Sharpening with films and Sharposharp

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pitonyak

Joined
Jan 14, 2021
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When I first started learning to sharpen it was related to woodworking and I started with sandpaper. I have never sharpened a knife using sandpaper or films of any kind.

Sharposharp sent me some films so that I can test them out and give them some feedback as it relates to sharpening knives. I have not opened the box yet.

Without even trying it, I can think of some great advantages with respect to things like hand playing blades and chisels, I've just never sharpened a knife this way.

Most of my freehand sharpening with knife blades I am able to do both edge trailing and edge leading. I think that while sharpening with films I will need to use edge trailing.

So before I jump in, does anyone have any experience sharpening knife blades on films?

Based on their website, the films they offer look pretty nice.

My first knife will probably be my buck bantam 285 because the thumb studs get in the way when I try to use my hapstone. I posted in the book form to see if anyone knew how to take those studs off. I did not try to take them off because I didn't want to damage them and with that particular knife I don't trust that they're just screw on.
 
I do it all the time on sand paper. Its not that much different than using a stone. I have a cut down piece of 1x6 with some 6 oz leather on it. The leather is just about the same size as a 3 1/2 x 9 sheet of 3M sandpaper with some overlap on the sides, something that useful for an edge thats recurved. You need to learn how to keep a consistent angle though, and that will take a bit of time to get right.
hZHYdNJ.jpg
 
Arathol said:
I do it all the time on sand paper. Its not that much different than using a stone. I have a cut down piece of 1x6 with some 6 oz leather on it. The leather is just about the same size as a 3 1/2 x 9 sheet of 3M sandpaper with some overlap on the sides, something that useful for an edge thats recurved. You need to learn how to keep a consistent angle though, and that will take a bit of time to get right.
hZHYdNJ.jpg
Click to expand...
I've done a lot of hand sharpening on stones, but the stones I've been using I've for the most part been able to go back and forth while holding my angle rather than always doing edge trailing so that will be kind of a learning curve

I had a little difficulty following what you said about a recurve. Maybe I need to look up exactly what a recurve is. Okay, it has sort of an s shape which means that there will be a con concave section on the blade. I figured that if I was putting a film down and then I wanted to sharpen any thing that was concave that would be tricky to do.

I recently sharpened a very old butcher knife that my mom had and it had that sort of s-shaped curve in it and I was able to do it on a regular Stone but it didn't come out as nice as I liked. My brain's all fuzzy since A lot's been going on, but I think I did that particular knife on a Norton India Stone. So then I used sort of the corner to get into the concave side. Something I don't think I can do at all with a film.

Once again, thanks for the pic. It helps.
 
And to whomever moved the thread to a more appropriate forum, thank you. I looked at the forms while trying to figure out where to post it.
 
pitonyak said:
I recently sharpened a very old butcher knife that my mom had and it had that sort of s-shaped curve in it and I was able to do it on a regular Stone but it didn't come out as nice as I liked. My brain's all fuzzy since A lot's been going on, but I think I did that particular knife on a Norton India Stone. So then I used sort of the corner to get into the concave side. Something I don't think I can do at all with a film.
Click to expand...
If the film is flexible, yes you can. Wrap it around a large wood dowel, or as I do use a rounded corner on a flat board.
 
Arathol said:
If the film is flexible, yes you can. Wrap it around a large wood dowel, or as I do use a rounded corner on a flat board.
Click to expand...
Now that you say it, it seems so obvious. The irony is that I have wrapped sandpaper around to do similar things and suggested others to do it on concave blades.

I am looking at what they sent me and I am really impressed with what I am seeing so far. I have not tested anything yet, but...

They have a very impressive range of grits.

Diamond lapping film in 10 grits 180 grit / 80 micron through 60,000 grit / 0.5 micron. Their labeling. My shapton 30,000 is 0.49 grit.

Aluminum oxide lapping film has 8 different grits 40 micron through 0.3 micron.

To add little confusion, there is also an aluminum oxide microfinishing film in 9 grits from 80 micron to 9 micron.

Why do I say confusion? I had no idea what the difference is between a lapping film and microfinishing film. 3M sells both as well and I found many people online trying to figure out the difference. Sharpo indicates that the microfinishing products have a thicker backing and are good for more sharpening sessions.

Can't wait to actually try these.
 
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