how do I keep a keen edge on my knife

[The General]

Flexgold is quite an abrasive product for a polish. I use and prefer

http://www.flitz.com/products.html

As it wont nacker your finish and provides rust protection to boot. Great stuff!

Remember, a strop is polishing and removing a burr as well as refreashing an edge. Not major stock removal! You want gentle... not ham fists!

Let the stones cut...

 

[The General]

I will be interested to see who uses what in knife and stone terms.

I hope I will see more than plastic handled Mora's!

 

[Goose]

I will be interested to see who uses what in knife and stone terms.

I hope I will see more than plastic handled Mora's!

 

[Grez]

I use and prefer

http://www.flitz.com/products.html

As it wont nacker your finish and provides rust protection to boot. Great stuff!

That flitz polish looks like it does the same job as autosol. I found some autosol in my garage so I think I will give it a go.

Grez..

 

[Marts]

I use and prefer

http://www.flitz.com/products.html

As it wont nacker your finish and provides rust protection to boot. Great stuff!

Is there a UK supplier of Flitz products?

 

[AJB]

Please excuse my ignorance on this subject. I don’t own a “quality” knife just a few cheap ones but I sharpen them using a process I understood to be correct, and I certainly get a result which is plenty good enough for me. But now I am confused.

The way I understood it, if you have a flat bevel (terminology?) ie the two planes that form the edge are flat, not concave or convex, then the idea is to move the blade on the sharpening stone as if to carve a slice off it. The bevel plane lies flat on the stone so you remove material evenly from the whole surface. Once you have reduced that surface sufficiently to produce a new clean edge you reverse the blade and repeated on the other side to produce bevels that are of equal depth. Then you strop on leather to polish the edge. Am I wrong?

I thought the whole point of moving the blade in the direction you cut was to avoid burrs on the edge. Which, again I thought, you only get when you sharpen by moving the blade backwards causing swarf like material collects at the tip of the blade.

Baffled.

 

[nipper]

Hi General

Unfortunatley I am unable to come to the meet, (Work seems to keep getting in the way of a good life!). |So hopefully you can help me over this forum.

You stated that people ought to bring metal polish and "the reason will become evident". As I am unable to come to the meet could you enlighten me to the benefits of metal polish. Is it a case of putting some polish on a strop to get a sharper more polished edge or is there a different reason. Or is there a right or wrong technique for using it?

Nick

 

[Hoodoo]

Andy, you will get a burr sharpening in either direction. To test this, just sharpen your knife with a slicing motion on one side. Eventually you will feel a burr form.

A stone is a rough surface. You are placing pressure on one side. The very thinnest part of the edge will get pushed to the other side due to irregularities in the stone surface, and form a burr. The finer and smoother the stone, the less of a burr will be formed.

 

[AJB]

Ahh, it all makes sense. Thanks a lot for your logic.

AJB

 

[AJB]

I’ve got a cheap Mora knife. If I wanted to trade up a little what would be the next best step?

 

[simonsays]

I’ve got a cheap Mora knife. If I wanted to trade up a little what would be the next best step?

Allan Blade makes excellent knives, try a search for 'Packpal'. I've never heard a bad word said about them. They wont break the bank either.

Simon

 

[Marts]

Allan's website is HERE

 

[leon-1]

It depends really on your budget, but you can get a lot of very good deals from The Trading Post, you want to be looking at Tregor knives and then have a look under the J Line for the Lapp Pukko, they cost about £35.00.

The other option is that you buy a blade and put a handle on it yourself, you can get some good results for less than £20.

The pictures are a little fuzzy, but you will get the idea.

In the end it all depends on how much money and how much time you have, if money is tight then get a blade and make a knife. Add a bit of time, a lot of patience and some carefull thought and you can have a knife that would cost you more than £50 to buy premade for less than half the price.

As far as sharpening in the field, get yourself a nice little peice of board some carpet tape and some wet and dry held in place with carpet tape, they take up little space weigh virtually nothing and you can get grits from 600 to 2500 for very little cost, if you add to that a good leather belt and compound if you wish then you have everything you need to keep a knife like a razor at all times

 

[AJB]

Thanks all.

AJB

 

[Ogri the trog]

I’ve got a cheap Mora knife. If I wanted to trade up a little what would be the next best step?

How about two Mora's, one kept razor sharp for occaisional or delicate tasks and one with a wider bevel for more everyday cutting jobs.
I'll also add a recommendation for knife kits from Brisa. I bought two, (fillet knife & a Nordic) made the first as a practice and gave it to a mate (he was over the moon) then made the second which I'll keep. The kits were about 20 Euro's each plus postage, now thats good value.

Edit, Sorry, nearly forgot - you can use the new type of nail files as a pocket sized strop. Get the ones with the pink and grey abrasives (they are different grit sizes) and only cost a few quid!

ATB

Ogri the trog

 

[The General]

Yes, you use the cardboard and belt to strop the edge. When done in the field this often prevents the need for a stone or similar to be used. It will pop an edge right back to sharp again.

One tip is not to let an edge become dull in the first place, strop on a fairly regular basis and your edge will hold up over quite a few days in my experience.

 

[Rod]

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


Joules

I did - in my youth - I tired the poor lassie out!