Where can I learn to sharpen...

[dan8480]

I want to learn how to properly sharpen a knife. Is there somewhere I can go to learn? I want to learn on tools and methods I can use at home, not some crazy expensive machinery or thousand dollar magic stones. I have watched YouTube videos and such, but I have to learn hands on, and have someone explain all the steps and the proper equipment, and answer questions. Anywhere or anyone who does something like this?

 

[damifinowfish]

I like the diamond type sharpening stones

Red for getting an edge on the blade

Green for getting the blade razor sharp

Keep them wet with water so the metal being removed from the blade does not clog the diamond cutting surface.

I like the DMT stones, they can be had for as little as $20. Best thing about these is that they do not break when they get dropped.

http://www.dmtsharp.com/resources/video-library/

 

[zmayhem]

Or use the search function. Somebody asked this a few days ago.

Spyderco Sharpmaker

 

[smokey]

get a lansky kit and show up to the MSI meeting. I'll bring mine and show you.

 

[booker]

Spyderco Sharpmaker. $55 and it'll likely be everything that you ever need. Dead simple to use, especially after you watch the DVD. It sharpens straight, serrated, curved, karambit, hooks, scissors, you name it.

http://www.amazon.com/Spyderco-Tri-Angle-Sharpmaker/dp/B004HIZKHE

I spent several hundred dollars on various stones, and many many hours developing technique for my kitchen knives, which includes a few Japanese carbon steel blades and a Damascus blade. While they are great, start with the Sharpmaker. It's still my go-to sharpening system.

If you find you need more than shaving sharp, you can get a pair of ultrafine rods ($30 for a pair) in addition to the standard rough and fine rods that come with the kit. You can also strop with chromium oxide on leather or hide for the final polish that will give you a barbershop quality shave.

Check out chefknivestogo, Mark Richmond has many videos on using stones and stropping you can learn from.

 

[boardboy330]

^ +1

 

[Boom Boom]

Here's the other thread for the same topic
http://www.mdshooters.com/showthread.php?t=90471

 

[alucard0822]

I don't know of any classes or anything, just a skill that most have to pick up on their own. I learned to sharpen as a kid with a stone, but a background in automotive machining and tools, lifelong interest in knives, crafting a few of my own blades, and a couple decades spent sharpening hundreds if not thousands of edges at home and at work has taught me a lot. Get a few cheap knives, a protractor, and whatever sharpening method you are looking to learn on, learning to keep an angle and form an adge really come from practice only, and while most everyone sharpens knives in some capacity there are few that are actually good at it, or understand it, so lots of reading, trial and error and a lot of solitary practice are probably the best and most accesable methods to learn this skill. Cheap knives usually have 420 steel, it is soft, and sharpens quick, so you can quickly learn to form an edge, and when you sharpen more expensive harder/wear resistant steels, they sharpen slower, and are actually more forgiving. Learn about the basics of what makes an edge, there is the angle, usually from 15-30 degrees with shallower angles for light use and hard steel with higher angles for harder use and softer steels.

You can also sharpen a flat angle, where the edge is a long single angle, sharp and delicate, a compound angle where 2 or 3 progressively deeper angles form an angular bevel at the edge, or a convex edge with a smooth rounded bevel at the edge for a smooth cut and strong edge. An edge can be plain or serrated, a V-grind or chisel grind, the shape can be straight, rounded, recurve(curved inward), or angular like a tanto, all take different methods. You can use a flat stone or belt with a straight edge or curved knife, sometimes if a straight edge is damaged or rounded by improper sharpening you have no choice but to grind the edge flat till the damage is removed, and then reform it from scratch. Tantos are 2 separate edges and need to be worked as such, never sharpen past the angle on either side. Recurve, Karambit, and hawks bill edges curve inwards, and need a rounded stone or flexible belt to work. Serrations are not neccesarily difficult to sharpen, but they are time consuming, treat each serration as it's own recurve edge, and use a properly shaped stone, round for round, triangle for angled, and match the width of a serration with the width of the abrasive.

