sharpenning discussion

sharing is good!!! I use to use, depending on the need, a natural stone, ceramic rod, or a diamond sharpener. I used alternating strokes on all sharpeners I used.
Ive also always used a strop. A while back though I decided to learm better stropping techniques so I asked here on the forums, and Ive been using nothing but a strop ever since. There were certain blades that gave me a hard time sharpening, but for a long while now Ive been stropping all my blades!!! :)
 
Thanks for the ban, Blues. How about deleting the post altogether? Don't want any young forumites (or their parents) to get the wrong idea about our forums. Thanks.
 
Finally a woman in "my" thread!!! It's nice to know that there are other women, besides someone's wife that gives him knifes instead of taking them away, interested in knifes...
Thank you Pam for sharing your sharpening techniques... Unfortunatelly I don't own any fancy sharpening tool only a couple of stones, sand paper and an old peace of leather, so I won´t try your procedure...
Thank you every body for having contributed to this thread!
 
Alchemy knife do you use wax on the grit wheel when you use it.I use the same system and have found that the grit wheel can be a little harsh for the first few edges and then the wax heats up and melts into the grit andd it works much smoother.For the first few uses after putting new grit on the wheel or breaking in a new wheel I do this with dull scissors laying around the house after 4 or 5 edges it is worked in well.I love this system so much I have sharpened everything I can get my hands on.This system works great on my wifes wood working knives and tools.Some of the V's and U's are only 2mm and hard to see.I have also found a variable speed grinder that I took the guards off of to accomadate the larger sharpening wheels.All I have to do is turn it around to sharpen above centerline so as to see the edge of the micro tools.This is when the variable speed comes in handy and just with a twist of a knob.I have also puchased a 6 inch magnifing lens with a fluoresent bulb on the end of a three foot adjustable arm.Now I can really see those edges.And all the edges come out mirrored and that I love. It works well on disposable scalpels and razor knifes if you need to in a pinch.Thanks........RB
 
Yep, I use wax and lots of it! Bees wax is best, but a safety candle works in a pinch. I also turn mine around and sharpen off the top. You can really see the burr edge so pulling it up and then taking it off is easy.

If you use this system, make sure it is near a water source. The knife blade will heat up if you are not careful. I do a pass, dunk in water, do a pass, dunk, etc.

Pam
 
I picked mine up at Wright Knife and this is Dennis got them. http://www.sharpeningwheels.com/ They have several different sizes and arbor holes.The 8 inch will work on a 6 inch grinder with the guards off.Otherwise you can pick up a used buffer for around 100 to 150 and save a bunch of money.It all depends how much you use it.The other problem with the grinder is long knives are much harder to sharpen.But you can always use both sides of the grinder to solve that.Working from the centerline up and centerline down by turning the grinder around. Good luck..............RB
 
Pam do you know anything about the shaper wheels that sell where the system is sold?I emailed the owner and they explained that they were wheels that were about a quarter of an inch thick and from three to ten inches in diameter that you shape with sandpaper for say the inside of a gouge or other wood tool.Have you or anybody else tried these? Here is another link for the system with a cheaper price than I paid http://store.knifecenter.com/pgi-ProductSpec?cw1 ......... RB
 
Hi everybody!

You've just convinced me to get some sort of weel sharpening system. I'm going to use my black&deker, an ataching system to keep it solidely attached to a table and some bad cheap blades to gain some experience.
I've one doubt though: How do you manage to keep the same sharpening angle along the whole blade? Is it just a question of mantaining a firm holding hand?

How do you sharpen serrated edges? Do you use the same technique as if it was a straigh edge?

Thank you!
 
Practice and more practice.There are some good books on sharpening you can pickup as well.One is the Complete Guide To Sharpening by Leonard Lee. I hope this is not out of line but where are you posting from what country?............................RB
 
Hi everybody!

