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Thread: Knife maintenance/sharpening

  1. #1

    Default Knife maintenance/sharpening

    This topic has probably been hashed and rehashed.
    What is your technique for knife sharpening, what equipment do you use? What do you use at home verses what you use in the field. I am asking because I am hoping to improve my skills. THKS


  2. #2
    Senior Member kyratshooter's Avatar
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    The most important part of the sharpening process is the one most overlooked.

    #1. Start with a good knife.

    After that I use a series and combination of bench grinders, sanding belts, files, diamond hones, soft Arkansas, medium Arkansas and hard Arkansas stones to get the edge I need, followed by stropping with a leather strap.

    In the field I carry a diamond hone for rapid repair of rolled edges and a small medium Arkansas stone. I usually finish the edge on my leather belt or the top of a boot.

    Most times I have more than one knife with me so instead of stopping in the middle of a job to retouch the blade I will change to a different knife, or different blade on the same knife, and resharpen everything at the end of the task or when I return to camp.

    If I am using the before mentioned "good knife" I should be able to field dress the average deer without resharpening. I also expect my knives to endure a weekend of camp chores without serious attention, but I do not abuse my blades with sheet metal repairs on vehicles, digging holes in gravel, chopping rocks or splitting firewood.
    If you didn't bring jerky what did I just eat?

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    Senior Member hunter63's Avatar
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    What he said.........Couldn't have said it better.
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    Administrator Rick's Avatar
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    I don't have to have a knife shaving sharp. I like a sharp knife but I don't have to take it to a razor's edge. I use both hard and soft stones as well as a leather strop. I keep them maintained and don't abuse them so it generally only takes a small amount of work to bring them up to my standard of sharpness. That's all I need.

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    Super Moderator crashdive123's Avatar
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    Yep - +2. At home I use a 2 x 72 belt sander and a 2hp buffer turning at 3450. In the field - same/similar to Krat and H63.
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    Senior Member kyratshooter's Avatar
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    And in turn I can verify that whatever steel Crash used in the two knives I have, which he made, is well able to pass the weekend of use test as well as the chore of getting a deer's insides to the outside.

    I think he said that one started life as a rusty saw blade and the other was a file.

    Good knives!
    If you didn't bring jerky what did I just eat?

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    Senior Member hunter63's Avatar
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    I second that statement as well........fine, useful tools that masquerade as art work.
    Geezer Squad....Charter Member #1
    Evoking the 50 year old rule...
    First 50 years...worried about the small stuff...second 50 years....Not so much
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    Senior Member hunter63's Avatar
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    You know, some where in my travels I would like to come across a sharpening wheel.....old peddle style.

    Old retired logger/railroad guy down the street when I was a kid....had two.....one course, one real fine.....
    He did a heck of a job sharpening everyone what-ever's in the neighbor hood.

    As I was the kid that hung around guy like this....I had mentioned that MF had a electric one that went much faster...(this was back when your father what the biggest, badest, smartest guy in the world......so I guess I was just trying to impress him?

    Anyway, said , "Yeah they are faster, but have to be real careful so as to not burn the edge and spoil the steel"....Didn't know what he meant ...then.

    Then he added, "And there wasn't much for electric in the old lumber camps".....back when.

    I think about those stones every time I sharpen something.......
    Geezer Squad....Charter Member #1
    Evoking the 50 year old rule...
    First 50 years...worried about the small stuff...second 50 years....Not so much
    Member Wahoo Killer knives club....#27

  9. #9

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    I just put a nice edge on a knife I'm making for my older brother from with a harbour freight belt sander. I'm making it from a file, and once i finish the maple and red elm handle later today i will sharpen it up with a soft Arkansas stone.
    A strong body makes the mind strong. As to the species of exercises, I advise the gun. While this gives moderate exercise to the body, it gives boldness, enterprise and independence to the mind...
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    Super Moderator crashdive123's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Arctic Fox View Post
    I just put a nice edge on a knife I'm making for my older brother from with a harbour freight belt sander. I'm making it from a file, and once i finish the maple and red elm handle later today i will sharpen it up with a soft Arkansas stone.
    A little knife making tip if I may.........Sharpen the knife after everything else is done, including the sheath. You stand much less chance of cutting yourself. Don't ask me how I know.
    Can't Means Won't

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  11. #11

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    hand grind a good primary edge on a diamond stone, then strop down to a shaving edge using, various grades. Jewellers buffing compound on a leather strop, before the final strop on newsprint. Saving sharp everytime.

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    Senior Member DSJohnson's Avatar
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    Thank all y'all for taking the time to post. My ritual and logic is pretty much identical to Kyratshooter, except that I do not have a belt sander so most all of it I do by hand. #1 Always start with a good knife if you can.

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    so there is a geezer squad in this forum? im 63 and should be dead

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    I have often wondered what "professional" knife sharpeners use... The guys that go around to restaurants and sharpens knives for $5 each, or the places you can send a knife for sharpening. At those prices they would go broke spending the time I do on a blade. Are they using a 2 x 72 with jigs?
    Even the Dalai Lama had to bug out…

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    Senior Member kyratshooter's Avatar
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    Two things I note immediately.

    1. Many people have a different definition of sharp. "Sharp" comes in several grades from "not dull" to "good enough" to hair shaving.

    In the kitchen my wife always wanted her knives simply "not dull". I wanted mine at the "good enough" stage and we were forced into the use of separate knife blocks in the kitchen. The marriage survived and we were very happy overall.

    On my pocket knives I want one of the blades razor sharp and the others "good enough", because they are not going to keep that razor edge past the first few minutes anyway.

    2. You are spending too much time on your blades. That or you are abusing them severely and have to start from zero for each sharpening. It only takes me a couple of minutes to reset the edge on a knife I have already contoured and sharpened. Using the proper diamond hones, stones and other tools in my sharpening kit I can put an acceptable edge on a butter knife in five minutes.

    When I used to run the Rondy circuit I sharpened knives of all types, offering the owner a blade sharpened to the "good enough" stage for $1 per inch of blade. It would take me about 10 minutes to sharpen the average 3-4 inch blade. Those knives were mostly hand made, of various quality from pot metal to so hard they were about to shatter, and used for everything from minor surgery to chopping rocks. I have had the women at the rondys go home and bring back their entire knife block for me to sharpen. I paid for a lot of trips sharpening knives.

    As for the professional sharpeners??? I suppose everyone that makes knives around here would have to be a professional sharpener. From what I have read here the guys making the custom knives set the edge using a 600-800 sanding belt, followed by a polish on a felt or leather wheel.

    Probably takes them all of 30 seconds to a minute to get a razor edge.
    If you didn't bring jerky what did I just eat?

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    Super Moderator crashdive123's Avatar
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    There's a guy at one of the local gun shows that makes a killing @ $4 - $6 using a paper wheel on a buffer.

    http://www.sharpeningwheels.com/instructions.htm
    Can't Means Won't

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    Senior Member MrFixIt's Avatar
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    When I was sharpening knives for $$, I used EZE -Lap diamond stones (and still do).
    The hardest part was to actually tell a customer that their Pakistani blade would not hold an edge. I could get it reasonably sharp, but the first time they cut cardboard with it, it would dull the edge.
    And don't forget a strop, preferably leather. I've got several, and with a few passes on a good knife, it will return the edge to shaving if it's not completely dull...
    When all else fails, read the directions, and beware the Chihuahuacabra!

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