Thread: Knife honing help

I hand hone and have since I was a young kid. All it takes is practice. The same principles apply- make sure the bevel is set, and then refine the edge as far as you would like to go. I like to go all the way on my knives also. It doesn't take me but a few minutes because I've been doing it all my life. The wife is used to extremely sharp kitchen knives and they are actually fun to use. My EDC is almost as sharp as my razors. Cuts like a hot knife through butter and I keep it that way with minimal maintenance every few days. Some people raise a burr but that wasn't the way I was taught as a kid so i don't monkey around with it. In my experience razors have been much easier to tackle since they have a built in angle whereas you have to create/maintain an angle on knives. Here is the best advice I can give you to keeping a bevel even by hand.

Picture the bevel against the stone in your mind and practice practice practice. There is a lot of muscle memory that you have to develop since your arm and hand moves up and down with the curve of the blade similar to a rolling X stroke. Or.....you can spend a few hundred on one of those new fangled machines and skip the practice part and get results right away. It is valid but IMO not as rewarding.

Personally I find the lansky system to be very time consuming and not without its problems. eg. Need to move the rig down the length of a long blade like a carving knife to avoid weird geometries. Can be very tricky to do the heavily curved end of a short blade.

I found the spiderco triangle system to be much easier except the standard ceramic stones are quite a fine grit and so if you need to set a bevel it can take an eternity of honing.

I bought a Norton 4k/8k initially for razors, but then moved to Naniwas for razor honing. Now use the Norton for my kitchen knives, couldn't be happier. Hold stone in hand. Yes it takes a bit of practice, and yes I create a slightly convex edge, but it's fast, creates the best edges I've ever had on the knives, and the edges seem more durable, maybe due to the convexing.

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Originally Posted by tintin

while i was looking at the youtube videos i found this one https://youtu.be/k3SbEWFSA8s pretty amazing system (they have different models depending on your needs and the amount you have to spend). not sure which method i will end up using. Was kind of hoping for a simpler (and cheaper) fix.

If I already did not have the Edge Pro, that is the device I would have. It has some very admirable features.

Originally Posted by Steel

I hand hone and have since I was a young kid. All it takes is practice. The same principles apply- make sure the bevel is set, and then refine the edge as far as you would like to go. I like to go all the way on my knives also. It doesn't take me but a few minutes because I've been doing it all my life. The wife is used to extremely sharp kitchen knives and they are actually fun to use. My EDC is almost as sharp as my razors. Cuts like a hot knife through butter and I keep it that way with minimal maintenance every few days. Some people raise a burr but that wasn't the way I was taught as a kid so i don't monkey around with it. In my experience razors have been much easier to tackle since they have a built in angle whereas you have to create/maintain an angle on knives. Here is the best advice I can give you to keeping a bevel even by hand.

Picture the bevel against the stone in your mind and practice practice practice. There is a lot of muscle memory that you have to develop since your arm and hand moves up and down with the curve of the blade similar to a rolling X stroke. Or.....you can spend a few hundred on one of those new fangled machines and skip the practice part and get results right away. It is valid but IMO not as rewarding.

I acknowledge that it can be done quite well by someone who has had enough practice. I admire the skill it requires. I don't have it despite trying. What convinced me to give up was when I borrowed knives from people who claimed to be really good at hand honing. When I examined the edges under a microscope, I decided that I wanted edges better than what they could accomplish.

Still, I admire the effort.

I have found some of the videos that accompany the Chef Knives To Go product descriptions to be very helpful in sharpening my kitchen knives. Bester 1.2k followed by a Suehiro Rika 5k as shown here is a good combo, with the Beston 500 as a precursor as needed.

Originally Posted by Utopian

If I already did not have the Edge Pro, that is the device I would have. It has some very admirable features.


I acknowledge that it can be done quite well by someone who has had enough practice. I admire the skill it requires. I don't have it despite trying. What convinced me to give up was when I borrowed knives from people who claimed to be really good at hand honing. When I examined the edges under a microscope, I decided that I wanted edges better than what they could accomplish.

Still, I admire the effort.

Well, I am not sure what you saw in that there microscope of yours Ron but hand honing is not for everyone and if it is not for you well then that is ok too. When it's all said and done and the lights go out, it is all about if you are happy with your edges.

Originally Posted by tintin

while i was looking at the youtube videos i found this one https://youtu.be/k3SbEWFSA8s pretty amazing system (they have different models depending on your needs and the amount you have to spend). not sure which method i will end up using. Was kind of hoping for a simpler (and cheaper) fix.

Wow I am in love! [emoji7]

Originally Posted by Steel

Well, I am not sure what you saw in that there microscope of yours Ron but hand honing is not for everyone and if it is not for you well then that is ok too. When it's all said and done and the lights go out, it is all about if you are happy with your edges.

If I were to take a wild guess? Probably all the things we wouldn't/couldn't accept on our razors. Micro chips, burrs, stria left behind from coarser stones, places that weren't hit at all by finer stones due to changes in angle relative to the stone...at least that's what I found when I examined one of my hand honed edges. Takes a lot longer to fix all of that with a knife than a razor too! I can see where someone would prefer to use a honing device to keep their angle steady. But even with all those imperfections my blades cut fine, and when I went back and fixed them...well, I probably could've shaved comfortably with my pocket knife.

I need to find that thing. Finally got it just the way I like em and now it's lost. I don't want to spend the time re-setting the bevel on another one.

I do not get too bothered by what I see of a straight razor,s edge under a microscope because I do not have one. That said I still manage a perfectly fine shaving edge suitable for my own use.

Considering knife edges do not generally need the refinement to the level of a straight razor's edge to do the job just fine, I hand hone. Each to their own.

Bob

Originally Posted by Marshal

If I were to take a wild guess? Probably all the things we wouldn't/couldn't accept on our razors. Micro chips, burrs, stria left behind from coarser stones, places that weren't hit at all by finer stones due to changes in angle relative to the stone...at least that's what I found when I examined one of my hand honed edges.

You forgot dramatically different bevel angles between the two sides of the blade. Other than than you got it about right.

Originally Posted by Utopian

Edge Pro. Free hand honing is for people who don't want perfect. I want perfect.

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I wish I had not seen this.....time to visit Amazon