Keeping your knife sharp?

[James_m246]

I was reading bushcraft issue 3 (i'm catching up ) and I saw that in the 'Bushcraft! Whats that all about?' article he writes that he only uses stones to sharpen his knife once or twice a year and just uses a strop with polishing compound the rest of the time.

Is this a good way to keep your knife sharp? I know they're are lots of threads and tutorials about sharpening with stones but i'm pretty new to sharpening and would like to try it this way but don't really know what to do.

Obviously i'd need a strop and polishing compound but how often should I do it?
Do I use the same technique as you normally would with a strop?
How long do I need to do it each time?
Also whats the best strop and compound?

Like I said i'm new to sharpening and couldn't find the answers to my questions which is why i'm posting them here, any help would be greatly appreciated.

 

[gregorach]

Yeah, if you strop regularly there should be little or no need to get the stones out. I use an old leather belt and toothpaste, which seems to work OK. As for how long - until it's sharp!

 

[Hedgehog]

Some good infomation on sharpening here...
http://www.britishblades.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1803

and here

http://www.bushcraftuk.com/forum/showthread.php?t=12348

Don't forget the search function eh, there is alot of advice on sharpening on BB & here.

Have fun...

 

[SOAR]

Stropping is the way forward, I never used a strop before then when I got one I couldn't believe the difference it made, I use my strop when I have used my knife a couple of times.

 

[James_m246]

Don't forget the search function eh, there is alot of advice on sharpening on BB & here.

Have fun...

I did use it but i'm not too good at searching forums

I have been reading through the threads but the only thing I still don't know about is the strop and polishing compound.
I know the strop it pretty straight forwards but has anyone got a good recommendation for the polishing compound, I think i'd rather buy some than use toothpaste.

 

[SOAR]

Pink or green compounds were recomended to me and they are good.

 

[mr dazzler]

I have used mostly solvol autosol on wood cardboard or leather as a stropping compound. I recently tried diamond paste from poland, it worked but the stuff it was mixed with was very heavy and greasy, so it was really quite hard to draw the knife to and fro easily or effortlessly along the leather. I also used "polishing compound" from the dremmel kit (looks like rouge paste??) I was thinking about this topic only this morning, many years ago (before diamond paste, carberondum, waterstonres etc) the farm hand's used wood handles with tallow and fine sand or brick dust mixed in, to keep a good edge on scythes and sickle's etc. At first I thought it sounded crude, but then the modern stuff (green grey or white) they use in chrome plating factories to polish steel is just that-an abrasive compound in a fatty tallow type matrix. I just used the rouge compound on bits of round wooden spindle off cut's to strop the inside of the mora kooked knife, in no time at all it was as sharp as a scalpel. Simpler the better, less is more K.I.S.S. I just bought a new tube of solvol earlier today, cheap and it works; I've never tried toothpaste but as long as its old fashioned (ie with an abrasive powder in it and not a "gel" type) it should work fine. Like soar, I too once thought stropping was poncey and unecessary, but it really does shift you up a gear when your trying to get a professional quality cutting edge that leaves the cut surface of your wood polished (not scraped and scratched )

 

[Dave Budd]

funnily enough, this is a quote from a great old book of mine, it refers to a polishing paste for steel and can be used as a honing paste.

Spons' Mechanics' Own Book, published 1921. in reference to a paste for polishing iron or steel on a lathe, and as a honing compound:

" A good polish is made from the finest emery and oil. Three very good oils for lubrication are olive oil, sperm and neats'-foot"

when I first read it, I had a double take at the second suggested lubricant!

 

[Cairodel]

funnily enough, this is a quote from a great old book of mine, it refers to a polishing paste for steel and can be used as a honing paste.
Spons' Mechanics' Own Book, published 1921. in reference to a paste for polishing iron or steel on a lathe, and as a honing compound:
" A good polish is made from the finest emery and oil. Three very good oils for lubrication are olive oil, sperm and neats'-foot"
when I first read it, I had a double take at the second suggested lubricant!

Refers to "Sperm Whale Oil", but please don't get "stroppy" with me...

 

[gadusgadus]

Refers to "Sperm Whale Oil", but please don't get "stroppy" with me...

I recently did some work at the Japanese Embassy and they were only too glad to let me have some of their finest spermicetti oil, used on samurai swords for centuries.Some may think it wrong to hunt such an intelligent mammal but, as they were quick to point out- if they are so intelligent why do they swim anywhere near the shores of the rising sun ?

 

[Earlyturtle]

but, as they were quick to point out- if they are so intelligent why do they swim anywhere near the shores of the rising sun ?

Call me evil but that made me laugh so much

No I do think whales are great really, it's a shame so many get killed (that said, which animals haven't we killed yet?).

 

[Beer Monster]

Some may think it wrong to hunt such an intelligent mammal but, as they were quick to point out- if they are so intelligent why do they swim anywhere near the shores of the rising sun ?

I think they were pulling your leg. I wouldn't call the freezing southern ocean "the shores of the rising sun" ........ so the whales must be intelligent !

 

[brancho]

which animals haven't we killed yet?.

The one we havent found yet

 

[Owen Bush]

I use a strip of leather glued to a strip of 9mm ply .you can really put some pressure into the stropping and the plys flex helps slightly convex the edge (stropping with compound will convex the edge,more so on a loose belt less so on a backed board,we are talking micro convex here)
I use autosol.
I have 2000 grit paper on the other side for touch ups(atatched with spray mount)

 

[robin wood]

I use autosol too...get it from any car diy type shop halfords etc. what you want is an abrasive with an even particle size, big enough to cut but not so big to leave a matt scratched surface. I use mine on a piece of planed softwood, this gives a completely flat bevel rather than the micro convex you get off leather. see del stubbs site www.pinewoodforge.com for more details on this method of stropping.

How often? depends what you do with your knife...drop it on stones or dig it in the dirt and it will need grinding, cut dirty wood or sandy bark and it will need a coarse hone, use it all week on clean green wood and it will barely need touching maybe just a few strokes on an autosol hone.

 

[rich59]

The thing I use to sharpen either my kitchen knives, or my SAK, or my old scout knife, or my axe, or my billhook is my grandfather's knife sharpener - which is basically a butcher's steel - a long, round file.

Having seen the sharp tools a lot of you guys have about you I noted that my edges were definitely second best.

So, I have been reviewing my technique and my edges are getting a lot sharper now. I suspect I am still below par a little but I am happy with my edges.

The key I find to getting my best edges with a file is to listen to the edge "singing" and finishing off with a number of very gentle strokes each side of the edge.

 

[bushblade]

If you're stropping with compound on a regular basis you'd be better off getting the stones out more often than once or twice a year. With compound you're still using an a abrasive, just one that will put a convex edge on your blade with that much stropping. Just strop with no compound after using fine grit stones.

 

[spamel]

Ratbag and Scruff both had a go on my razor strop fungus strop at Muddlewood, and they both said they thought it made a difference. It doesn't have any thing on it at all.

 

[Bernie Garland]

ask a butcher or a slaughter man, how they keep the edge on a knife, and its not with stropping

 

[spamel]

A steel? This is where the argument starts as to what is happening! I'm keeping out of this one!