Went to start my first carving and then popped a problem

[tw82606]

The old lady and I went to start our first relief carvings, we spent around $150.00 on some quality knives and well of course, we don't want to ruin them.
So instead of starting our carvings we decided to wait and find this out before we start.

Here's the problem - sharpening, maintaining, and honing.

We did purchase a Flexcut slipstrop, as seen here
Carving Tools - PW12 Flexcut SlipStrop Flexcut Tool Company

We read the instructions and from what we understood, every 15-20 minutes of carving in soft wood you rehone your knives and everything, and you need to do it more frequently when you cut harder woods.
From how it sounded though, this just hones your knives and does not sharpen them. So how would I sharpen my knives when they do dull and round out?

Guess what I'm asking is how/when to hone and how/when to sharpen.
I don't even really know what honing is

I don't want to get discouraged and the only way to learn is to practice, but we don't want to start carving and then ruin our tools.

[arfer1943]

Honing every five to ten minutes should keep your blades sharp.

Only if you damage the edge should you then need to SHARPEN them with other abrasive measures, ie stones, abrasive paper or wheels.

[AlArchie]

Honing. sharpening, stropping, three terms that tend to get confused.

Start with the last term...

STROPPING. That's the process of polishing the cutting edge by dragging the blade backward across a leather material that has been charged with an abrasive compound. Doesn't really HAVE to be leather, but that's the usual material.

HONING. Usually the final step in sharpening, before stropping and is done on a fine grit stone or diamond device. Stropping is sometimes called "honing" thus the confusion.

SHARPENING. What you do to your tool when it gets dull. OK, isn't that what you do when you strop or hone your tool? Yep! All a matter of semantics.

If you look up hone and sharpen you will find that they mean the same thing. Look up "strop" and it says "to sharpen on a strop".

SO, to the carving world, Stropping is the final step. Honing is generally the last step in using abrasive stones (also called hones) before stropping. And sharpening is fixing a damaged edge by abrading it on progressively finer stones. To make things even more clear, some folks call stropping, honing! Which it actually is. And all three are "sharpening".

SHUT UP, ARCHIE! You haven't clarified anything.

OK, I'll go away. But before I do, here's a video by a straight razor shaver......might help with "hone vs. strop".
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=liKYctpdjC4 notice that the razor, (knife) is flipped over the spine and not over the edge. Good technique for carvers, too.

OK, NOW I'll go away.

[Old Codger]

Yep! Been there, done that too... When I first started a little over a year or so ago, I had the same questions...luckily some of the great carvers of the forum here recommended that I search for 'Sharpening techniques' via the forum's search feature plus checking out the videos on sharpening from Arlene and Gene on You Tube...lots of great carving videos and 'How to's' there also... I wouldn't worry about damaging your tools as much as the danger of a dull tool. A sharp tool is much less dangerous than a sharp tool so keeping your tools sharp is imperative and makes the carving experience that much more enjoyable...plus I find sharpening my tools sorta 'relaxing' in itself... Soooo hope this helps you like the sage advice my fellow carvers helped me...have fun with you & your spouse's new hobby and don't forget your safety equipment!
Kenn

[Rook]

I'm still new to carving but not general woodworking. Follow the advice I was given early on; don't let your tools get dull before you sharpen. Once the edge 'dies' it takes longer to get it serviceable. I've been keeping a simple piece of leather on my table and every couple minutes just reach over and go up and down it once just to realign the edge. If I'm using multiple tools (I personally can't make hay using just one tool, yet) every time I switch tools, before laying it down I'll introduce it to the leather, just to realign the edge.

Takes less time that stopping everything to strop a tool for 5 minutes.

[tw82606]

Thanks all, going to get to work on my first carving here in another hour er so, looking forward to it!

[tw82606]

Doing well, however when I go to strop my knives I'm afraid I'm holding the angle wrong.
I can't feel the bevel at all and just guess the angle which is going to lead to a secondary bevel, yikes, any help on this?
And the v gouges for me are even more of a nightmare to strop.

[AlArchie]

When stropping, you should hold your blade or bevel flat on the strop.....NO additional angle. You want to polish the edge, not change, even microscopically, the bevel. As a practical matter, slight variances in this flat approach won't make a heck of a lot of difference, but try to keep your bevels flat on the strop.

Same with V gouges. Strop each wing as if it was a simple flat chisle. Keep the bevel as flat to the strop as you can and don't roll it up at the end of the stroke. And don't forget to strop the keel, too. 4 or 5 strokes on each every so often should keep your tools singing.

Al

[Patrick]

Hi Ox,

I’m brand new to carving and have been reading Everett Ellenwood’s book ‘Complete Book of Woodcarving: Everything You Need to Know to Master the Craft’. Chapter Six covers sharpening through stropping with SBS text and photos. It is straight forward and even I now feel that I can approach sharpening with confidence knowing when to do what and with practice learn to do a good job. A great reference to have at the bench IMO. I think that one chapter is worth the book's price which is very reasonable.

Anyway, I feel this was a very good investment for this beginner.

All the best.

[Gulf Coast Handyman]

Originally Posted by Patrick

Hi Ox,

I’m brand new to carving and have been reading Everett Ellenwood’s book ‘Complete Book of Woodcarving: Everything You Need to Know to Master the Craft’. Chapter Six covers sharpening through stropping with SBS text and photos. It is straight forward and even I now feel that I can approach sharpening with confidence knowing when to do what and with practice learn to do a good job. A great reference to have at the bench IMO. I think that one chapter is worth the book's price which is very reasonable.

Anyway, I feel this was a very good investment for this beginner.

All the best.

I totally agree, his dvd's / videos are also very good.

Dave