robin wood
Bushcrafter (boy, I've got a lot to say!)
I think a zero ground scandi, ie one with no secondary like a woodlore or a frosts sloyd is what folk think is "easy" to sharpen. The reason being that you lay the whole of the primary bevel on the stone and you can feel when the bevel is flat, it is also the best edge profile for woodcarving. A small secondary bevel is imensly easier to sharpen when you can do it because sharpening is about removing metal to get to a new edge. On a woodlore or similar zero ground knife you have to remove lots of metal as you are cutting the whole of the primary bevel (maybe 5-7mm wide?)
The benefit of a secondary bevel is that to get to a new edge you only have to remove a fraction of 1mm of metal to get to a new perfect edge. The drawback is that there is no way you can feel that small bevel register on the stone.
Here is how I sharpen a secondary bevel knife.
1 look at the primary bevel and angle it toward a window so it reflects the light.
2 tilt it slowly towards me until I see the light reflect off the secondary bevel, this will appear as a line of light along the edge. You can see photos in this thread. http://www.bushcraftuk.com/forum/showthread.php?t=29512&highlight=mora+sharp
Judge how many degrees or how much twist it takes to go from light reflecting off primary to secondary, normally around 5 degrees ish.
3 Now put your knife on your stone with the primary bevel flat on the stone, resting the fingers of the left hand on the flat of the blade and rocking it back and forth will help you feel when the flat of the bevel registers on the stone.
4 Raise the back of the knife by the same number of degrees as you had to twist it to see the light shine off the secondary bevel.
5 Now is the important bit, you have to maintain exactly that angle as you do your sharpening. Be aware that now you are cutting metal only from a 0.5mm microbevel you need a tiny fraction of the strokes or pressure you would use to sharpen a full primary bevel, effectively you will be removing metal from the edge (which is after all what we want to do to get a new edge) at 10 or 20 times the speed. To maintain the angle of the bevel lock your two hands together on the knife with you forearms against your body giving a strong triangle and use a wide stable stance. 5 strokes each side on your coarse, medium then fine sharpeners (whatever you use, emery, waterstones or whatever) should be plenty, then finish on a strop loaded with autosol, I use a piece of MDF or plywood for a strop but leather (old belt from Oxfam) stuck on a board works too.
Ogri is dead right with his comments about finding this secondary angle but the real trick for secondaries is decide how much you are going to raise the back then lock everything up and maintain exactly that angle as you sharpen. The secondary is so small that 5 strokes on a coarse stone will remove what was there before and set your new secondary angle then you repeat on your finer stones.
The benefit of a knife sharpened with a secondary is that it takes maybe 1/20th of the time of properly sharpening a zero ground knife.
