Sharpen a knife using a set of stones

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wildcatman57

Joined
Oct 14, 2011
Messages
7
I am looking for a good web site can teach me to sharpen a knife using a set of stones.
Thanks for the help.
 
You should seriously consider Murray Carter's videos on sharpening with water stones. That'll help get you a good knowledge base. from there, fine tune your skills by practicing and reading everything you can on the forums. You'll be hair whittling in no time... It's an addiction.
 
Pete84 said:
You should seriously consider Murray Carter's videos on sharpening with water stones. That'll help get you a good knowledge base. from there, fine tune your skills by practicing and reading everything you can on the forums. You'll be hair whittling in no time... It's an addiction.
Click to expand...

I also got tips and improvement from watching Carter. On Youtube it's Carter Cutlery. You might want to buy the full DVD, as it has more in - depth instruction.
One caveat, learning to do this (freehand on stones) takes patience. Practice with cheap knives until you get the hang of it, which means hand, eye and perhaps ear (listening to the sound of it scratch) coordination. It's training body muscle memory, so it'll take sometime.
 
The two best tutorials I have read on the subject are:

1. Steve Bottorrf's online version of his book: here Scroll down for links to the chapters.
2. Chad Ward's article on egullet about sharpening. This is the one that was a real breakthrough for me. It's long, but it's worth it IMHO. Read it here. If you get impatient, the step by step part starts about half way through the article.

Every time I think I'm starting to get good, I find more flaws with my technique. Or to say it positively, even after I thought I was good, I've found lots of places to make improvements in my technique.

A huge thing for me was the micro-bevel or "double bevel" edge technique. This instantly took my edges from "eh" to "wow that's sharp!". I've since learned that I've been using this a bit as a crutch, but there's no doubting the effects is has on my edges.

I just wish there were more sharpening geeks somewhere locally where I could show and compare edges with others. I think I still have a lingering problem with a floppy burr on some of my edges, but I don't have enough experience to be sure that I have a true edge, versus just a "finely stood up burr". Perhaps I should start a thread about it.

Good luck to the original poster!

Brian.
 
bgentry said:
...I think I still have a lingering problem with a floppy burr on some of my edges, but I don't have enough experience to be sure that I have a true edge, versus just a "finely stood up burr". Perhaps I should start a thread about it.

Good luck to the original poster!

Brian.
Click to expand...

The biggest difference between a burr/wire edge, and a truly sharp edge, is durability. Burrs & wires will always end up folding over, with some light cutting. One way to test it, when your edge is looking & feeling sharp:

Immediately after sharpening/stropping, make several draw (slicing) cuts into some paper. If there's a burr/wire, it might cut well for a few slices. But even light paper-cutting might make it bend or fold over after a few cuts. It'll then snag or hang up in the paper. Even if it doesn't snag, then make some similar slicing (draw) cuts, firmly into a piece of hardwood, slicing the full length of the edge from the heel to tip. Test the edge on the paper again. If a burr/wire was the issue, the wood should've likely broken most of it off, which should then make the paper cutting more consistent and repeatable (either way, good or bad). If the edge was otherwise very good and sharp, aside from the burr, it should still slice consistently well. If the edge seems a little dull after cutting into the wood, indicating the burr/wire was doing most of the cutting, take it back to your strop and/or hones again, to further refine/apex the edge. Assuming the edge is fully apexed along it's full length, you should be able to go back & forth between cutting the wood and the paper, without any significant degradation in slicing performance. When you are able to do this, you can be fairly confident your edge is in good shape, free of burrs & wires.
 
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