What makes the edge sharp is an extremely thin flap of metal extending out from the center of the edge angle, it may only be a few molecules thick, and is what actually initiates the cut, this is the wire edge, angelhair, or burr. It is perhaps the least understood and most dificult aspect of sharpening, abrasives can only grind the edge to a rough wedge, that can still cut, and be sharp enough to cut, but is not razor hair popping sharp. Sharpening actually consists of a few steps. First is to repair and form the edge, grinding out nics, chips, or gouges, forming the rough angle or convex bevel, and forming or correcting the edge shape, rounded where it should be, angular and sectioned on something like a tanto tip, or forming the peaks and valleys of a serrated edge. Honing is next, reducing grind marks from forming, smoothing the edge, and either finishing a sharp wedge for a utility edge, or drawing out a burr for a fine sharp edge. Finally comes stropping, this removes the excess burr, thins and forms the wire edge, and stands it up to cut effectively. The methods are simple, and the materials and abrasives used can be as simple or complex as you wish, a knife can be effectively formed and honed with such mundane objects as the bottom of a coffee cup or a brick, and you can strop with dense cardboard, a peice of wood, the spine of another knife, and more, nice diamond stones or a silicon carbide belt on a power sander and Russian boar hide are a whole lot better though.

Once an edge is formed, honed, and stropped cutting starts folding over the wire edge, dulling it from razor sharp to utility sharp, it won't shave hair, but can still cut paper cleanly, stropping will reform the edge, takes off practically no metal, and is quick, this is 90% of the "sharpening" that kitchen knives, razors, and small EDCs will need, when a barber rubs the razor on a leather, or a chef rubs a knife on the steel, this is stropping. If the knife is used in hard work, the wire edge is folded or worn off, the wedge angle starts to wear and dull next, with small pits and cracks at the edge, this is when the knife gets dull enough that it won't cut paper cleanly, and rips carboard instead of cutting it. This is where most EDCs are honed, the angle is smoothed, the edge is thinned, and a wire edge can be formed. Finally comes edge damage, pulling staples, cutting wire, punching holes in sheetmetal, the edge has visual nicks or chips, the tip may break off, or the edge of the knife wears into the base angle leaving a visibly flat or rounded edge, the knife now won't cut much of anything, it basically hacks and smashes through material, and needs to start from scratch.

There are a few methods to "sharpen", where some methods can perform one or more of the 3 main steps. The simplest is a stone, basic hard abrasive, natural rock, industrial abrasives, ceramic or industrial diamonds. A basic flat stone is difficult to use, and slow it is hard to hold an exact edge without a lot of practice, and outside of nostalgia, or in the field with nothing better around, it is an obsolete method. A jig setup like lansky or an edge pro maintain an angle to better form and hone, croc-sticks, the spyderco sharpmaker or the warthog sharpeners can help keep an angle for honing, but their narrow stones make edge forming or repair difficult, none of these methods strop. You simply set-up the jig according to instructions, and move corse stones back and forth to form, and fine stones in a circular pattern to hone. To use a sharpmaker just set the vertical sticks, hold the knife edge straight down and pull the knife down the rods to form, and in a circular pattern to hone. The circular pattern is important, if you only push the edge on the stone the burr gets cut off instead of pulling it and forming the wire edge, without pulling the edge while honing stropping is ineffective later on. To strop by hand, a belt is good, but flat strops mounted on wood are faster, use a little polish or rouge on one side to help thin the wire edge and polish the edge, and leave the other side clean to help clean off the polish, buff the edge and really get the wire edge to pop.

There are proven methods with power tools and sharpeners since the stone age, they are much faster, arguably better, and can be just as easy. My preffered method is with a $30 1X30" harbourfreight belt sander. I use 120 grit belts to form, 15micron/1000 grit silicon carbide to hone, and leather with green compound on the smooth side/ clean rough side to polish and strop, never ever ever machine sharpen with the edge opposing the belts rotation aka push sharpening, always pulll sharpen where the edge is pointed away, wear glasses because grit will fly, take your time, and the knife should never get too hot to touch. I like a convex edge, and work the blade back and forth just above the belt guide, where a little slack rounds the angle. Lube the 120 grit belt with parrafin wax, watch heat buildup, and don't let the metal discolor, form your edge in a few passes holding at your desired angle(adding pressure rounds the convex edge, less pressure straightens it), and in a minute or two your edge is formed and "factory sharp", always alternate sides with each pass to get an even edge. To hone match the angle set from forming, and watch the edge after a pass to make sure the belt is hitting the full width of the edge, matching the angle, a few passes removes 120grit marks, removes most of the broad jagged burr, and smooths out to a satin finish.

