Question about Sharpening or Honing your Knife

[newbiewhittler0924]

What is the best Way to sharpen or Hone a knife that has been dull? I want to know of the best way and the easiest way to do it.

Happy Holidays and Happy Carving
Newbiewhittler0924

[SeaLeveler]

Do a sharpening search here and there should be a couple dozen pages pop up.Tony

[Gulf Coast Handyman]

Practice, practice and more practice. If all else fails try doing it my way Sharpening Service at Little Shavers

Dave

[AlArchie]

Here's my answer to another similar question.......

Putting an edge on a pocket knife blade by hand, is in my opinion the best way to do it. That Arkansas stone may just do the trick... I now favor those small diamond stones from Wall Mart as a good one to work with.

Try this method. Using your stone, lay the blade flat on the stone, then raise the back of the blade (spine) about the thickness of a dime (OK, maybe a quarter, this ain't rocket science) and slide the blade forward across the stone as if you are trying to cut a thin slice off the stone. Do ten strokes like this, then turn the blade over and using the same dime thickness on the back of the blade, do nine strokes on this side. Flip the blade and do 8, then flip again for 7 and continue all the way down to one stroke on either side of the blade.

Be careful to keep the same angle at all times. If you don't have a strop, here's something that can substitute. Get a wide leather belt and simply strop on the back side of the belt. 15 or 20 strops on each side of the blade should put you with a good sharp knife.

Stropping is simply dragging the blade BACKWARDS across the leather. This will remove the wire edge that built up while sharpening, and polish the edge. Once you get used to sharpening, I'd suggest you get a regular leather strop and some polishing compound to strop with.

You will need to practice holding that sharpening angle and as you progress you may want to adjust that angle to best suit your carving style. The dime/quarter method will give you a pretty good edge though and you may just like that.

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Again, the more you practice sharpening, the better you will get at it.

Al

[tbox61]

Originally Posted by Gulf Coast Handyman

Practice, practice and more practice. If all else fails try doing it my way Sharpening Service at Little Shavers

Dave

My sentiments exactly!

[Just Carving]

First what AlArchie says--I second the small diamond stones. You can do the scary sharp on sandpaper--and I still will--but the 3 DMT pocket diamond stones--coarse, fine, and very fine--I just got are very convenient.

Second--what Gulf Coast Handyman says--and don't expect it to happen overnight. But when it does you'll know. Just practice with some old non-serrated kitchen knivesthat don't get used much anymore. Just make sure if anyone does use them, that they know they're sharper than they were!

Bob L

[Eddy-Smiles]

The bottom line is that there isn't any easy way! Archie and Bob summed up the mechanics but it takes months and months of practice if not years before you really get the hang of it. Just have patience. The results will be well worth the time and effort!