SHARPENING KNIVES BY HAND
Photos
by Craig Woods
Article
by Heather and Kevin Harvey, Master Bladesmiths with the American Bladesmith
Society and members of the Knifemakers’ Guild of Southern Africa
Hardworking
hands in the photos – Kevin Harvey – fulltime bladesmith
As a child you may have watched your
granddad restore the edge on a knife, seemingly by magic. His old oil stone with its swayback from
years of use, the smell of the oil and his leather strop are the props you
remember from his magic performance. Years
later you dug out the props and tried his magic, but it didn’t work. You had seen it being done, it wasn’t magic,
but a lost art.
Anyone with the most basic tools can
sharpen any edged item easily when shown how.
There are many good gadgets out there that you can buy to help “set up
the correct angle” for sharpening, but you can just as easily learn to sharpen
by hand. Sharpening gadgets limit what
you can sharpen, whereas sharpening by hand has no limitations. You can sharpen an axe or a cut-throat razor
using the same basic tools.
The equipment we use to sharpen by hand are
Arkansas stones which you can buy in different “hardness’s”, soft, medium and
hard. “Soft” will remove a lot of
material where as “hard” will be used to just touch up an edge. Diamond hones are wonderful and also come in
different “grits”, if you only buy one, buy a medium grit. We like to use water on the diamond hones and
olive oil on the stones for kitchen knives, otherwise light oil or paraffin. Remember to wash the stones/hones after use with a little bit of dishwashing
liquid and water to remove the steel grit that is left after sharpening. A leather strop is important as the last step
in sharpening is to remove the burr that you create during sharpening. A makeshift strop can be an item as simple as
a piece of firewood, your leather belt or the rubber sole of your boot, after
all only you only need to flex the burr backwards and forwards, until it breaks
off.
Other useful sharpening tools are tapered
diamond rods for sharpening serrated edges and fold-up portable small diamond
hones that you can carry with you on camping/hunting trips.
Useful hints are to use a damp dishcloth to
secure your stone to your kitchen table and protect the counter surface. Carry a portable sharpener on your excursions
and don’t be afraid to sharpen by hand.
Practise on a few of your cheaper kitchen knives until you master the
skill, then you won’t be nervous about sharpening your custom made hunting
knife.
People are obsessed with “keeping the
correct angle” when sharpening, but it is not critical, so long as you are
consistant with the angle you have chosen.
Sharpening angles differ depending on the type of knife and the work it
is expected to do. You should not put a
razor edge on an axe, just as you wouldn’t put a chisel edge on a filleting
knife. You want your edge to match the
purpose of the knife.
Lubricate the stone/hone with water or
olive oil (tastes nicer than paraffin!) and cut into the stone as if trying to
shave off a slice of the stone. Keep
your angle constant and sharpen all areas of the cutting edge, from where it
starts near the handle all the way to the point. Repeat on the other side of the cutting
edge. Keep sharpening until you can see
a “burr” (bright shiny ribbon of steel) on the entire cutting edge. It is now time to strop off the burr on the
back of a leather belt. Your knife is
only truly sharp once the burr has been removed otherwise the burr just folds
over your sharpened cutting edge, making the knife feel blunt. Stropping is done by dragging the cutting
edge over the strop, (opposite to cutting into the stone) swapping sides, at a slightly
steeper angle than you sharpened at. You
will only need to strop a couple of times before you see the burr break
off.
To test for sharpness, see if the edge will
bite into your nail when gently pushed onto it at an angle. Test the entire cutting edge and if any part
of it “slides” off the nail and does not “bite”, you will need to re-sharpen
that area of the blade.
CAPTIONS TO THE PHOTOS
Variety
Shows various different sharpening stones
and diamond hones.
Showing the angle
This would be a good angle (15˚ to 20˚ ) to
use for a general purpose knife.
Pushing into the stone
Sharpen by pushing into the stone as if
trying to lift a postage stamp off the stone.
A diamond hone is used in this photo with water as lubrication.
Arkansas stone
A natural sharpening stone (not
carborundum) is used with olive oil as lubrication.
Serrations
Serrations can easily be sharpened with a
tapered diamond rod, one tooth at a time.
Portable diamond hones
Very handy to carry with you while camping
or hunting to touch up knives. Keep your
angles the same as you would on the sharpening stone. With these small sharpeners, the sharpener is
moved over the cutting edge, as opposed to the edge moved over the stone as
with the larger sharpeners.
The burr
After sharpening you will see the raised
burr which needs to be removed by stropping to achieve a sharp edge.
Stropping
The most important part of achieving a
sharp knife is the stropping after sharpening to remove the burr that you have
created.
Testing sharpness
Carefully and gently push the entire blade,
section by section, into your thumb nail at an angle. Where it “bites” it is sharp, where it
“slides” it needs to be re-sharpened.