Matching the angle needs to be done visually and after a lot of practice as minor diffences in belt thickness, adjustment, and rigidity may require holding more or less angle to match the angle set by the prior belt. Use the leather next, smooth side with green polishing compound, also making sure the angle hits the full width of the edge, it is now polished smooth, and the wire edge is no longer visible. I then slip the blade behind the guide and hit the clean raw leather back of the belt to clean off the polish, buff too a mirror polish, and finish stropping. This takes some practice,and can mess up a knife in seconds, but can get a damaged knife formed, honed and stropped in 5 minutes or less, and a sharp knife can be stropped to perfection again in seconds.

A similar method is the razor sharp edgemaster, although it uses compressed paper wheels for a grinder as oposed to belts on a sander, 160 grit on one and polish compound on the other. The knife is formed and rough honed on the grit wheel with wax lubricating it, then final honed and stropped on the other side. This system is good if you like flat angle edges as most belt setups will produce some form of convex edge, it also produces a comprable edge in comprable time, but wheels are more expensive than belts, and it can be a bit more difficult to find the angle. Some companies also make wet wheel sharpeners, these use a low-speed stone turning in a water trough, and a high speed leather stropping wheel on a modified bench grinder. It is probably better suited to larger utility blades like axes, planer knives and machetes, but can sharpen and strop a knife well enough, they are expensive, but work similar in practice to the edgemaster, and some include angle jigs to ease getting uniform angles. The final method are electric sharpeners like chefs choice, they guide a knife through narrow slots, usually produce compound angles of increasingly finer grit, and while they can't strop, they can hone a good edge on larger knives quickly. for smaller pocket knives they are lacking, and they don't form tips well, a good one can also be expensive.

Serrated knives can also be sharpened, using the edge of a belt, or wheel to form each serration, the angle must be matched, and the top is really only honed, the back is stropped or de-burred. For serrations stones still have their place, a round stick in a radius or diameter to match a serration is matched to the angle, and drawn over it, reforming the valleys and peaks, being each serration is done individually, doing this with power is difficult and time consuming. I form mine by hand, then use the edge of a honing belt to gently go over the serrations and draw a wire edge, then strop the top with the edge of the leather belt, and back at a low angle with the flat face of the leather, this can repair damaged serrations and can make them as hair-popping sharp as a plain edge, although serrations do take a lot of time to sharpen, they hold a useable edge far longer. I also have some knives with an Emerson style chisel edge grind. Like a serrated edge, one side only is angled about 30-45 degrees and the other is flat and deburred, they are different, but I really like this simple setup, instead of a nice sharp 20 degrees on each side forming a 40 degree edge angle on a V-grind, chisel edges are a single angle, and even a stout 30 degree when single sided is equal to a 15 degree v-grind, it's simple, durable, and can be extremely sharp.

Simply form and hone the one side, forming a decent burr on the back, but you don't want it to curl around, or get excessive, so I use a single pass with the back on the strop every few passes sharpening the edge side, this forms a good thin and strong wire edge with a broad polished edge, then I finish by stropping both sides near equally, mathcing th angle on the front and using a shallow 5 degree angle on the back, you don't want to lay the blade flat on the belt, the edge on the spine can grab in and fling the knife, cut the belt, or in my case strip the finish off of the flat side of the blade, nothing but leather ever touches the flat side, so the edge is never ruined with abrasives.

 

[Al's Snackbar]

I take them to the local hardware store. Support your local small business.

 

[Angeleyes1968]

get a lansky kit and show up to the MSI meeting. I'll bring mine and show you.

Where and when is the meeting?

