Quick question for free hand sharpeners

A

aesmith

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Jan 19, 2015
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101
Hi,

A quick question for those who sharpen freehand. How many of you switch hands so you're sharpening one side while holding the knife right handed, and the other side holding it left handed? I'm right handed and (so far) I've always held the knife in the right hand sharpening with the edge facing away for one side, and back towards me for the other side.

Cheers, Tony S
 
I don't switch hands, but used to and for a long time.

I get a great deal more precision not switching hands.
 
I only use my right hand. It insists I don't cheat on it! Lol

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I like to keep the apex facing me at all times, so I can see more clearly when I'm making flush contact (or not). Because of this, I trained my left hand to do what my right (dominant) hand has already been doing, and I've never regretted it. I've also figured out, in doing this, my left hand seems to have a more deft & lighter touch at times. I think my left may actually do a slightly better job at maintaining flush bevel contact on the stones, as the bevels created from that side tend to be a bit cleaner, most of the time. Training myself to switch hands in sharpening may be one of the best things I've ever done for my skill set.

Edited to add:
I switch hands in both of two sharpening methods. For heavy shaping & grinding, I've more recently been using a stone on the bench/table, switching how I hold the knife to keep the apex toward me. I originally trained my hands for ambidexterity in my previous habit of knife in one hand & stone in the other, by which I did ALL of my sharpening, including the heavier work. I now reserve that 'in the hands only' method for my finishing touches, after doing the heavy grinding via a stone on the bench, as I feel my lightest touch is better executed in this manner and works better at refining the edge & cleaning up burrs.


David
 
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I have been back and forth but currently use my right (dominant) hand only. More convenient too whenever you do not have a place to put the stone on, I can just hold it in my left hand. Same with the strop. The only thing that still bugs me a bit is that I can not that easily tell what angle I am at when the edge is facing me. Not that it matters much and I do know that the right side of my knife has a slightly lower angle, but still.

I have tried edge facing me and alternating hands but I can not reliably see the edge being flush on the stone (my eyesight? Stone surface? Who knows) so at the end I have to go by feel again. Btw, I would still recommend to everybody who wants to improve their sharpening skills to practice edge towards you a bit. You will be able to see how dished a stone can be, which parts of the edge is touching and how much "wobble" you have in your stroke etc.
 
David way is almost what I do except that I look at the spine instead. That way I can eyeball the angle by trying to keep same for both hands. Also my left hand is more consistent than my right, though I am more a right handed person.
I also hold the stone one hand and knife the other. Switching hands means also switching stones.
 
I stick with my dominate hand (lefty) unless sharpening specific Japanese knives that require me to switch hands. Single bevel sushi knives like the Yanagi or Asymmeteric Gyuto's.
 
Thanks for all the comments. I'm not amphibious either, hence working both sides right handed. It just occurred to me that switching hands might make the job more symmetrical, although I guess that means the stone would have to be exactly 90 to me or exactly pointing away from me. I'll give it a go.
 
aesmith said:
Thanks for all the comments. I'm not amphibious either, hence working both sides right handed. It just occurred to me that switching hands might make the job more symmetrical, although I guess that means the stone would have to be exactly 90 to me or exactly pointing away from me. I'll give it a go.
Click to expand...

In the process of learning to use both hands interchangably, I had some asymmetry for a while, in held angle from one side to the other. My tendency was to hold the angle a little bit higher with my left hand in control, which left the bevel created from that side a little narrower. But the upside to that is, the bevel widths on each side are an easy tell, in determining what needs to be adjusted. I've become more attuned to watching the width of the bevels as I work, and have gradually tweaked my held angle as a result. It's a learning process, and practice makes perfect. Or, something a little closer to perfect, at least... :)


David
 
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When I have my stones propped up to a certain angle, I'm forced by design to switch hands. But when I'm not using the angle prop, then I don't switch hands.
 
aesmith said:
Thanks for all the comments. I'm not amphibious either, hence working both sides right handed. It just occurred to me that switching hands might make the job more symmetrical, although I guess that means the stone would have to be exactly 90 to me or exactly pointing away from me. I'll give it a go.
Click to expand...

I wound up, for myself, finding the opposite to be true. It was ultimately easier to teach my hands to stay with the same assignment in different presentation, than to swap assignments.

You might find yourself the opposite, or that its still asymmetrical in a different way. I sharpened swapping hands for a long time and didn't think anything of it. A series of wrist surgeries forced me to do a lot of experimenting...

Improvements in consistency beyond a certain point come slowly in my experience, as a result of studying what exactly one is doing rather than general technical adjustments. You need to know what it is you're correcting for.

Here's a video I made a while back with the tips I use. For me it all comes down to feeling for the edge and maintaining good mechanical control throughout. Everyone's hands and control loop are going to be a little different.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SuGwd9YZ8_g
 
I sharpen holding the knife in my left hand and my right fingers set the angle at the spine. DM
 
I am a lefty and I use just one hand. When I was learning I tried switching hands I would always mess up on the tip of the blade on my off hand.

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