Thread: Knifemakers, help me out!

Originally Posted by Bruno

I am hardly an expert, but since I can get (some of) my knives pretty sharp...

I usually my x motions as if I am trying to slice a piece away from my hone (1000). I do this at a shallow angle, and I continue until the blade grabs my thumbnail.
Then I go to a fine hone (4000) and do the same for 20 laps or so.
Then I increase the angle, and very, very lightly make 2 X motions so that I end up with a double bevel.

The result is pretty sharp.

I do pretty much the same thing but then I strop the blade on leather. I have access to a fancy schmancy Tormek water cooled homing system that has a rotating flat leather wheel. TORMEK T-7 Water Cooled Sharpening System - Woodcraft.com I never use it for my razors but I love the edge on my knives after that leather wheel with the Tormek honing compound.

Wow. I have seen them in my hardware store, but never went ahead and bought one.
Too pricy to justify atm. I have read good things about it, though. Maybe sometime later. For now I'll have to do with handhoning. And to be honest, I like doing that. It feels more 'real'... for lack of a better word.

Since you have one: I was considering using the stone wheel for regrinding razors.
Do you think it would work for that, or would it be too slow cutting?

Well, success story number 1: Kydex is officially one of the coolest, easiest to use materials I've worked with. I sliced off a test piece (about 6x3) and turned the oven on to 225-ish. Then, popping a metal cake pan in upside down, I laid the piece on top of it. In the space of a couple minutes, it was very pliable (think of thermal rubber). It didn't stick to the pan, but it was a non-stick pan, so who knows. I then took hand towel, folded it in half, laid the kydex with a knife in the middle on the towel, and folded it all over so as to make a sort of sheath. Not having any proper clamps, I stuck it under a chair leg and sat on it to give the towel good pressure to mold it correctly. After about 4 minutes, it was back to being quite hard and now perfectly molded around the knife!

Being the experimental kind of guy, I wanted to see what would happen if I screwed up and needed another go at it. I popped it back in, this time at 250, and in the space of a few minutes, it was back to exactly how it was before! I did this three times, with the same results each time! It seems to be very forgiving, and I can't wait to try some things out with it. Hell, I might start making custom Kydex sheaths for people. My one and only gripe is the tubular rivets that most sheaths make use of. The only company that makes them are also the only ones that make the dies for it, so they're insanely expensive

Originally Posted by Bruno

Wow. I have seen them in my hardware store, but never went ahead and bought one.
Too pricy to justify atm. I have read good things about it, though. Maybe sometime later. For now I'll have to do with handhoning. And to be honest, I like doing that. It feels more 'real'... for lack of a better word.

Since you have one: I was considering using the stone wheel for regrinding razors.
Do you think it would work for that, or would it be too slow cutting?

Bruno,

How much "re-grinding"? I wouldn't think you'd want to do any hollowing of a solid piece of steel. However to remove a few millimeters of steel a from a chipped edge it would be ideal because of the water cooling and the assortment of jigs available allow you to set up a blade on the stone and walk away to do other things.

Brad