How To Preferred freehand sharpening movement

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Nov 7, 2011
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For freehand sharpeners, I'd like to hear in detail what sharpening stroke/movement that you prefer, and why. As I'm learning, I keep trying and adapting so it's useful to hear what other folks have landed on and how you got there.

Stuff I'd like to know:
  • Shaping: What type of movements you use to scrub/shape a blade, reset bevels, profile an edge. How you position the stone. And whether you change hands.
  • Sharpening: What type of movements do you use to apex and refine a blade. How you position the stone. And whether you change hands.

What I'm currently doing:
  • Shaping: Position the stones lengthwise to myself and scrub always with the edge facing away, and change hands to work both sides. Type of movements: back-and-forth scrubbing motions of a few inches. Occasionally punctuated by a long scrub nearly the length of the stone, or occasional slices/strokes to help blend the bevel. I use both hands, not the one-handed type of motion that for example Cliff Stamp uses in his videos.
    • Why: I found it easier to shape using the same method, going the same direction, even though I had to change hands. The movements are similar, and visually, it's more consistent as well. Also this is more of a gross (rather than fine) type of motor control for this sharpening motion, I found that changing to my off-hand doesn't impact my results negatively at this stage.
  • Sharpening: Keep the stone in the same lengthwise position. I use edge-leading slicing motions running either heel-to-tip, or smaller sections that need work. When I change sides during sharpening, now I stick with my dominant (left) hand so that on one side of the blade, that means I am slicing back towards myself on the stone.
    • Why: I tried alternating hands with all slices going away from myself as during the shaping stage. Trying to be a true "ambidextrous" sharpener. I tried and tried for months, but could not get equal/consistent results on my off-hand. To get the same level of precision and control, and consistent results as the sharpening stage, it requires finer motor control and I had to resort to using my dominant (left) hand 100%.
 
Shaping: Usually a back/forth scrubbing motion, especially on larger, thicker blades. Small, thin blades in simpler steels sometimes don't necessitate it, but I usually start them the same way. I initially trained myself to do this with stone in one hand, blade in the other; but now, I generally begin this almost always on the bench, taking advantage of the larger stones I've acquired and utilizing the fingertips of one hand to keep some focused pressure immediately behind the portion of the edge being worked.

Refining after shaping: usually a mix of scrubbing at a lighter, easier touch, and/or some edge-leading only. I sometimes do this on the bench, and sometimes with the stone in one hand, blade in the other. Just kind of depends on the specific knife and situation, and whichever feels more intuitively easy or effective. Different knives 'hold' differently in the hand, and sometimes that determines how I approach it.

Final touches: Edge-leading only, at an extremely light touch. This basically is all about setting a final, uniform scratch pattern and removing the last significant bits of any burrs before declaring it DONE. I almost always do this with the stone in one hand and blade in the other, for a lighter touch and greater control/feel for the apex itself. Almost always done with a full, fluid, light heel-to-tip pass on each stroke.

For ALL of the above, I switch hands to do alternate sides of the blade. I keep the edge oriented toward me at all times, so far. Though lately, I've started experimenting a little bit with edge-away sharpening, just to see if I can develop the feel for it and to push my abilities a little more. For most everything, I generally orient the blade diagonally across the stone (corner-to-corner), which keeps the held angle more stable (for me) and just generally feels more comfortable.
 
Good detail, thanks. So you are still going ambi throughout the sharpening stages then. I tried a LOT, but just kept getting inconsistent results especially around the tip when working with offhand, and finally got weary of trying to push a boulder uphill. I actually do a lot of things with my offhand (similar to most lefties, I learned certain skills RH growing up), but apparently sharpening won't be one of them. :D
 

Another way to think about my adopted mechanics, they are very similar to how I use a file on a part in a vise. On longer projects I'll change hands, so the hand holding the file changes but the mechanics are the same as I use when sharpening with the knife in the same hand.

When the knife is edge toward me, the dominant drive hand is the hand holding the knife. When the edge is away, the dominant drive hand is the off hand - the secondary hand does some driving, but only about 30%. I emphasize the trailing portion of each scrubbing pass, so this works out fine in terms of fingertip "grip" on the edge.

I don't change grip or angle depending on rough or finish work.
 
My sharpening hand movement usually involves reaching over and opening the bag containing my Edge Pro and sticking the suction cups on the counter. Beyond that it just takes some rub rub . . . hard to screw it up. :D

OK, ok . . . reprofiling is often done free hand on my big O' DMT 220 edge trailing or back and forth depending on how much metal I need to remove and how impatient I am. Not a set thing. I just use marker on the bevel and go to town. I don't think it much matters until you get to the fine stones and refining the edge.

Again THAT'S WHAT THE EDGE PRO DOES SO WELL !

Mostly I'm an edge trailing sort of sharpener free hand because I hate to wear the stones. It's positively a phobia for me. Diamond plates well that's a different story. But edge trailing is not the easiest thing to do free hand so I go with one jig or another.

