Sharpening With A File

[AUSSIE]

AUSSIE’S SHARPENING TECHNIQUE – THE FILE

This knife sharpening method only requires a small mill file, a flat Stihl Chainsaw / Mill File is perfect, a six inch knife steel (ten inches including handle if you want one), a little practice and nothing else! With this method you can sharpen almost anything to a razor like, hair popping edge at any time in any place!!

This method is fast and it is practical, IMHO it is faster and more efficient than using a stone. With care you will remove very little metal and it is amazing how fine, neat and precise an edge you will get with a file and steel. Traditionally Hunting Broadheads are sharpened in this way and they come up as sharp as a razor!

Firstly get yourself an old / cheap knife to practice on! The trick is you want to develop instinctively a consistent sharpening angle using nothing but your horizontally (flat) braced blade and the file. In essence you instinctively judge the angle of the file in relation to the blade edge. Your hand and eye replace the sharpening guides / clamps such as those found in the Gatco and Lansky sets.

For most outdoor, field, hunting or survival knives (not scandis) a sharpening angle between 20 and 25 degrees is pretty much optimum. Ideally if you can develop a consistent sharpening angle of around 22.5 degrees you will do well!

Put the knife flat on the corner of a table / stump edge with the edge facing away from you and the blade hanging over the full length. If you are right handed hold the knife flat with your left hand so you can use the file in your right hand, if you are left handed do the reverse. Now gauge with the file held vertically against the blade edge the following angles: - 90 degrees then drop to 45 degrees, and then half that angle again down to 22.5 degrees. This is the angle that you want to learn so that you can do it without even thinking. You need to run the file down on the edge in one direction only then lift it off and move along to the next section of blade, start at the heel of the blade and then move to the tip (no great pressure should be applied as it is not required).

Concentrate on maintaining the angle and keeping the file evenly flat to the blade edge. Once you have run the file along the entire edge turn the blade over and around so that it is still braced by your left hand but is now under your / left arm wrist with the edge still facing away from you then begin to file again. This at first will feel a little awkward but is much safer than trying to file up and into the edge as if you had simply turned the blade over. When you’re learning this technique a useful tip is to run a marker pen line about a two mil wide along both sides of the edge, this way you will see where your file strokes are going and what effect they are having regarding angle consistency and direction. With this method you will have far better control over the sharpening tool’s angle than you would if you were using a horizontally mounted stone. Most people who use the traditional sharpening stone method tend to “rock“ the blade as they draw / push it over the stone thus with every pass the blade angle alters repeatedly, the end result is a misaligned, usually dull edge.

To finish off you need to get the sharpening steel happening. But not just any steel!!

Part II a little later.

 

[lardbloke]

Thats a great tutorial you have furnished us with. My dad still uses this technique and swears by it. I am pretty rubbish when it comes to sharpening and am saving for the edge pro system, so in the mean time I keep trying different things. The only problem with this method is that I do not have any decent files. But I suppose you could use long stones to achieve the same effect.

One word of caution using file method's (especially if using a vise), over time you become a little confident in your technique and my older brother sports a very large scar running under his arm where he slipped with the file and the blade did the rest (the great knuckle head ).

I look forward to thesecnd part...

 

[pierre girard]

We used files to sharpen our fillet knives when I was a commercial fisherman in Alaska - albeit in a slightly different way. We would use the file the same way a chef uses a sharpening steel. It was quick and efficient, though it wore the blade away quickly. "Time is money" type of thing.

For my knives at home, I use a razor stone (the type of stone used to hone a straight razor). These are hard to come by and are usually found in an antique store. It takes a long time to get a good edge - but it is a very good edge - good enough to shave with.

PG

 

[addyb]

I think I've come a long way, in term of my sharpening skills.

I started off using a sythetic stone, which did more damage than good.

Then I bought a set of Arkansas Hard and Soft stones, and started learning about different blade steels, grinds, and angles.

Then I taught myself how to use a leather belt as a stop, and how to properly use a butcher's honing steel. Throughout all of this learning, I massacred several cheap knives, but I know that now I've learnt a great deal.

Now I use a mousepad with wet/dry paper for a slight convex edge on my knives. And I will honestly say, I am far more satisfied with the "Hoodoo Stone" and a slight convex edge than I had been with any previous setup.

Just my $0.02!

Adam

 

[shadow57]

Thanks Aussie for that advice...I am absolutely rubbish at sharpening knive and it's not without trying. I will definitely give it a go and let you know

John

 

[C_Claycomb]

Hey, Aussie? I have only ever used a file on softer steels, does it work on the higher hardnesses (57-62Rc) often used in higher end knives? Like I say, I have used it for my Martindale machete and broadheads, but both are tempered for impact resistance. The file/steel/strop worked pretty well when I have used it, but I got the impression that it was intended as a fast method for blades that needed touching often - arrow heads that rattle in a quiver, choppers that hit knots and blades that have to slice a lot of abrasive material.

The martindale machete came with a little farmer's file, just wondering whether I have been missing a trick only taking it for sharpening choppers. What knives have you used your file on?

I know that all sorts can be used for sharpening. Some take-away cooks use the base of a coffee mug, Ed Fowler likes India stones, but will use a suitable pebble, and I have been told that one noteable instructor likes the inside of bathroom tiles!

 

[AUSSIE]

pierre girard,

Such a coincidence! I was at my brother in law's house for Christmas I took a whole side of home killed pork to bbq for lunch. I also took my steel, file and my favourite Green River Butcher Knife for breaking it up, my brother in law used to be a deck hand on a trawler and while I was there he handed me his trusty, way old, pitted, worn, salt pickled, Green River and said put an edge on that! Inside of five minutes with only file treatment I had it hair shaving sharp! He was amazed and very appreciative as he hadn't used or sharpened it in years! Back then his preferred deck sharpening method was the file!

 

[AUSSIE]

C_Claycomb

This method works well with mostly everything, I've even managed to put a virtual identical factory like edge back on SWAKs with this! It does however work exceedingly well with Carbon Blades found in lots of working knives such as Green Rivers, Cold Steel Red Rivers, machetes (just ask the natives) some of the harder stainless blades such as those bloody useless Mundial kitchen knives are really tough work! It can be a down and dirty, get it sharp quick method and at the same time you can put an incredibly sharp and very precise edge on even the most delicate blade! In normal use, you will also find that you remove less metal than you would if you were using any of those ugly diamond type sharpeners for example. The perception that you will somehow take off loads of metal is incorrect.