Hook Knive Sharpening

[Murf]

Similar to a lot of people I like to do a spot of whittling by the fire. For me it's probably the most relaxing thing I can do whilst in camp. I've got a little standard three knive whittling set and I can sharpen the two flat blades fine but I struggle when it comes to the hook blade and as I've been using a lot of hawthorn recently, it really is suffering. I'd like to avoid the expense of trial and error in finding a stand alone hook knife sharpening stone and so I'm wondering if anyone can point me in the right direction. Cheers.

 

[mikehill]

Find a small section of dowel around the right diameter and glue some thin leather on. Add a little Autosol paste. Stropping will make it last longer.

 

[Robson Valley]

I have lots of crooked knives. I use an assortment of 8" pieces of metal tubing as mandrels. I wrap the fine silicon carbide sand paper pieces around those and secure them with strips of black electrical tape at each end.

Mandrels: dull 7/32" chainsaw file, 1/4". 1/2" and 3/4" wooden dowels. A couple of pieces of thin wall aluminum tubing from a junk lawn chair. Tennis ball for the various adzes with their cupped blades.

I hold the knife out over one knee and use only pushing away strokes with the abrasives. You have to learn NOT to wobble your elbow. Strictly 6 or 8 or 10 degrees angle. Whatever.
Stroke. Stop. Up. Back to start. Straight down. Stroke again.
If you whip the rod over the edge with elbow movement, that rounds off the fine carving-sharp edge that you need.

At the end, I have a chunk of Chrome Green honing compound, some sort of waxy carrier. I wrap the mandrel with an office filing card and scribble the Chrome Green all over it. Same exact process. 5 strokes per edge ought to be enough.

Many years ago, I watched an old First Nations totem pole carver sharpen his best knife with a bucket of water and a long oval rock. A very humbling yet inspirational experience.

 

[Murf]

I have lots of crooked knives. I use an assortment of 8" pieces of metal tubing as mandrels. I wrap the fine silicon carbide sand paper pieces around those and secure them with strips of black electrical tape at each end.

Mandrels: dull 7/32" chainsaw file, 1/4". 1/2" and 3/4" wooden dowels. A couple of pieces of thin wall aluminum tubing from a junk lawn chair. Tennis ball for the various adzes with their cupped blades.

I hold the knife out over one knee and use only pushing away strokes with the abrasives. You have to learn NOT to wobble your elbow. Strictly 6 or 8 or 10 degrees angle. Whatever.
Stroke. Stop. Up. Back to start. Straight down. Stroke again.
If you whip the rod over the edge with elbow movement, that rounds off the fine carving-sharp edge that you need.

At the end, I have a chunk of Chrome Green honing compound, some sort of waxy carrier. I wrap the mandrel with an office filing card and scribble the Chrome Green all over it. Same exact process. 5 strokes per edge ought to be enough.

Many years ago, I watched an old First Nations totem pole carver sharpen his best knife with a bucket of water and a long oval rock. A very humbling yet inspirational experience.

Great info thanks. I'll start on some dowels this week.

 

[Murf]

Find a small section of dowel around the right diameter and glue some thin leather on. Add a little Autosol paste. Stropping will make it last longer.

Amazingly for me, I've got the perfect small peice of leather for one. I've just ordered some Autosol. Between this leather dowel and the sandpaper ones I'll be making, it looks like I'm in for a nice few hours of tinkering.

 

[DocG]

+1 for dowel and Autosol

 

[swyn]

My wife has a diamond file which is oval shaped for her hoof trimming tools. These are similar in shape to crook knives.
A look-see on a hoof care site may yield a nice sharpener of the correct profile.
S

 

[Brizzlebush]

I have lots of crooked knives. I use an assortment of 8" pieces of metal tubing as mandrels. I wrap the fine silicon carbide sand paper pieces around those and secure them with strips of black electrical tape at each end.

Mandrels: dull 7/32" chainsaw file, 1/4". 1/2" and 3/4" wooden dowels. A couple of pieces of thin wall aluminum tubing from a junk lawn chair. Tennis ball for the various adzes with their cupped blades.

I hold the knife out over one knee and use only pushing away strokes with the abrasives. You have to learn NOT to wobble your elbow. Strictly 6 or 8 or 10 degrees angle. Whatever.
Stroke. Stop. Up. Back to start. Straight down. Stroke again.
If you whip the rod over the edge with elbow movement, that rounds off the fine carving-sharp edge that you need.

At the end, I have a chunk of Chrome Green honing compound, some sort of waxy carrier. I wrap the mandrel with an office filing card and scribble the Chrome Green all over it. Same exact process. 5 strokes per edge ought to be enough.

Many years ago, I watched an old First Nations totem pole carver sharpen his best knife with a bucket of water and a long oval rock. A very humbling yet inspirational experience.

That's a fine looking set of well- loved tools there sir.
Good advice on the sharpening.
I have a similar system with various grades of wet and dry paper and elastic bands around an 8mm ish dowel.
Sharpening is a good game played little and often. Preferably to an almost obsessive extent!
My gauge of sharpness is if it causes me to say something out loud when testing with finger/thumb.

 

[Robson Valley]

I do the majority of my wood carvings in western red cedar, yellow cedar and paper birch. I have what I call "try sticks," just lengths of each wood for testing knife edges and practicing cuts like textured surfaces.
I had to have an apron made as I got hit in the chest a few times too often with a crooked knife. Also, it wrecks perfectly good shirts.
My standard practice is to buy the blades and do all the handle work myself. The stripes are mahogany and rosewood junk from a guitar business.