I'm posting form Portugal which is, by the way, an independent country and not some kind of spanish state or province.
Acctually Portugal is an independent country since the XIIth century. Although we've had some periods of political instability which resulted in Spanish ocupation we've allways manage to expell them from our beautifull country. By the begening of the XVth century our power was so great that we had the domain of all main trade routes and had embassys all over the Oriental world. In 1420 we've divided the world in two halves: one was ours and the worst part was Spanish. Before Colombus was born we had allready discovered newfoundland and Brazil that was the reason that Christopher Colombus didn't get any support from our Kings when he proposed that route. We were the first navigator people that made a trip arround the world.
Unfortunatelly our knife collectors comunity is not very expanded and so is quite difficult to get any knife gadget so we have to improvise oftenly. By the way american knifes are usually
really expensive arround here!!!
 
Sorry it took so long to respond. (It's Christmas -- the busiest retail season.)

I get my sharpening wheels from Kovals Supply http:\\www.kmg.org/kovalknives.

I use the 8" wheel on my 6" grinder and the 10" wheel on my 8" grinder. You will have to take off the guards. But it lasts a lot longer that way.

First, you will have to either just turn your buffer around or take the bottom off, unbolt the motor from the base, turn around and rebolt to the base. This is safer because the switch is now facing you.

Sharpen off the top of the wheel. Practice with the grinder off for the first couple of strokes to get the right idea!

Place the knife with the edge of the blade facing away from you, and the knife laying perpendicular to the wheel. Start at the end closest to the handle and pull the blade toward the tip, horizontally across the top of the wheel somewhat like this: ==[]=> (Knife ==>) (wheel []). Try to maintain a 15 degree angle at the edge (just like using a stone). As you get to the tip of the knife you will have to pull the handle up a bit to maintain that angle. Work with smooth strokes, dipping the blade in water after each pass.

It takes a steady hand, but not alot of pressure. The diamond gritted wheel will take a surprising amount of metal off. It should only take a stroke or two to pull a burr on one side. Make sure you can feel the burr before you switch to the other side. Create a burr on that side (again only a stroke or two).

Next go to the slotted cardboard wheel. On this wheel, do a pass, dip, then switch sides of the knife and do another pass. You will be able to see the burr polish off. Different steels pull the burr off in different ways. With some steels the burr curls off, others it flakes off.


It just takes practice and care not to over heat the knife.

Good luck and email me or post questions and I will try to help you.

Pam
 
Thank you very much Pam!

I'll try your method next weekend and I'll let you know my results.
 
Hi everybody!

So, after getting the adquate gear I finally tried sharpening a knive (bad steel and very cheap) using a Black&Deker... Well... The results aren't satisfactory yet, mainly because it is quite dificult to keep the knife still. Tough after making some kind of butter knives edge I started to get something similar to a cutting edge... So the key is practice as some one already posted...
One other thing that is not easy is to control the speed of each stroke when I did it slowly I got a fine almost homogeneous butter edge, when I did it to fast I got a really strange kind of edge...
When the shaving point comes arround I'll tell you...
 
diogo, keep us posted on your progress :)
What about field expedient sharpening?
I've seen old timers running their blades on the bottom of their coffee cups (ceramic) before the waitress arrived. Hey it was deer season in the Catskills!
I read in TK that you can use the top of a car window.
Leather boot sole or belt for stropping.
FWIW..
I try to do my sharpening standing up at the kitchen counter or my workbench. With stones or the mousepad/sandpaper, I can keep the movements (and knife angle) consistant by rocking on my hips/legs, with my arms almost locked.
Practice makes perfect!
(If I had a nickle for every time my Pop said that to me....)
:D
 
Ebbtide,

Ceramic cups, tops of car windows, sandstone, all work as sharpeners. The key to all of it is the grit, in this case sand. Obviously some have a much finer grit than others. The car window does more honing than actually removing metal.

My grandmother kept a crock filled with clean sand in her kitchen. She stored her clean kitchen knives in the sand to keep them sharp. If they started to get dull, she'd take a couple of swipes on the top of the crock, but mostly they stayed honed by just stabbing them into the sand. She would take all the knives out and bake the sand once every couple of weeks to kill any germs. The knives were Old Hickory (high carbon), and I remember they were always scary sharp. I know she never used a stone or a steel in her life.

I will be doing a sharpening demo this Spring where I will "steel" a knife on a flouresent light bulb. It's a fun impressive trick, that get across the point of honing off wire edges.

Merry Christmas,

Pam
 
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