Thread: Does anyone else cut themselves frequently while honing?

Now I tend not to cut myself while sharpening stuff, but it's taken a while and many, many gashes and slices. Having been at sharpening tools for about 50 years, I've accumulted great respect for what those edges can do during lapses of concentration. I second and third the advice to keep your mind and eyes on what you're doing and you'll minimize damage to your parts.

Originally Posted by Bruce

Now I tend not to cut myself while sharpening stuff, but it's taken a while and many, many gashes and slices. Having been at sharpening tools for about 50 years, I've accumulted great respect for what those edges can do during lapses of concentration. I second and third the advice to keep your mind and eyes on what you're doing and you'll minimize damage to your parts.

While I don't have the same amount of experience as you, I've quickly come to the conclusion that each tool or knife has its own personality, some like to be sharpened while others don't, and some even like to bite-if you know what I mean!

After reading all the replies and actually thinking about when it is that I actually cut myself, I don't think I have ever cut myself in the actual honing stages except once, when I extended my thumb too high when hand holding and never again after that.

But during restoration/edge restoration, that razor has bit me quite a number of times... Thus, I should probably rephrase the question to: anyone cut themselves while doing edge restorations?

I've only restored a few razors, but I got a couple of cuts while handsanding! You really need to be careful sanding, because even a dull edge (for a razor) can give you a nasty cut when you're doing some fast sanding motions close to the edge....On the plus side it never really hurt at the time of the cut, but I felt it cut into skin and thought "this is going to hurt soon...."

Oh yeah! I'm still on my first razor, but I've cut myself doing some other knives. I keep some electrical tape and some tissues around for those! If it bleeds through that, I stop for the day. There's something scary about sharpening and seeing your blood in the slurry.....