For removing a lot of metal I can even prefer a thrusting motion as seen on this Shapton Pro 120
Yah just got to go with what makes sense at the time for the task you are trying to perform. Here on this 120 I am polishing the sides of the knife and taking off a lot of metal, relatively speaking . . . the previous more coarse phase involved an unbelievably coarse diamond file over a foot long and that was just to smooth out the marks from the power grinder before that. This is CTS-XHP and it doesn't like to do any of this in a hurry if you know what I mean. It sure was worth it though one of my favorite users bar none ! ! ! !
IMG_3712.jpg

You might think I'm kidding . . . clamp the knife down and take a diamond file to it. A knife dude has got to do what a knife dude has got to do.
IMG_3692.jpg
 
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I actually do a lot of things with my offhand (similar to most lefties, I learned certain skills RH growing up),
Sounds like you may have more experience doing this than I do but I will say that two things that has helped me be more ambidextrous are : writing with my non dominant hand and Tai Chi. Tai Chi really rewires the brain for this sort of thing. Tai Chi's extremely slow movements gives the brain / body time to really learn how to move the non dominant side. The result; pretty surprising and unconscious dexterity with the non dominant hand etc. . . . something rolls off a table and you find that you reached out and caught it quickly with your non dominant hand without first thinking "well here goes nothing". Cool stuff.
 
I do stone one one hand, knife the other. Switch hand when doing the other side. Spine towards me.

Scrubbing when doing more work, edge leading finishing stroke, on stones (diamond & ceramics).
 
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Sounds like you may have more experience doing this than I do but I will say that two things that has helped me be more ambidextrous are : writing with my non dominant hand and Tai Chi. Tai Chi really rewires the brain for this sort of thing. Tai Chi's extremely slow movements gives the brain / body time to really learn how to move the non dominant side. The result; pretty surprising and unconscious dexterity with the non dominant hand etc. . . . something rolls off a table and you find that you reached out and caught it quickly with your non dominant hand without first thinking "well here goes nothing". Cool stuff.

That's the sort of thing I've noticed after learning to mirror my sharpening movements from both sides. It trains the brain in ways I hadn't anticipated, and the muscles seem to learn these new things, whether I'm conscious of it or not. I've found my non-dominant hand (left) seems to be a little more fluid & fast at the quick-reaction stuff, like the object rolling off the table and being caught without deliberate thought in doing so, or reaching out in the dark for a light switch at night, and finding it more accurately than when I've done the same with my dominant (right) hand, which sometimes lands a little off-target. My dominant hand is still literally 'stronger' than my left, in grip, etc. But my left hand seems to be better at the finesse stuff, and that's a very encouraging thing to learn. It boosts confidence in trying new things in general.
 
Shaping: Usually a back/forth scrubbing motion, especially on larger, thicker blades. Small, thin blades in simpler steels sometimes don't necessitate it, but I usually start them the same way. I initially trained myself to do this with stone in one hand, blade in the other; but now, I generally begin this almost always on the bench, taking advantage of the larger stones I've acquired and utilizing the fingertips of one hand to keep some focused pressure immediately behind the portion of the edge being worked.

Refining after shaping: usually a mix of scrubbing at a lighter, easier touch, and/or some edge-leading only. I sometimes do this on the bench, and sometimes with the stone in one hand, blade in the other. Just kind of depends on the specific knife and situation, and whichever feels more intuitively easy or effective. Different knives 'hold' differently in the hand, and sometimes that determines how I approach it.

Final touches: Edge-leading only, at an extremely light touch. This basically is all about setting a final, uniform scratch pattern and removing the last significant bits of any burrs before declaring it DONE. I almost always do this with the stone in one hand and blade in the other, for a lighter touch and greater control/feel for the apex itself. Almost always done with a full, fluid, light heel-to-tip pass on each stroke.

For ALL of the above, I switch hands to do alternate sides of the blade. I keep the edge oriented toward me at all times, so far. Though lately, I've started experimenting a little bit with edge-away sharpening, just to see if I can develop the feel for it and to push my abilities a little more. For most everything, I generally orient the blade diagonally across the stone (corner-to-corner), which keeps the held angle more stable (for me) and just generally feels more comfortable.

Yeah same here. I gotta get some bench stones because I have been mostly using a sharpmaker rod in one hand and knife in other, switching hands.
 
I switch hands. Once you get practised up, biomechanically you should have a much easier time creating the exact same result on both bevels. The motion I use is a sweeping one, though I utilize a scrub when certain sections need more work. This also helps me use my stone’s surface as evenly as possible. I do, however, strop with one hand as switching hands here is far more cumbersome and doesn’t really offer me any benefit

For highly curved blades like the Lionsteel SR1A, I use an edge-outwards pushing scrub. It is far more comfortable, requires a far less ridiculous arm motion (with an inward sweep you end up kicking your elbows out like you’re hoping to dislocate something). Unfortunately this tends to produce an ugly, randomized scratch pattern, so I am kind of forced to take it up to a mirror just to appease my OCD
 
A lefty who sharpens same hand. :D

Now to get the wrist-locked movement figured out when the slice is coming back toward you. Like Beans says, a different type of elbow movement to adjust to.

 
I freehand on bench stones. Edge leading as if I were slicing thin wedges off the stone, right hand for both strokes. If I need to repair local edge damage I’ll run that part of the edge in ellipses, first one side, then the other.
 
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