dead-flat and perfectly smooth. Better than a lot of dedicated sharpening stones, which often may be slightly warped or dished from the factory, and sometimes have bumps or other rough spots on the surface. The flatness and smoothness of glass offers obvious advantages for sharpening plane blades and chisels, which benefit from having bevels as straight and flat as possible.
David