Is a different sharpening technique needed?

[Dkulhanek]

Hello all,

Up until this point, my experience with sharpening has been with chip carving knives and pocket knifes. When I sharpen my chip carving knives, I know they need to be held at a 10 degree angle against the stone to help dive into the wood easier. When I sharpen my pocketknives, I use a Spiderco triangle sharpener where the angle is much greater. I received a 4 knife carving kit from Flexcut this year for Christmas.

Buy FLEXCUT Carving Kit - 4 Piece at Woodcraft

I know that even if the knife is fresh out of the package, it still needs to be sharpeneded. My question is, at what angle should I hold the knife? I'm planning on getting into caricature and santa carving, hence asking Santa for this set to expand on the pile of chip carving knives I already have. I just want to make sure I don't grind off the edge and have to take it to the a grinding stone to get an edge back on it.

[Robson Valley]

Flexcut told me that the total included bevel on a KD14 is 12 degrees. That's 6 degrees per side.
If you hold 10 degrees per side(?), you get a total of a 20 degree included bevel. Quite stout IMHO.

[Tom Ellis]

Just try to maintain the same bevel that they had when you got them, and that should work just fine. Be sure to strop once in awhile with compound on your leather.

Tom

[AlArchie]

From my experience with Flexcuts, they only need a stropping when you get them. Actually they come just about ready to carve with right out of the box and I wouldn't recomend putting a stone to them unless they get chipped. Strop when they start to drag...that's usually enough.

Al

[Nomad]

Yup, I agree with Al. Also, to sharpen Flexcut knives, just lay the knife so that the main (primary) bevel is flat on the stone. I would not sharpen on a Spycerco, nor would I create a secondary bevel by sharpening at a steeper angle than the main bevel that is already there. But you should be able to go a long time by just stropping before having to grind on the bevel. For stropping, again just lay the bevel flat. Usually a strop is soft enough it will "catch" the edge and keep it polished. Just don't roll the blade as you strop. That will eveutually round over the edge.

[richipper]

Strop only! I have never had to sharpen a flexcut out of the box. I just got the whittle jack and it is scary sharp. They do not have a secondary bevel. I have had to rework a nick in a gouge but the knives have been good. Lay it down flat as can be. Were a glove too... Nearly opened up my holding hand yesterday.

I need to modify my statement a bit... I received a new Whittling Jack that looked sharp but did not cut wood very well. So I took it to the stones/diamond cards. Flattened out the bevels on the detail blade. Looks and cut better. Now on to the larger blade.

[Dkulhanek]

Yeah, I can already see that they are crazy sharp. When I opened them up on Christmas, my grandmother kept saying to me as I was opening it, "Now, be careful be careful be careful!!" When I had gotten it open, all four knives had poked a hole through the top of the packaging.

[jimmy joe]

Stick with the stropping unless damaged. A nice gift to get by the way .