???s after my first hand sharpen

Justin Uthadude

Justin Uthadude

Joined
Sep 27, 2017
Messages
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I bought a couple beater CRKT's off the exchange so I could learn to sharpen. (Crystolon & India stones). I folded a piece of paper twice to get a 22 1/2° angle. Then I lowered the knife slightly to get somewhere nearer to 15°. This just so happened to be where the blade rested on the thumb studs. I used that angle to sharpen with. Is this OK? From reading on the forum here, many have said the exact angle isn't as important as maintaining that same angle throughout.

Next question: is putting a bevel on the edge a requirement? It seems pretty good just with the one angle.
 
Sure sounds A-OK from here. Keeping a consistent angle from heel to tip for both sides is key as you touched upon. Just be careful not to grind down the thumb studs if you have not already removed them. A protractor on the stone or held off to the side is a quick and dirty way to eyeball your angles. The additional of a micro bevel is certainly not a requirement. But since you are learning to sharpen, you might as well add micro beveling to your training.
 
If wanting to approach the stone at an angle lower than or equal to the thumb studs, slant the blade relative to the stone to keep the thumb stud out of the way of the stone. :)
 
Justin Uthadude Justin Uthadude , yes I've run into this and found what you did. With some folders, the thumb stud can be a useful "indexing guide" to help you hold a consistent angle. For example: I'm working on a Buck small Selkirk this afternoon, sharpening it on a bench stone. I barely touch the thumb stud to the stone as a point of reference, then slightly elevate the spine to give the stud a little clearance. 42's suggestion for getting clearance on a low sharpening angle works too.

On the micro-bevel thing, literally do what you prefer. Both work. Recently I'm not bothering with micros and just have a single edge. I find when I come back to sharpen it later, it's easier and simpler to just eyeball the single bevel and "find the edge" on the stone so I can quickly touch it up.
 
Thanks for the tips guys. I have a 15X Loupe that I examine the edge with. No matter how much I sharpened, I could still see for lack of a better word teeny little serrations on the edge. It wouldn't get smooth. I could also see where what I call the grind area wasn't parallel along the entire blade length, meaning my angle didn't remain constant, usually near the tip where I seemed to raise the blade up a little bit steeper.

So I went back to the course stone, and started sharpening all over again. This time it looked much better. Little (lot) more practice and I might get this down. Then I went to the fine side of my India stone, and put a bevel on it. Guess what happened? The serrations went away, and it looked like dare I say, a smooth, sharp knife!

It's not as fun as golf, but in a weird way it's still kind of fun. Is that weird?
 
I use Arkansas water stones, a blue or black sharpie on the bevel prior to sharpening will leave ink where the blade did not touch the stone.
I also lay the blade on the stone and raise/lower the angle.. as I do I can notice a small amount of water push out from under the edge when I reach critical sharpening angle. This lets the blade tell me where the primary bevel angle is, and I haven't yet experimented with micro's.
 
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