Tips for holding an angle while freehand sharpening?

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poonchasta

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Mar 18, 2007
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I just got the Smith Tri-Hone sharpener with the Arkansas stones because I want to learn how to freehand sharpen. My main problem is holding the angle I want and keeping it consistent. I've been using a protractor and trying to eyeball it the best I can, but I've only been getting mediocre results. Can anyone give me some tips on how to hold the angle I want and to keep it consistent? Thanks in advance.
 
poonchasta said:
...Can anyone give me some tips on how to hold the angle I want and to keep it consistent?...
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Lock your wrist and move from your elbow. Focus intently on the distance between the spine of the blade and the stone's surface. Stroke slowly, working one side of the knife until you raise a burr. It is easier to hold a constant angle working on one side at a time. Then, practice practice practice. It's an aquired motor skill.
 
Hi,

At the risk of sounding trite, practice. A lot of it. What you are trying to do is eye-ball angles to perfection without any guide. Not an easy task.

I've been a machinist for almost 20 years now, and I've ground everything from little pocket knives, to lathe tools, to modifying end mills, to drill bits. First thing to get out of your head is the idea of perfect. Ain't going to happen free-hand. Good enough hopefully, perhaps really close after some practice. But it won't ever be perfect. That takes a jig or sharpening tool. So relax and don't be so retentive.:D

First thing you need, is good light. If your lighting isn't good enough, you won't be able to see what you are doing properly. I don't like florescent or those curly cue bulbs. Incandescent bulbs are fine, but real sunlight is still the best, IMO.

Let's say the angle you are looking for is 28 degrees. But, we know that we aren't going to be really able to just eye-ball it. But we can probably "see" what 45 degrees is. We can also probably "see" half of 45 degrees pretty good. So if you hold your knife at about half of 45 degrees or just a little bit better, you should be at least close enough for government work:D. Do a couple of strokes. Now take a good look at the edge. (This is where the good light comes in). Is the fresh shinny part on the front or back side of your edge? If it's on the backside, raise your angle up a bit, if you can see the shiney on the front, drop your angle a bit. After some practice, you will get a feel and eye for what you are doing. But there is no short cut for learning how, but to do it until you do it right.

And in my book, there is no shame in "cheating" by using a tool to sharpen. In fact I'm all for it. The very truest edges are machine made.

I hope this helps!
dalee
 
Two very useful tools for sharpening are a Sharpie and a jewellers loupe. Color in the edge of the blade with the Sharpie and you will see Exactly what you are doing on that stone. As Dalee mentioned, light is important. I use a full spectrum compact flourescent lamp (I work in lighting so it's all free to me, I chose what worked best). I found incandescents to get too hot to work under, especially in the summer time. I do run incandescent in my household fixtures though, the light is more pleasant to live in.
 
It IS an acquired skill. Your eyes and hands both need to get trained to the task, and the only way to do that is practice.
 
I am horrible at free hand sharpening which is why I bought an edgepro. However, when I was trying to learn I cut wood wedges on my mitre saw for different angles and held them under the knife at the start of the stone just to get my angle right. I would then proceed with my pass attempting to hold that angle. I wish I could say it helped and that it was "the miracle" we are all looking for, but alas my good man, I bought an edgepro. My dad thinks I'm an idiot cause he can free hand sharpen a knife like nobodys business, but he is also 66 with 50 years of practice.
 
I use coins.....I put a few coins on the end of the stone to help me keep my angle as consistant as possible while free hand sharpening. For example, a 15 degree angle on my SAK is 2 dimes.....15 degrees on my small sebbie is 2 dimes and penny. It's certainly not perfect but it helps you "guesstimate" the correct angle.
 
I also use a stack of coins as a jig to elevate the spine. I have a little 'cheat sheet' with calculated spine-lift-off for my most-used blades. A problem with this approach is that the coin-stack-height varies for appropriate angle for different blade dimensions.

Some use a jig to set the hone for the desired angle, then simply maintain a horizontal honing stroke across the angled stone.

Some angle the hone to emulate the Sharpmaker, maintaining a vertical balde during the honing stroke.

One way to maintain a constant angle during the honing stroke is to use your thumb to maintain constant spine lift-off during the honing stroke.

Hope this helps!
 
Practical Use said:
After many years of practice I can say that I am truly medicore. Bit I got style!!!
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that description fits me to a T.

