Tips for keeping angle steady?

Rennd

Rennd

Joined
Jan 22, 2014
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709
I've been freehanding for a long time, and I'm not too bad at it. I'm a sorta shaky handed guy though. Any tips on holding angle steady without guides?

#217 in RyanW's 2014 Giveaway
 
I included a bit on this in the pages added to the original Washboard manual. I was in the same boat as you, finally tore down my existing technique and replaced it with something a lot more conservative, though my time hasn't suffered or anything - actually decreases time spent with increase in angle accuracy. The link to the whole manual can be found on the WB thread linked through my signature.
Basically I shortened the overall length of travel, and religiously apply the offhand fingertips exactly where I'm grinding - feel through my fingertips. Break the edge up into smaller overlapping sections. Ultimately I found I had to correct almost entirely by tactile sensation for best accuracy. I also "pre-load" my wrist a bit, explained below.

https://app.box.com/s/15gbwfazfvt621r30tjz

Martin
 
The trick that really did it for me was to use a stack of coins as a "guide" sitting on the end of the stone just to check my work and make sure I was holding a constant angle, the spine should touch the coin but not knock it off (stack the coins to whatever height is desired). Find the position that's comfy for you (sitting or standing) and do it every time. All movement should be at the shoulder/elbow, keep your wrist rigid.

ETA: another thing that helped is keeping my left (off hand) index and middle fingers on the blade, I keep the left index finger at the very tip and the mode finger next to it to make contact with the stone each time I near the edge.

On any blades <6" I do the entire blade in one stroke, for me, doing it in segments causes more inconsistency than it fixes.
 
Cereal_killer said:
The trick that really did it for me was to use a stack of coins as a "guide" sitting on the end of the stone just to check my work and make sure I was holding a constant angle, the spine should touch the coin but not knock it off (stack the coins to whatever height is desired). Find the position that's comfy for you (sitting or standing) and do it every time. All movement should be at the shoulder/elbow, keep your wrist rigid.

ETA: another thing that helped is keeping my left (off hand) index and middle fingers on the blade, I keep the left index finger at the very tip and the mode finger next to it to make contact with the stone each time I near the edge.

On any blades <6" I do the entire blade in one stroke, for me, doing it in segments causes more inconsistency than it fixes.
Click to expand...

You didn't by chance adopt this after reading one of my posts did you? I've mentioned it a few times and always wondered if anyone else does it, because I saw it on a Japanese knife DVD. It's such an invaluable little trick.

Also, as far as actually holding our hand steady goes, I was taught in my machining class ( we had to hand file most of our own tools ) that moving at your hips and shoulders while keeping your wrists and hands locked promotes the best consistency. I guess the reason being the motions for your hips and shoulders are much smaller, so easier to do exactly the same time every time. Then on top of that, since your hands are what hold the angle, if they are also being used to move the blade then they have to split the work.
 
I've always had a mild tremor, myself. As far as I know I was born with it. It hasn't gotten any worse as I've grown older, but it's always made certain things difficult. Freehand sharpening is one of them, for sure. My technique involves some of what was said above: Placing the fingers of my off hand near the tip of the blade and using more of a full-body motion with my grip on the knife more or less locked in place. I'll never be a guy who'll get a hair-whittling edge via freehanding, I'm just not steady enough, but I can get a decently sharp edge that'll shave hair. :thumbup:
 
KennyB said:
You didn't by chance adopt this after reading one of my posts did you? I've mentioned it a few times and always wondered if anyone else does it, because I saw it on a Japanese knife DVD. It's such an invaluable little trick.
Click to expand...

I very well could have, I don't remember where I picked it up or how long I've been doing it but yea it's an invaluable trick.
 
Personally, I think sometimes trying too hard is the problem with shaky hands. I have some problems with my strong hand also, and over the years have become pretty good. I would like to stress again, to keep your wrists locked, but don't try all that hard. Just relax them, while making sure not to pivot with them while going through the sharpening motions. Always stand up imho, so that your elbows are 90 degrees with your body, and although most people do move some in the twisting motion, I find it works better for me if Im not really rocking or twisting at all really, but rather most if not all the motion is in my shoulders and upper arms to move the knife around.
As far as not trying to hard to keep your wrists locked, again, you do have to keep them locked, but think of it more if you were sharpening with your eyes closed and just going on feel. After the first 5 or 10 passes on each side, you can kind of go on muscle memory, your arms and hands will just start doing it. For me, after I got it when I started, it was more just about picturing the flat of the bevel being sharpened, cruising across the stone. Whenever I was trying too hard to keep a perfectly locked wrist type of thing, it always kind of threw me off and stressed me out.