 

[accce]

The Work Sharp WSKTS is the best sharpener for the money. It takes 5 min to get the hang of and I have not found anything sharper.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cjjfxzAm4dg&feature=relmfu

 

[smokey]

I don't know of any classes or anything, just a skill that most have to pick up on their own. I learned to sharpen as a kid with a stone, but a background in automotive machining and tools, lifelong interest in knives, crafting a few of my own blades, and a couple decades spent sharpening hundreds if not thousands of edges at home and at work has taught me a lot. Get a few cheap knives, a protractor, and whatever sharpening method you are looking to learn on, learning to keep an angle and form an adge really come from practice only, and while most everyone sharpens knives in some capacity there are few that are actually good at it, or understand it, so lots of reading, trial and error and a lot of solitary practice are probably the best and most accesable methods to learn this skill. Cheap knives usually have 420 steel, it is soft, and sharpens quick, so you can quickly learn to form an edge, and when you sharpen more expensive harder/wear resistant steels, they sharpen slower, and are actually more forgiving. Learn about the basics of what makes an edge, there is the angle, usually from 15-30 degrees with shallower angles for light use and hard steel with higher angles for harder use and softer steels.

You can also sharpen a flat angle, where the edge is a long single angle, sharp and delicate, a compound angle where 2 or 3 progressively deeper angles form an angular bevel at the edge, or a convex edge with a smooth rounded bevel at the edge for a smooth cut and strong edge. An edge can be plain or serrated, a V-grind or chisel grind, the shape can be straight, rounded, recurve(curved inward), or angular like a tanto, all take different methods. You can use a flat stone or belt with a straight edge or curved knife, sometimes if a straight edge is damaged or rounded by improper sharpening you have no choice but to grind the edge flat till the damage is removed, and then reform it from scratch. Tantos are 2 separate edges and need to be worked as such, never sharpen past the angle on either side. Recurve, Karambit, and hawks bill edges curve inwards, and need a rounded stone or flexible belt to work. Serrations are not neccesarily difficult to sharpen, but they are time consuming, treat each serration as it's own recurve edge, and use a properly shaped stone, round for round, triangle for angled, and match the width of a serration with the width of the abrasive.

What makes the edge sharp is an extremely thin flap of metal extending out from the center of the edge angle, it may only be a few molecules thick, and is what actually initiates the cut, this is the wire edge, angelhair, or burr. It is perhaps the least understood and most dificult aspect of sharpening, abrasives can only grind the edge to a rough wedge, that can still cut, and be sharp enough to cut, but is not razor hair popping sharp. Sharpening actually consists of a few steps. First is to repair and form the edge, grinding out nics, chips, or gouges, forming the rough angle or convex bevel, and forming or correcting the edge shape, rounded where it should be, angular and sectioned on something like a tanto tip, or forming the peaks and valleys of a serrated edge. Honing is next, reducing grind marks from forming, smoothing the edge, and either finishing a sharp wedge for a utility edge, or drawing out a burr for a fine sharp edge. Finally comes stropping, this removes the excess burr, thins and forms the wire edge, and stands it up to cut effectively. The methods are simple, and the materials and abrasives used can be as simple or complex as you wish, a knife can be effectively formed and honed with such mundane objects as the bottom of a coffee cup or a brick, and you can strop with dense cardboard, a peice of wood, the spine of another knife, and more, nice diamond stones or a silicon carbide belt on a power sander and Russian boar hide are a whole lot better though.

Once an edge is formed, honed, and stropped cutting starts folding over the wire edge, dulling it from razor sharp to utility sharp, it won't shave hair, but can still cut paper cleanly, stropping will reform the edge, takes off practically no metal, and is quick, this is 90% of the "sharpening" that kitchen knives, razors, and small EDCs will need, when a barber rubs the razor on a leather, or a chef rubs a knife on the steel, this is stropping. If the knife is used in hard work, the wire edge is folded or worn off, the wedge angle starts to wear and dull next, with small pits and cracks at the edge, this is when the knife gets dull enough that it won't cut paper cleanly, and rips carboard instead of cutting it. This is where most EDCs are honed, the angle is smoothed, the edge is thinned, and a wire edge can be formed. Finally comes edge damage, pulling staples, cutting wire, punching holes in sheetmetal, the edge has visual nicks or chips, the tip may break off, or the edge of the knife wears into the base angle leaving a visibly flat or rounded edge, the knife now won't cut much of anything, it basically hacks and smashes through material, and needs to start from scratch.