I use Freehand with a silicon carbide stone to set an approximate angle when I'm changing the edge angle on a blade. Then I use a Sharpmaker to set the final as well as to maintain the edge. The Sharpmaker makes up for my mediocrity at holding an angle.
 
I'm not really one to give advice...cause I suck at it. (by my standards/expectations.)

My little gem is GO SLOW!!!!

Whether you go in circles or in "stripes" make a few and stop. Look at the product of your effort. Evaluate it, and repeat. The sharpie is a great tool for this. It will take you hours to what a seasoned vet can do in 15 minutes. But you learn this way and will improve.
 
Unless you are wiggling the blade up and down while you are sharpening (and that's hard to do,) your edges will eventually meet. It really doesn't matter if both angles are exactly the same.
It's not nearly as hard or complicated as most people make it seem.
 
Thank you guys so much for all the great responses. Sounds like what I need to do the most is practice a lot. I'm also going to read up on forming burrs and such.

This may seem like a silly question, but what would make the best practice knife for sharpening? If I'm going to practice a lot, I don't want to use one of the knives I care about. I'd want something cheap so that I don't care if I mess it up, but not so cheap that the blade steel is crappy and won't take a good edge. Preferably less than 20 American dollars. Thanks in advance for any suggestions.
 
I use Dave Martell's method- orient the stone perpendicular to you and work forward and back instead of side to side. Work with the edge away from you, spine facing you. You can then judge pretty accurately by the space between the spine and the board what angle you're using. To find the angle he advised you gently put the edge on the stone and move the spine up and down til you feel the edge laying flat against the stone. This takes some practice- you can feel the edge with your fingernails to assist in getting it down.

Beyond that it's all practice and muscle memory. I'm not a master freehand sharpener but I can get a very good edge. If you want to learn a lot in a short amount of time I'd highly recommend his vide set on sharpening.
 
yablanowitz said:
Practice, practice, practice. I got it down pat in ten years flat. ;)
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Poonchasta, it took me 20 years to learn how to freehand sharpen a knife. I was soooo proud of myself when it finally clicked that I bought myself a nice set of 8x2x1/2 stones to celebrate! :cool:
 
Seriously, my real tips are:

1) Take your time. Make slow, smooth passes. Trying to go fast will just lead to frustration.

2) KEEP YOUR PRESSURE LIGHT! I can't emphasize this enough. Pushing down on the blade in an attempt to hurry this process only flexes the edge, which makes it almost impossible to get a constant angle. Even if you manage to hold the blade consistently, varying the pressure will effectively change the angle of the very edge. The stone will abrade the steel with the least amount of pressure you can manage. Let the abrasive do the work.

3) Work one side at a time. Keep stroking one side until you have a nice, flat bevel. Usually, by that time you will have raised a burr along the edge. Then turn the blade over and work the other side until you have a nice flat bevel there as well. Then you can worry about knocking off the burr, adjusting the angle, applying a microbevel and all that business. Just getting a flat bevel on each side is a good start.

4) Practice. Practice a lot. It takes a lot of practice (or natural talent which I lack) to develop the muscle memory which makes freehand sharpening look so easy when you see one of us old geezers do it.

There are a lot of good knives out there that are inexpensive enough to practice on. The Byrd line from Spyderco and the Opinel line from France come to mind as inexpensive knives with good steel. Even cheap gas station knives will (usually) take a good edge, they just won't (usually) hold it very well in use. I have run into a few cheapies tempered so soft that the blade would bend rather than breaking. They were kind of like sharpening a slice of Velveeta, but with light pressure and careful strokes, they would take a wicked edge. They wouldn't cut through a shoebox without dulling, but they would shave arm hair like crazy.
 
Nothing's gonna beat practicing and messing up, but a technique that worked well for me was to move your knife across the back of a legal pad like you're sharpening it on a stone. Slowly bring the edge down until it catches on the cardboard and no further. That's the exact angle you'll need to hold it at to get to the edge.

I personally eyeball the edge while I freehand and look for the shadow between the edge and the stone to disappear. I can also feel when the edge just touches the stone. So I go by sight and touch.

Keep working at it and it'll be worth it. It took me about a year to get from knowing nothing to the point where I can now get my edges to split a hair in 4. So far I done it with: S30V, VG-10, 154CM (only in 3) & ZDP-189.
 
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