I don't know if that helps, i hope it does. Nobody listens to me anyways

dave
 
I remembered a few other things that really helped me out in addition to my first response. You can see in the single page link I posted how I like to pre-load the wrist to encourage a finer edge, but not spelled out directly is that I don't hold the knife as I would if I were going to use for a chore. The act of grinding an edge on a tool is totally different from using it to cut something, so a bit of experimentation might be in order to help find the most stable grip. I resisted this for a long time, but was instrumental in making a big leap in terms of consistency and ability to approach many different types of cutting tools with the same mechanical strategy. This is also a great reason to break the edge up into overlapping sections - makes it much easier to sharpen larger tools, or ones with a lot of belly etc.

Another tip is to "recalibrate" every so often by lowering the spine to gently hit the shoulder on whatever surface you're grinding with. The difference in tactile feedback is immediately apparent, and you can then elevate the spine till it just lets off. In this way you know you're working out from the shoulder, the angle isn't increasing, and generally will stay a lot more flat. Sometimes when I first start out on an edge that's badly worn, I'll lower the spine for a pass, elevate it for a pass, and now I have a good idea how much curvature the existing bevel has and at what range of pitch I'm working within. Makes for a quick judgement call on whether to change the inclusive angle at that stage. When working on a coarse abrasive, I can bump off the spine a couple times as I go and get a good idea how much more flat the bevel is becoming without stopping.

Feedback actually diminishes somewhat when one is right on the bevel but a new cutting edge hasn't formed yet - it will gradually increase subtly as the cutting edge forms and comes into good contact with the abrasive surface. When I cannot really lower the spine at all before hitting the shoulder, or raise it at all without feeling the edge catching, I know I'm pretty much done and have made a cutting bevel with very tight tolerance, at least as tight as I can achieve using tactile feedback. My only limit to accuracy is determined by the size of the abrasive, and it becomes more accurate as the abrasive size becomes smaller.

This can be done with Scandi or convex as well, but needs to be adapted a little to accommodate the difference in bevel curvature. You can still learn a lot about how much curvature is built into the convex by how much wiggle room you have moving the spine around. Keep in mind, this a recalibration method - 96% of your grinding should be on the target pitch with no shifting except for a few well-controlled passes to QC your angle control.

Here's the page in my manual where I bring it up.

https://app.box.com/s/nbuuqn1oa147nqsw6r67
 
As with any endeavor that requires manual dexterity, it helps to concentrate fully to the exclusion of all other stimuli. Then practice the movement very slowly and feel for muscle tension in the wrong places and release that tension. You gradually increase the speed until you can execute in a relaxed state.
 
Learning the two handed Japanese Stroke completely changed how I sharpen. Frankly I'm rather surprised at how evenly I can grind a bevel with this method. The FEEL is incredibly important for me, just as HeavyHanded says. My off hand pressing down right at the edge really locks the bevel in place for me. I'm not particularly mechanically gifted or steady like you'd want from a really good sharpener. The two handed technique gives me more stability, control, and feedback than I've gotten from any other way. It's a HUGE HUGE difference for me. If you haven't tried it yet, you really should. It's one of the 7 things I've identified that propelled my sharpening to new levels.

Brian.
 
I've been trying the preloaded wrist heavyhanded suggested, and it seems to be working a lot better. Thanks! Does anyone else just look at the edge on the stone to see the point where it starts touching, and sharpen there?

#217 in RyanW's 2014 Giveaway
 
Another thing I've found helps is to set the stone at whatever angle is comfy and change if when you flip from one side of the blade to the other, nothing says you have to keep the stone perfectly perpendicular to your body. When I'm doing the left side of the blade pushing away from my body I have the stone turned one way (to the left) then when I flip it over and do the right side pulling towards my body I turn the stone to the right.
It helps me keep a more natural/consistent angle of my wrist.
 
Not thinking. When I don't think about what I am doing I seem to be able to get better results when free hand sharpening, though I still have a long way to go in learning.
 
I do look at the edge to see at what angle the edge contacts the stone. If the angle is good, I lock that in to the muscle memory. If it' s too steep then I use a coarser stone and reset the bevel. What is the Japanese 2 handed technique?
 
I'm confused about the 2 hand or 1 hand thing. I have never seen anyone use 1 hand to sharpen.
 
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