very sharp

[murf]

Happy new year to all. may 2006 be good to you. I have now after lots of trying, blood sweat and tears got my knife and axe very sharp. Both have been sharp but not as sharp as I wanted them. " As you know!" My knife is a Helle Eggen of which I am very happy with and my axe is one I found in a skip and brought back to life. I took your advice and used washing up liquid on my stone which is great and gives a very good edge, then I have just used green polishing compound on an old pice of belt I glued to a pice of wood and stropped both of them and now I can shave with both of them .It is a bit tricky to do the upper lip with the axe though!!This has started off as a good new year.

 

[Damascus]

All I can say is just keep practicing with all your edged blades and soon it will be second nature to do even the fiddly bits and the best part is the fun and satisfaction when you get it right.

 

[AUSSIE]

Yep

the dishwashing liquid trick does work pretty well, much nicer to use and clean up than oil!

 

[capacious]

I've always wanted to try that washing-up liquid trick, but I get the sense that it would rather bugger-up a waterstone Actually, I find that once I have done the initial sharpening on a knife, that I can maintain an absolute razor edge with a strop and some fine paste, as long as the edge isn't damaged. I spent a small fortune on a full set of waterstones, and have only used them 4 times!