how do I keep a keen edge on my knife

[whistler]

Hi, some help please on keeping the edge on my knife. I own a quality knife but struggle to get a good sharp edge. I have read the articles but find them a bit bewildering. I currently sharpen on an fine oil stone sweeping backwards at about 30 degrees from the horizontal 50 times each side. then finish on a steel 20 times each side I do this every night I use it. where am I going wrong?

 

[mojofilter]

What kind of knife is it you are sharpening? Are you sure you are getting right to the edge on both sides, you should be able to get a burr on the opposite edge from the stone. Stropping after the stone woul dbe better than steeling as well, any old leather belt will do, and perhaps some autosol too.

 

[Joules]

Tooth paste also works good on leather, it sounds like the steel is taking the edge off. You should be able to feel the burr by rubbing your thumb across the blade and over the edge. On a stone it shouldn't take much, I wouldn't have thought 50 strokes, is the blade hollow ground?

I use diamond stones these days, they are brill, especially if you have a few different grades.


Joules

I assume your not carving breeze blocks !!!

 

[whistler]

thanks for taking the time, the knife is a Bushman by paul baker scandinavian style. I will try the stroping what do you mean by autosol? I know the angle is up to me but the direction puzzles me should I pull (the blade edge away from me) or push (blade towards me) or doesnt it make a difference?

 

[whistler]

The blade is not hollow ground, good idea about the tooth paste and I had thought about changing the stones mine is cumbersome do you take the knife to the stone or stone to knife

 

[Joules]

personally I pull the blade, and draw it across the stone, hilt to tip. Same on the leather, alternating sides as I go. Autosol, is metal polish (Brasso, in paste form)

Joules

 

[whistler]

many thanks great help

 

[Joules]

Knife to the stone, and use a light oil, even with the leather and polish.


Joules

p.s
you can shave with my Fiskars axe, same sharpening as my knife

 

[Snufkin]

you should be pushing the blade away from you as if you are cutting. 50 strokes seems excessive. I do 10 each side and then 10 alternating, then alternate stropping 40 times and that does it. You might want to have a look at Japanese waterstones, Axminster do a good combi stone can't recall the grits 2000/6000 I think.

 

[Joules]

had the red headed woman, boy she wasn't easy livin...


Joules

 

[Snufkin]

had the red headed woman, boy she wasn't easy livin...


Joules

Bet it was an adventure though

 

[Joules]

Jeez, not one I intend to repeat...


Joules

 

[mojofilter]

the knife is a Bushman by paul baker scandinavian style. I will try the stroping what do you mean by autosol? I know the angle is up to me but the direction puzzles me should I pull (the blade edge away from me) or push (blade towards me) or doesnt it make a difference?

The angle is not up to you, you should be laying the bevel flat on the stone and pushing away! Autosol is metal polish, found in car parts shops etc..

 

[Ogri the trog]

Whistler,
You said in your original post that you sharpened the blade at 30 deg to the horizontal, giving an included angle of 60 degrees - which sounds a bit too wide to me. I might be widly wrong, but an angle more like 30 - 40 degrees (included) would be closer to the mark. It would be harder to produce the first time but should only require a light strop to touch up the edge after heavy work. Its a quality blade, so to require sharpening every day would indicate that something is amiss.
I've recently started following advice on the British Blades forum and even though I thought I was able to get a sharp edge in the past - its nothing to what I can get now! Any reasonable set of oil/water stones will result in a good edge - just care for the line of steel molecules along the edge, as if you value them more than your own life!

ATB

Ogri the trog

 

[Hoodoo]

Paul likes to put a slightly convex grind on his scandi models. If that's the case with yours, you may need to take a slightly differnt approach to sharpening, like putting a piece of autobody sandpaper on a mousepad and using that as your sharpening surface.

It doesn't matter whether you take 10 strokes or 50 strokes. Counting strokes is really the wrong approach to sharpening a knife.

As someone said earlier, it's all about getting both bevels to meet. Lots of folks will sharpen their knives over and over and not realized they are not sharpening down to the edge. To find out what you are doing, you need to look at the edge closely. One of the easiest ways to do this is to mark the bevel with a felt inkpen like a sharpie, then take a couple strokes on your sharpener. Now look at the edge with a 10x handlens. If the ink is untouched at the edge but shiny above, you have not reached the edge yet with your method. Once you reach the edge on one side, again as someone mentioned earlier, you should feel a burr on the opposite side of the edge. The burr should extend the entire length of the edge or you still need to work on it. Once you have the burr, flip it over and do the other side the same way. After you get the burr, go to a finer stone to polish the edge up a bit, then use a leather strop to remove the final burr.

For most scandi ground knives and convex grinds, you are usually better off drawing the knife opposite the direction of the edge. This is especially true if you use the sandpaper/mousepad trick, so the edge does not dig into the sandpaper.

 

[Dave Barker]

If the edge is not convexed there are a few things on the market that can help.

One is the Gerber pocket sharpener. This is light wirgh, and cheap as chips. There is also the lansky pocket sharpener that works along the same lines but will cater for slightlt thicker blades.

bvoth are available from ods

In adition to these there is also the helle sharpener. I am a little unsure as to where you can get this in the uk. But i can alsways get one here for you if you are interested,

This is a magnetic sharpener with 2 tungsten crbide " blades " that you run along the edge a few times. the edge i them sharpened by material being removed. i usually just use the gerber afterwards to smooth it out.

it works very well if the blade is really blunt.

I carry the gerber on my belt when i fish and at the end of each session when the fish are cleaned and the knife washed then i run the bllade once or twice through the medium grit then the same through the fine grit. keeps the blade very sharp, and i know that is is always ready for use. It is also very east to touch the edge up in the field when you feel it becoming blunted!

Just a thought!

 

[The General]

If you can make it to the South Wales meet, I will be giving sharpening classes.

 

[Goose]

I'll be there!! Got permission!
General, will look forward to taking your class, what should I bring for you to show me how to use properly? I mean budget kit, or what I can find around, I would really appreciate some advice on this as I made my knife worse last time i attempted to get it really sharp!
Thanks in advance, I assume I will find you by following the queue of confused looking blokes with knives,axes etc

 

[The General]

I am aiming to custom taylor the class to individuals requirements like last year. There are reasons for this, not least its more personal and fun for me and because I love the feedback and interaction.

I don't want to give a 2 hour boring lecture on sharpening!

The down side is my class can appear a bit chaotic, so I will try to keep it organised a bit better this year.

What to bring? The kit you use in the field and at home. The only kit I ask all to bring is a leather belt with a rough back and some metal polish in a small tube. The reason for this will become evident! You don't HAVE to, but you will get one after my class! If you want to really skimp, the back of a small notebook (cardboard) and a little metal polish rubbed into it. Pop it in a vapour lock freezer bag and bring it along.

I will be bringing my DMT duo folder for field use and a belt and polish.

If anyone wants to bring benchstones, sharening rigs/systems esp the sharpmaker, the better! I am really pushed for weight of kit as I don't drive and will be bringing lots of heavy knives also!

Idealy if we have a couple of synthetic benchstones a couple of natural, and a sharmaker we are in a great position to learn home sharpening.

For field use, bring what you use. I will show you how to use it and perhaps advise if I think you need a different product.

Hint, those Gerber diamond "pens" are not very good...

 

[Grez]

I'll have to try the felt pen technique as I never seems to be able to get a decent edge on my mora either using waterstones.

What sort of polish would you reccomend for use on a strop?

Autosol or something like or http://www.axminster.co.uk/product.asp?pf_id=22340&recno=13

Cheers

Grez..