sharpening on a cinder block!

D

Don Joe

Joined
Aug 12, 2016
Messages
159
my buddy showed me a video of a guy sharping a knife of a cinder block. i got a bunch of those left over from when i build the garage for my lawnmower. seemed to give him a pretty good edge fast too! might give it a try when my knife gets dull, but that will be a while since i just sharpened it last week and it holds an edge like crazy. anyway just thought you guys would like to know. has anyone tried it?
cheers! :thumbup:
 
No, but I imagine that it's probably not a good idea.
Some guy may have done it and I guess it's would work in a survival situation, but probably not gonna give you the cleanest edge.
I do however use a chunk of porcelain toilet tank as my fine sharpening stone and it works very well.
 
Hickory n steel said:
No, but I imagine that it's probably not a good idea.
Some guy may have done it and I guess it's would work in a survival situation, but probably not gonna give you the cleanest edge.
I do however use a chunk of porcelain toilet tank as my fine sharpening stone and it works very well.
Click to expand...

good idea on the toilet!
 
sorry, didn't mean to seem like i was bragging about my lawnmower. :o its awfully nice, but i got it on sale at the local store. anyway, after i built me a nice little building for it i had a lot of block left over that i didn't use so i might test it out on one of my kitchen knives (the wifey has been complainin about how dull the kitchen knives have got :eek:). ill have to see how it works out. :)
 
I'd get a garage sale or cheap dollar store knife to try it on first. I sharpened a meat cleaver on a side walk curb when I was at a friends house and he had no sharpening equipment and the edge was too dull to be touched up on the bottom of a ceramic mug.

The cement was a bit coarse and I wasn't very patient. Ended up with a toothy edge which worked ok for what I was cutting up at the time.

Ric
 
It seems to me like a cinder block has a very uneven surface and would probably not sharpen all parts of the blade equally. I would only use it in a dire emergency if it were me.
 
CoolBreeze135 said:
It seems to me like a cinder block has a very uneven surface and would probably not sharpen all parts of the blade equally. I would only use it in a dire emergency if it were me.
Click to expand...

That would be my judgement too. It also may not work on the harder steels. I could see sharpening a machete on a concrete block if that is what's available. It would be a nice stable surface to work on. But still probably not the best idea even if you can do it.

I chuckle at the lawnmower building, even for a nice mower. Some of the zero turn riders are pretty pricey from my point of view. But then you spend just about as much to build an out building to park and store it. For me, choice like knives depend on your ability to pay for such things comfortably, and secondly, whether or not your yard or your health justifies it.
 
A knife can be sharpened on just about anything that is abrasive enough that it will take off metal. I've used a brick, the side of a brick building, various stones from a creek in a pinch, bottoms of soup bowls, coffee mugs, and top edge of a car window. Somewhere around here is a video of me sharpening on a piece of ceramic something I fund in a gravel parking lot.

Contrary to popular opinion, you don't need a dedicated knife sharpener to sharpen your knife.
 
jackknife said:
...I've used a brick, the side of a brick building, various stones from a creek in a pinch, bottoms of soup bowls, coffee mugs, and top edge of a car window. Somewhere around here is a video of me sharpening on a piece of ceramic something I fund in a gravel parking lot.
Click to expand...

[youtube]Twduvki8m90[/youtube]

And for giggles, here's the companion video:

[youtube]SEMLu8e34ck[/youtube]
 
I would use a brick or the bottom of a coffee mug before I try a cinder block just in case you chip the edge, but it could work still. I've seen that same video, good luck!


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
Last week my coworker's knife was very dull and I didn't have any proper sharpening equipment with me. We were on a construction site and a fresh cinder block was nearby and I decided that it would have to do.

The knife was a Rat1 with aus8 blade, I ground a new bevel with the cinder block and finished with edge trailing strokes to make the apex as crisp as possible. Cinder blocks are not very uniform in grit so the edge still needed some work so I walked over to the truck and honed the edge on the top edge of the side window. I then proceeded to shave hair from my arm at my coworker amazement.

If you know how to create an edge it's rather easy to improvise sharpening equipment in the field.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top