Thread: Knife honing help

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 Brontosaurus

From Russia with love.

Hey guys, do you shave with your kitchen and hunting knives?
I use a hardware store cheap and cheerful bench hone to sharpen my knives and a sharpening rod to keep them sharp. When I can cut a tomato without squeezing its contents out I am happy.

On my pocket knife, I use a small DMT as I am too hard on it for a fine edge to last. I do have some 'Sunday knives' which I will hone to pretty damn sharp as I don't abuse them the way I do my EDC.
On kitchen knives. I am no Chef and certainly use no microscope.
On a kitchen knife, it seems a somewhat jagged edge is a good thing as cutting through meat and veggies. JMO.
Every time I hand hone one it is sharp, yet dulls quickly. Back to this thing. Works good!



Oh! I AM lazy, BTW.

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 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 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. 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 started honing knives around 7 years old. I still have the scar on my finger when I took my first jackknife and was jabbing it into a block of wood point first and it snapped shut on my finger. Sliced it to the bone and it took multiple bandaids on the way to church in the back of an old station wagon to finally stop the bleeding. I never did that again. I never gave up honing though either and still enjoy it.
My edges may have had all those issues when I was a child learning to hone and I would venture a guess that everyone goes through the experience of less then perfect bevels and edges when they start out. Some continue to learn, others quit, and I assume some probably do neither because they are ok with all of the invisible "imperfections". At such an early age I didn't even know about microscopes or even a loupe or magnifier for that matter. I just tried to get my knives as sharp as my dads pocket knife which I finally did as a young adult. I have had quite a few more years "practice" since then. My bevels look dead straight and even to me when I look at them. If you put them under a scope they may well be way off under 7000 power magnification. I don't know. I have never looked and I probably never will as it seems a bit unnecessary to me as Bob pointed out.
Take away- keep practicing and you will get there OR buy a machine OR send them out. Makes no difference to me or my dad. As for me I will continue to hone the old fashion way. Hey someone has to continue on the tradition right?

I started honing about the same age when I was given my first Swiss Army pocket knife. I guess my dad figured I couldn't hurt much with the little 2 inch blade, and I suppose he was right. I've had many a little nick over the years, but never any true cuts until I decided to try hand sharpening a sword by holding the stone in my hand and running it along the blade. Let's just say I learned the hard way why that was a bad idea, and I'm glad I slipped while setting the bevel - I still have the tip of the finger that slid about a foot and a half down the blade. Superglue did wonders to stitch it back together.

I don't hold my knives to the same standard as my razors. They just have to cut, they don't need to shave. So it's rare for me to examine them under magnification. For the most part now my thumb pad and eyes tell me enough about the condition of the edge. I will say this though, since getting into straight razors all of my edges have gotten better by leaps and bounds.