Putting an Edge on a knife ?

W

Waterman333

Joined
Feb 28, 2005
Messages
12
Hello,
I was wondering if anyone here knows the type of tool properly suited to do fine work in grinding an edge out on an unsharpened blade? Should I use a stone and do it that way I've heard of people using belt sanders and such, but I have no experience doing this.
 
I think I couldnt understand the question. Are you going to just sharpen the blade or you want to put a bevel to the edge from scratch?
If the first is the purpose you can use sharpening stones, dry&wet sand papers (400 - 800 grit is enough to sharpen). But if you want to make a bevel to your blade blank you can use files then sand with papers (this time you have to sand it from 80 grit to 120-220-400-800 grits). Search this forum, you may find very useful threads that will assist your hand rubbing experience.
 
Putting a new edge on it, baisically no I don't mean sharpeneing, there are a few knives I own which were never sharpened Ie blunt edge, but they are full tang and very usage capable, I just wanted to put and edge on these so I can start using them, they are already ground to the general knive shape so I don't need anything too powerful just whatever you guys use to finally edge out the blade.
 
Are the blades heat treated already, or are they in the soft, annealed condition.

If they're in the annealed state, they should be heat treated first, then finished completely, and the last thing you do is sharpen them. You keep all your digits that way.;)

You can sharpen a knife on sharpening stones. I think I'd start with a coarse norton india stone, and progress to fine. Get good sized stones(8"+), not those little pocket jobs.
You can get diamond "stones" too. Those are metal plates with diamond particles in a matrix bonded to the surface, and they cut pretty well(and fast). I don't think you need to start with the coarse diamond stones, but get the medium, and fine.

I use a belt grinder, but from your post, I gather you don't have access to something like that.

Edited to add; Waterman333, welcome to Bladeforums! Enjoy!:D
 
Just to re-enforce what Mike said:

Don't use a belt sander if you don't have experience with it. You can burn an edge pretty fast.

You can set a great edge from scratch with stones. Here's a tip that helps keep the edge consistent (important since you'll be making a lot of passes):

http://knives.mylamb.com/calc.htm

Steve
 
I use another solution to find the bevel angle. Where the thickness is known and the angle U want to accomplish, u dont know the bevel face width. U can simply calculate by dividing the blade thickness to Sine of the angle. The result is the width (or the hypotenuse of the triangle). If the blade is not chisel ground then the bevel consists of two bevels and two hypotenuses, there you should divide into two the angle you want.
examples: I want to make a 4 milimeter thick blade having chisel ground 20 degrees angle bevel. Then the face of the bevel has to be 4 mm / sine 20 degrees = 4 / 0.349 = 11.46 mm. wide.
If it is not chisel ground then each bevel width has to be : 4 mm / sine 10 degrees = 4 / 0.175 = 22.85 mm. wide.

This seems too difficult to understand, but It is proven to be useful and very accurate.

This method needs no perfect hand, your hand may slip and the angle may be not right with the "gap" method. But this way I can be sure, if the bevel starts from the right place and the bevel face is flat then the degree is perfect.
 
Thanks guys this is all very helpful I think I will go with the stone approach as it clearly offers less room for error. I'll let everyone know how it goes.
 
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