How to sharpen a hook knife vid

  • Come along to the amazing Summer Moot (21st July - 2nd August), a festival of bushcrafting and camping in a beautiful woodland PLEASE CLICK HERE for more information.

robin wood

Bushcrafter (boy, I've got a lot to say!)
Oct 29, 2007
3,054
1
derbyshire
www.robin-wood.co.uk
I have not made any youtubes for a few years but have just done a few including how I sharpen a hook knife. There are obviously lots of ways of doing it and no one right way but this works for me.

[video=youtube;Cac949WVIog]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cac949WVIog[/video]
 
Useful video Robin thanks for posting. Ive been using the Ben Orford method, with the emery paper spray mounted onto the rounded planks, but will give yours a go. [Especially as I have all the king waterstones in the grits youre using.:)]
 
King stone in 1000 followed by 5 or 6000 then autosol is great. Emery paper followed by strop is a big jump, the polish will never remove the scar pattern from the paper so you end up with a sawtooth edge which works well for a short while. Folk that use that method end up stropping a lot.
 
One imporant detail which may go unnoticed: you move your whole body.
No better way to sustain a consistent angle through the entire process.
.
All 14(?) of my Pacific Northwest-style crooked knives have top bevels as do farrier's knives.
Same for my Kestrel elbow adze and D-adze and the 7/75 Stubai adze.
All abrasives are wrapped around tubing, mallets, cans. The blade is fixed
and the abrasive moves.
 
Going to have to give that a try Robin, like dave, ive always used the method used by Ben, but always up for trying something new, especially if it provides superior results.
 
Is there any benefits of using autosol over compound blocks?

sorry if you mentioned it in the video but I have no sound card on work PC's

That depends entirely on the compound block you are using. They come in a host of different grit sizes. What matters is that each stage of your process has an appropriate grit size so that you can easily remove the scratch pattern from the previous grit. If you jump too much from a coarse 1000 to a very fine 15000 (eg fine emery paper to autosol) then you don't remove the scratches from the 1000. If you jump too little then you are not moving as fast toward the super smooth edge we ideally want. When making tools I go down through 40, 120, 240, 400, 600 grit belts then 4 different polishing compounds. Each step removes the scratches of the previous one.
 
I'm not sure these videos are good things. Since I watched them yesterday lunch time I've had to keep telling myself "I don't need another axe" and "I don't need another spoon knife".
Thanks Robin!!!!

Seriously, you've done a great series of videos there, and I'm humbled by the ease with which you hog out a spoon blank with an axe. Absolutely amazing skills.
 

BCUK Shop

We have a a number of knives, T-Shirts and other items for sale.

SHOP HERE