There are a few methods to "sharpen", where some methods can perform one or more of the 3 main steps. The simplest is a stone, basic hard abrasive, natural rock, industrial abrasives, ceramic or industrial diamonds. A basic flat stone is difficult to use, and slow it is hard to hold an exact edge without a lot of practice, and outside of nostalgia, or in the field with nothing better around, it is an obsolete method. A jig setup like lansky or an edge pro maintain an angle to better form and hone, croc-sticks, the spyderco sharpmaker or the warthog sharpeners can help keep an angle for honing, but their narrow stones make edge forming or repair difficult, none of these methods strop. You simply set-up the jig according to instructions, and move corse stones back and forth to form, and fine stones in a circular pattern to hone. To use a sharpmaker just set the vertical sticks, hold the knife edge straight down and pull the knife down the rods to form, and in a circular pattern to hone. The circular pattern is important, if you only push the edge on the stone the burr gets cut off instead of pulling it and forming the wire edge, without pulling the edge while honing stropping is ineffective later on. To strop by hand, a belt is good, but flat strops mounted on wood are faster, use a little polish or rouge on one side to help thin the wire edge and polish the edge, and leave the other side clean to help clean off the polish, buff the edge and really get the wire edge to pop.

There are proven methods with power tools and sharpeners since the stone age, they are much faster, arguably better, and can be just as easy. My preffered method is with a $30 1X30" harbourfreight belt sander. I use 120 grit belts to form, 15micron/1000 grit silicon carbide to hone, and leather with green compound on the smooth side/ clean rough side to polish and strop, never ever ever machine sharpen with the edge opposing the belts rotation aka push sharpening, always pulll sharpen where the edge is pointed away, wear glasses because grit will fly, take your time, and the knife should never get too hot to touch. I like a convex edge, and work the blade back and forth just above the belt guide, where a little slack rounds the angle. Lube the 120 grit belt with parrafin wax, watch heat buildup, and don't let the metal discolor, form your edge in a few passes holding at your desired angle(adding pressure rounds the convex edge, less pressure straightens it), and in a minute or two your edge is formed and "factory sharp", always alternate sides with each pass to get an even edge. To hone match the angle set from forming, and watch the edge after a pass to make sure the belt is hitting the full width of the edge, matching the angle, a few passes removes 120grit marks, removes most of the broad jagged burr, and smooths out to a satin finish.

Matching the angle needs to be done visually and after a lot of practice as minor diffences in belt thickness, adjustment, and rigidity may require holding more or less angle to match the angle set by the prior belt. Use the leather next, smooth side with green polishing compound, also making sure the angle hits the full width of the edge, it is now polished smooth, and the wire edge is no longer visible. I then slip the blade behind the guide and hit the clean raw leather back of the belt to clean off the polish, buff too a mirror polish, and finish stropping. This takes some practice,and can mess up a knife in seconds, but can get a damaged knife formed, honed and stropped in 5 minutes or less, and a sharp knife can be stropped to perfection again in seconds.

A similar method is the razor sharp edgemaster, although it uses compressed paper wheels for a grinder as oposed to belts on a sander, 160 grit on one and polish compound on the other. The knife is formed and rough honed on the grit wheel with wax lubricating it, then final honed and stropped on the other side. This system is good if you like flat angle edges as most belt setups will produce some form of convex edge, it also produces a comprable edge in comprable time, but wheels are more expensive than belts, and it can be a bit more difficult to find the angle. Some companies also make wet wheel sharpeners, these use a low-speed stone turning in a water trough, and a high speed leather stropping wheel on a modified bench grinder. It is probably better suited to larger utility blades like axes, planer knives and machetes, but can sharpen and strop a knife well enough, they are expensive, but work similar in practice to the edgemaster, and some include angle jigs to ease getting uniform angles. The final method are electric sharpeners like chefs choice, they guide a knife through narrow slots, usually produce compound angles of increasingly finer grit, and while they can't strop, they can hone a good edge on larger knives quickly. for smaller pocket knives they are lacking, and they don't form tips well, a good one can also be expensive.

