whittlin' knife and sharpening stone or set

[_Moose_]

Evening all....

I'm looking for solid whittling knife or maybe even a small whittling/carving set. I'm trying to find my creative side and I think carving walking sticks would be pretty relaxing and enjoyable (plus cheap gifts...lol).

I am most definetly a novice, but I would like to start with some decent tools. We all remember grandpa whittlin on a stick with his little pocket knife. I was just wondering if there are some knives out there more specialized than that.

I've also spent a few hundered dollars recently on some knives. I'd love some direction in what type of sharpening stone or kit I should try. I'm a novice at sharpening knives too, but we gotta start somewhere.

Thanks,

Shane

[Winter]

Mora makes task specific carving knives.

The best place to start, IMO, is go to WalMart and get the paring knife with stone set. It's like $5 and should be "Old Hickory" brand.

[_Moose_]

Hahaha.... Winter, that's awesome.

I was actually just walking out the door to go to Walmart when I remembered to check this thread. Funny how things work. Thanks for the advice

[kyratshooter]

Now comes the "I can't sharpen this knife, it's a piece of crap!" thread.

BTW, Walmart does not carry Old Hickory. They will not play Walmart's quality cutting price war game. Wally world has Chicago Cutlery and Faberware, and they are not the same quality.

Old Hickoy is usually available in hardware stores or from the knife suppliers.

[Rick]

Any place that sells Ontario Knives should be able to order Old Hickory. Ontario owns OH now.

[Winter]

Either way, chicago cutlery will work. Look at some you tube vids on sharpening.

See had sharp it is when you get it, dull it, sharpen it back to factory or better. It may take awhile to learn but it's something everyone who uses a knife should know how to do.

[Renatus]

deleted....

[Winter]

I can't get my dremel tool to work in the woods.

[Rick]

You probably don't pay it enough. When's the last time it got a raise?

[kyratshooter]

Either way, chicago cutlery will work. Look at some you tube vids on sharpening.

See had sharp it is when you get it, dull it, sharpen it back to factory or better. It may take awhile to learn but it's something everyone who uses a knife should know how to do.

Chicago Cutlery uses some stainless steel blend that will not hold edge like the OH will. Old Hickory is made by Ontario and they use the same blend of steel in their OH butcher knives that they use in the RAT series and in the K-Bar.

[Winter]

I understand all that Rat. That's why I said this; "See had sharp it is when you get it, dull it, sharpen it back to factory or better. It may take awhile to learn but it's something everyone who uses a knife should know how to do. "

His expectation, on this stage of his journey to sharpening things, is to get it back to a factory edge.

That's good training. I'm not suggesting a survival knife for SHTF for Moose. I'm suggesting a learning approach.

Please share a good technique to learn sharpening if you'd like to be useful in the conversation.

1095 is the steel OKC uses.

[kyratshooter]

Please share a good technique to learn sharpening if you'd like to be useful in the conversation.

http://www.wilderness-survival.net/f...BAr-Becker-BK2

http://www.wilderness-survival.net/f...m-for-a-layman


I do not know if this meets your standards and makes me useful. You will find that the majority of the poeple around here use a "system" or "Kit" of some kind or will quickly refer you to U-tube, which I will also do due to proper sharpening technique being a selective and personal preference and would require a couple of pages of typing. After that effort someone would chime in and tell him to use a dremil tool then we would go 4 pages of this and that without rerally transfering any knowledge.

After 55 years of knife sharpening I have developed my own technique and my own standard of sharp that ranges from use as a shaving tool to "good enough" for bushclearing tools.

I also have different sharpening devices for different steels used by various companies. For some of them it includes an angle grinder, others get the good stones I have hoarded over the years.

For a Chicago Cutlery blade, available at the cost of 13 knives for $35 I would suggest a $0.98 carbide stone and infinate patience.

http://www.amazon.com/Chicago-Cutler...872674&sr=1-10

The blade will not come with an edge and will never take one. The most important thing about learning to sharpen a cheap piece of cold rolled is learning how to remove the rolled wire edge you get when it hits the stone.

If one must buy a super cheap knife form Walmart their Faberware series seems to have better steel and does hold a reasonable edge, although it does not come with one out of the blister pack. I used one of their $3.98 models 5 years ago as my main blade for a two week workshop, just to prove you could get by with what you grabbed as you walked through the kitchen. It cut, cleaned game, made traps, snares and primitive weapons and was better than no knife at all, but I do not recommend buying one as your main knife.

[Winter]

That does meet my standards as a useful post.

Removing the wire edge/burr is the next stage of learning to sharpen.

[Rick]

There seems to be a bit of burr edge in this thread that could be removed, too.