Thread: Kitchen Knives and Honing

Originally Posted by murph

... Just keep trying freehand, with cheaper knives to start with, until you get used to the feel and noise. Sometimes you can feel the bevel hitting the stone as you reach the correct angle to maintain the current grind.
Folding paper or using a protractor can give you an idea of angles and a steeper micro bevel on edge of the blade makes sharpening a lot quicker.

Try rocking a blade back and forth to see if you can see or feel the bevel touching the stone so you get used to the feel and look. Try to do this in bright light...

Thats really helpful advice. One thing that lost me was the "steeper micro bevel". Can you explain that a little further?

Free hand sharpening at best will vary +/- a degree or 2. It comes down to how sharp is sharp. For my needs free hand sharpening is plenty and I'm alway learning better ways to do things. However som folks like that crisp line of the bevel when it's all polished up. That would probably be best done on the tool till you really have free hand down. I'm not that good yet but lucky for me I'm not one for purfect show pieces.

The steeper micro bevel saves you sharpening the whole bevel every time you sharpen. I think it would be easier if I find a link for you with a picture as explaining it might not be clear (it's like the bevel you sharpen on a razor while the rest of the blade is usually bevelled as well but at a lower angle)

A quick search turned this up with diagrams at the bottom of the page
http://www.tichbourneknives.com/technical.htm