Serrated knives can also be sharpened, using the edge of a belt, or wheel to form each serration, the angle must be matched, and the top is really only honed, the back is stropped or de-burred. For serrations stones still have their place, a round stick in a radius or diameter to match a serration is matched to the angle, and drawn over it, reforming the valleys and peaks, being each serration is done individually, doing this with power is difficult and time consuming. I form mine by hand, then use the edge of a honing belt to gently go over the serrations and draw a wire edge, then strop the top with the edge of the leather belt, and back at a low angle with the flat face of the leather, this can repair damaged serrations and can make them as hair-popping sharp as a plain edge, although serrations do take a lot of time to sharpen, they hold a useable edge far longer. I also have some knives with an Emerson style chisel edge grind. Like a serrated edge, one side only is angled about 30-45 degrees and the other is flat and deburred, they are different, but I really like this simple setup, instead of a nice sharp 20 degrees on each side forming a 40 degree edge angle on a V-grind, chisel edges are a single angle, and even a stout 30 degree when single sided is equal to a 15 degree v-grind, it's simple, durable, and can be extremely sharp.

Simply form and hone the one side, forming a decent burr on the back, but you don't want it to curl around, or get excessive, so I use a single pass with the back on the strop every few passes sharpening the edge side, this forms a good thin and strong wire edge with a broad polished edge, then I finish by stropping both sides near equally, mathcing th angle on the front and using a shallow 5 degree angle on the back, you don't want to lay the blade flat on the belt, the edge on the spine can grab in and fling the knife, cut the belt, or in my case strip the finish off of the flat side of the blade, nothing but leather ever touches the flat side, so the edge is never ruined with abrasives.

Nerd

The only thing really to add are some procedures to ensure better consistency on the lansky and stropping details.

Lansky kit things:
step 1) clamping the knife
When clamping the knife, you need to keep a few factors in mind.
They clamp more effectively on flat surfaces. Some knives have a great flat area near the spine to grab on to. If you're able to, use it. Clamping on a flat area does a couple things. When pushing a stone on the blade, the blade will want to flex away from the pressure, clamping the flat part of a blade will resist the blade flex in the jig and prevent an inconsistent edge angle due to inconsistent pressures.

It also allows you to more consistently set the clamp to the blade. It enables you to use the front screw to match the blade thickness, and then use the rear screw to tighten the clamp. Inconsistency from sharpening to sharpening can happen if that front screw is wider open one session and then tighter closed the next. If this happens, you've essentially got to start from scratch and reform a new edge angle(unless it's more steep, which will just make a second bevel..which can be a good thing).

The final thing a flat surface gives you is more gripping stability. It'll keep the blade from slipping in the clamp as you manipulate it. If it's moving around in the clamp it's dangerous and it will change the angle of the stone to the blade.


While clamping on a flat surface, also keep in mind how the stone will pivot around the indexing hole in the guide. You want the straight area of the edge pependicular to the stone. Try to line it up so the belly of the blade curves away roughly where the stone will start to curve away. If you're sharpening a large knife, you may need to unclamp and reclamp the lansky in stages down the edge to keep the angle from getting shallower as the stone swings wide to the left and right.

If you have a blade shape like my contego, where there is no flat area to grab...it's trickier to clamp the spine into the clamp. One way to approach it is to loosen the front screw and keep turning the rear screw until the lansky clamp matches the grind of the blade. It will be more secure, but will make the angles on the guide more steep(as it raises the guide holes further above the midline of the blade). For my contego, I've just cut a small piece of cardboard and used it as a spacer between the blade and the clamp. It filled in some void area and enabled me to get a more consistent hold on the blade without it wobbling back and forth from one side to the other.

step 2: Guide rod consistency
Take a new lansky kit, put guide rods in the stones, lay the stones on a flat surface with the guide rods sticking over the edge into open space. Look at the end of the rods. They'll be completely inconsistent. Think of what this means when transitioning from a coarse stone to a more fine stone.

