Sharpening

[Captain_Bandaid]

Re: Sharpening

??? Jacknife, I am not sure what you mean by 'laying the blade flat'. I hope it means that you lay the blade flat, then lift the back about the thickness of a dime while leaving the edge in contact with the stone. Push or pull the blade across the stone, EDGE FIRST, like you were going to slice off a thin piece of cheese. Do this 5 times on one side, then 5 times on the other and keep repeating until you can feel a burr on one side of the cutting edge. A few quick strokes on almost any strop will take the burr off and you are ready to go. Check out www.Capeforge.com and go to their 'Joy of Sharpening' page for more details.

[Guest]

Re: Sharpening

Captain: Thank you very much for the advice. I was laying the blade completely flat. Let me give this a try and I'll let you know how it works out. Will also check out the web-site you suggested! Thanks again...

[Guest]

Re: Sharpening

I'm curious, have any of you heard of or tried stropping your knife across newspaper after using your leather strop and compound? I read about it somewhere and always do it, it really finishes it off nicely.
The test I use to see if my knife has been stropped enough is to hold up a piece of newspaper at the top side with one hand and bring the blade down on the top of the page (old TV guides out of the Sunday paper work great). If the knife is really sharp it will slice right down through the paper, if not it will bend the paper. It's a simple test, which as a novice sharpener I needed, just couldn't tell any other way, always thought I had my knife sharp enough till I started cutting. This really helped me.
Also, I was told if properly stropped a knife or tools don't need 'stoned' very often at all, mostly to repair a nicked or damaged blade. I try to strop about every half hour or so when carving, no big amount then, just a few swipes across the leather, really helps! I hope these ideas and thoughts help some!

[pyrogite]

Re: Sharpening

Here are a couple of websites I found that are good. I still dunno what I'm doing when it comes to sharpening.
http://www.handamerican.com/lhone.html

http://www.shavings.net/SCARY.HTM:)

[Butch]

Re: Sharpening

I use ' wet or dry' sand paper ( look in the automotive body work section at Wally World ) in 800 and 2000 grit to get tools ready to strop.
Use thin double face tape ( not glue ) on a piece of wood and add the paper to each side. I've been sharpening things for over thirty years and, this works better than anything I've ever tried. Especially for removing the wire edge.
Use a small diameter dowel with 800 grit wrapped around it, to get the inside of your gouges. Cut about a 15 degree angle on a thin piece of wood. Hold 800 grit on the angle and polish and remove burrs from the inside of v-gouges .
This will work good enough that you probably won't need to hone your tools, after the intial honing, unless you nick the edge.
Hope this helps.

Butch

[Callynne]

Re: Sharpening

Hey Butch, that sounds like a terrific way to sharpen tools. I had heard about using sandpaper but since the finest stuff I had ever used was 220, I knew THAT wasn't what they must be referring to. I use the micro tools alot and that sounds like just what I need to keep them razor sharp. Thanks! Callynne

[Guest]

Re: Sharpening

Hmmmmm....so tell me, how do you know when your blade needs sharpened, or just honed? I'm fairly dumb on this issue.

I use Flexcut blades for my automach, Flexcut hand chisels and gouges, and Dockyard mini chisels and gouges. I've been going at it hard for months now, and nothing seems to need anything but a few swipes on the strop every now and again.

I'm cutting mostly pine, and now trying some basswood, but that's about it.

I'm just wondering when to sharpen, that's all :

[noel58]

Re: Sharpening

Unless you abuse your tools, rarely do you have to resharpen them. If you do periodic maintenance (stroping) you should be able to go a long time without sharpening. For every carver out there, there will be different methods of sharpening. Isn't that part of the fun of carving? Finding out new and different things? Strop often!!!

[Callynne]

[FatEddy]

Re: Sharpening

Callyne - Hope you didn't change the bevels on your hubbies knives and arrowheads. They need to be steeper than on carving knives and chisels in order to withstand hitting bone and tough grissle. I'm sure you didn't, but just making sure.

[Bandaid]

Re: Sharpening

I agree Butch, the wet/dry paper is a good system. 8)

[Callynne]

[FatEddy]

Re: Sharpening

The kitchen knives I sharpen like I do the hunting knives xx the only thing I sharpen like carving knives is carving knives xxx but I don't think there is any right or wrong way to do it as long as the edne will hold up to whatever your cutting xx my wife gives them a lot of abuse, she's chinese and they don't worry about cutting at a joint or any such thing xxx just wack it off wherever you want bone and all

[Guest]

Re: Sharpening

re how do I know when to sharpen: I usually try to shave the hair off of my arm to tell if my knives are sharp. I have hairy arms and hands so It works ok for me.

[Callynne]