Thread: Knife sharpening

It is (perhaps) a good idea to clarify the angles as per side or as an inclusive apex angle.

I find that you need a pretty good knife to retain an edge below 30 degrees inclusive, particularly for a kitchen knife that tend to get banged into the cutting board a lot during chopping. Even my German knives seem happier at 30+ inclusive.

For the knives I carry, 20 inclusive. (They are fairly high end steels with great heat treat)

YMMV

I would have thought it to be obvious. Any good knife sharpening instruction will tell you to go and cut a wedge to the required angle, in this case 20 degree's, and use it to help keep the knife at the required angle on he stone, until you get the feel for it and can do away with this crutch. So it would appear obvious that it is 20 degrees a side.
Sorry for any confusion to the OP.


Mick

TL;DR: you may not need very fine stones, HAD is fun, how you sharpen may depend on what you are doing with the blade.

i've never understood how those wedges would be of much help in maintaining an angle when honing a knife when the wedge is not as long as the knife nor does it follow the curve of the knife.. i roughly understand how jigs work for maintaining an angle on a blade for a hand plane..

i start at a lower angle on my coarser stones when essentially bevel setting or reshaping the bevel, and as i move up in grit i allow for a slightly higher angle.. when finishing i still aim for a slightly lower angle most of the time as any variance in the stroke will end up with some strokes at a higher angle anyways so you will still hone the edge but not increase the angle too much.. Grind - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia this produces a convex grind and although once you have set/shaped the bevel most work in maintaining the blade will simply be honing the edge and at some point the actual bevel at the edge will grow wider and working the side of the bevel higher up to thin the blade (possibly with a coarser stone) may be helpful in making it easy to maintain the edge on whatever stone you chose to finish with..

having read some articles on knife honing one school of thought is hone a blade withe the coarsest grit that will do the job, as the microserrations will keep the knife sharp longer.. so it depends on what the knife is being used for.. if the knife is being used for slicing rather than push cutting some serrations seem like a good thing.. razors can be thought of as mostly push cutting, although angling the blade for a guillotine stroke is like a slicing motion, and the scythe stroke that i've never figured out seems even more like a slicing motion.. one thing to keep in mind, for many folks who regularly use knives a 1k stone is a finisher..

i'm still learning about sharpening, but at the moment i find for most kitchen knife usages that 8k may be higher than you need.

i have what i think is a hard ark that i've lapped with loose lapping grit, one side coarse and one side very polished.. it seems to work well, and being a hard ark you can hone with pressure without wearing out the stone or gouging it, just don't roll your edge with too much pressure..

i also have a cretan hone which i am told is also another form of novaculite, in this case microcrystaline and cryptocrystaline quartz if i recall correctly.. they say with slurry it cuts like a 1k, and with plain water cuts more like a 6k.. i'm not sure about that, but it is a hard stone and seems to be a good balance of fine enough for a fine edge, and coarse enough to have some bite to the edge without being totally polished.

i find i prefer a harder stone for knives for the most part.. a barber hone can work well for knives, some are dual grit and depending on the stone the coarser side may be coarse enough to get a blade back into shape that hasn't been sharpened in a while, or may provide you with a coarser edge than the finishing side will if you so choose..

so, after all this rambling, what stones and knives do you have, and what do you use them for?

I have various knives used in any imaginable way. Steak, paring, skinning, gutting, filet, carving and all around use pocket knives.
As far as hones n stones I have the set i use on my razors, Norton 220/1000, 4000/8000 and a 12,000 finisher along with a DMT 325. I also have a set of Arkansas stones, 1 med (soft) and 1 fine (hard).
I was considering buying a new dedicated set just for my knives.

i think you have all the stones you need to sharpen a knife, and if you dont want to lap your razor hones after sharpening your knives i'd say learn to use your dmt325 and your arks..

I carry two folders on me at all times. One is a vintage style case with the exposed tang. The other is a folding Tanto. Both see a lot of use and I keep them ready. I use a soft Arkansas stone them move to a hard Arkansas to finish honing. I then work them on a old belt to take care of the burr. I do the same on my fixed blades including my set of Dexter Russells in the kitchen. This has never failed to leave me with a blade that slides thru arm hair( the wife hates it when I do that) 0r a peice of paper). I want and get a very sharp knife. The edge on a knife is for working not shaving. I do not want too delicate of a edge. It is to easy to damage with utility work/abuse.IMO

I think i'll stick with my Arky's for a while and go with Edge-Pro on my Christmas list, although my wife is anti-HAD, anti-RAD and so on. I told her my children could buy it for me due to their undying devotion to me, hehe, that went over good. I will say that the Arkansas stones have work fine for me up to this point, I would just like to be a little more precise with my work from this point on.

I am entertaining a Edge-Pro myself, I have a Lansky type system that works well for my customers custom knives...it leaves a nice even bevel, but I don't like just doing one side at a time. I freehand my personal stuff.

I must admit, aside from free handing these days, I hold the same opinion as you Shooter.


Mick

I use an Edge Pro. 120, 220. 320, and 600 grit stones. The 120 is mostly for reprofiling. If you want hair splitting edges you can go to the polishing PSA tapes.