To compensate for this, I align all the rods every time I use a new stone. To align them, I loosen the retention screw and lay the stone flat on it's face on a known flat surface. Then I press down on the rod in the area closes to the stone where it makes it 90 degree bend until it contacts the flat surface. From here, i tighten the retention screw. Once you do this, the guide rod will show you on the flat surface if it needs to be bent upwards or downwards to allow both the rod and the face of the stone to lay flat. Do this for all of your stones, every time you sharpen and you'll have more consistency.

step 3: clean stones
Synthetic stones are hands down just better than natural stones. They're more consistent and are easier to clean. I use the diamond lansky kit because they cut waaaaaaay faster than the standard kit on fancy steel and generally make a cleaner edge. To clean them soap and water works fine, but putting a towel under them and giving them a quick hose-down with barricade is way quicker and works just as well..plus the stone is already lubed when you're done.

If your stones aren't clean, they wont cut well and will take forever to sharpen anything.

Step 4: sharpening
Work from coarse to fine, alucard already mentioned how to use the stones for shaping and for honing. The other thing to keep in mind is pressure. Too much pressure is bad. It will bend the guide rod and make a different angle depending on how much or how little you use. It's important to be consistent in how much pressure you use on the egde. You also don't want to be bending the edge back and forth going from side to side. Think of a paperclip bent back and forth...it weakens the steel. Take your time and allow the stone to do the work, not you.

For safety, obviously be sure to keep fingers above the blade when holding the stones. If you slip, you wont run your fingers directly into the edge this way(experience). Be careful to not pull the stone out too far. If you do, it will jump down over your edge and f it up. Keep the edge in the belly of the stone and avoid the ends. Also be careful when nearing the tip to not allow the stone to "wrap around" and round it off. You should be maintaining the angle of the stone as you try to keep it from jumping off the tip. Take your time here again to avoid injury and messing up the tip.

Step 5: stropping
Good leather and a good compound is worth the money. Keep in mind, once you use one size compound on a leather..it's impregnated in there. Keep track of which leathers you're using with which compounds and don't switch.

If you're broke, a worn out leather belt with some mothers mag wheel polish will work. Some people tie one end around their foot, or to a mount and work the knife on unbacked leather. You've got to be careful with this. Stropping can easily ruin your edge if you don't pay attention to pressure and angle.

To limit the possibility of rounding over/ruining your edge, just lay down the belt on a flat surface...i use my kitchen counter. Too much pressure can still sink the blade into the leather and increase odds of rounding the edge, but the backing will limit this type of damage. It's important to maintain proper angle when stropping...lemme post this lovely bladeforums sticky to give you a better understanding of stropping angle vs. pressure...
http://www.bladeforums.com/forums/showthread.php/750008-Stropping-angle-plus-pressure

to learn more about stropping read this...
http://www.bushcraftuk.com/downloads/pdf/knifeshexps.pdf

In it they found that leather doesn't have enough natural abrasives to really do a damned thing by itself. A stropping compound is necessary to see any real edge improvement. Bare leather can be used to remove compound after stropping though.

 

[sandeman]

contact any boyscout!

 

[hvymax]

contact any boyscout!

It's a requirement for Totin Chip.

 

[coopermania]

I fixed it for you.

get a "diamond" lansky kit and show up to the MSI meeting. I'll bring mine and show you.

This is the only sharpener to buy.

 

[accce]

This is the only sharpener to buy.

I will race you with my Work Sharp WSKTS and bet you can't get yours sharper.

 

[bigjohn]

practice. some can do it really well. some cant

 

[Biggfoot44]

Totin Chip is great for saftey and usage of knife, hand ax , real ax , but only scratches the surface on sharpening. Woodcarving Merit Badge class was Graduate School in knife sharpening.

But read the other thread from a few days ago.

And I'll see your 420 , and raise to 1055 . Patina is a thing of bueaty , and a sign of character.

 

[smokey]

I will race you with my Work Sharp WSKTS and bet you can't get yours sharper.

you'll definately get yours pretty sharp and in much less time. Mine will be sharper. Mine will also have a more consistent edge(especially around the tip). I've used the work sharp at basspro a bunch of times. It's okay, but you don't have as much control over the edge as you have on the lansky/edge pro kind of sharpening systems.

 

[G O B]

Go to a second hand book store, and find an old Boy Scout manual.