Sharpening Help?

[JesusLovesYou]

I have a set of flex cut palm tools that most of them need sharpened. I have bought a hard cotton buffing wheel, flex cut leather power strop, and a fine and course DMT diamond sharpener. I tried the buffing wheel and the leather strop alone and seemed to do more harm than good. I seemed to dull them more than sharpen them. I just got the DMT and they seem to work good if I knew what i was doing. Which one do I need to use or both? Should I buff with the wheel after I get them sharp with the DMT's? Thanks and May God Bless You,
Thomas

[stickman]

I think you can send them back to flex cut to sharpen them for a small fee.

[mikeg]

From what I've heard, power allows you to sharpen quicker. It also allows you to dull them more quickly if you don't have the proper technique.

You can send them to Rick at Littleshavers.com and he'll do an awsome job on them for an extremely reasonable price.

Or you can practice, practice, practice. I'm still learning but I'm improving. I have and really like Ev Ellenwoods "Sharpening Simplified" dvd.

mikeg

[JesusLovesYou]

I have sent some to Rick and he did a great job. I was just wanting to learn myself. I am down for a few days when I send them to him. Thanks for the replies.

[Eddy-Smiles]

I think that Mikeg hit the nail right on the head. Both power and hand take practice to get to the place where you have a properly sharpened tool. My instructor has power but uses both and encouraged me to learn how to sharpen using a stone and strop before going onto power. I've been working on reshaping a Case pocket knife for close to a month now and although I've made progress it still has a good ways to go before it will be ready to put to the wood. As we tell the kids at the dojo, "Practice Makes Perfect!"

[windsong]

Hi
From one newbe to another I don't know much about sharpening blades but i do know that Jesus Loves You to.
Vic.

[JesusLovesYou]

Vic, Knowing Jesus means more than anything else in this world. Neither one of us may ever know much about sharpening blades. But, when it is all said and done, knowing Jesus will be all that matters. May God Bless You All

[Curly Early]

When I joined the carving club in Springfield, first thing taught, how to sharpen your tools. We were given a slikem sharp, this was about 10 - 12
inches long. It had coarse abrasive cloth glued on one side, fine on another, and leather glued smooth side down on third side. We were taught to lay your knife flat and stroke away from your blade edge 3 times or 5 times, doesn't matter, then same number of strokes opposite direction. Look for a wire edge - - I never could find it, surely didn't matter, because doing the strokes a few times on coarse, a few times on fine, then on to leather and wow --sharp knife. I personally test mine on the cross grain of the end of a scrap piece of basswood. I noticed some carvers did the same routine every week, others just used the leather a few strokes every 15 minutes or so of carving time. This was all by hand, you mention power strop. I bought a couple of cloth wheels for my Delta 6". 3450 rpm , soft one I don't use, hard one is good for shining them, will sharpen if you're careful. Here's what I think, when you apply too much pressure to the tool, hope this makes sense to you but the cloth is moving across the edge and - - slightly around the edge and can give you a nice shiny dull cutting edge. I use only leather for stopping, glued to a 6" block of wood, 1 inch wide, so I have leather on the end and around the circumference of the block. I chuck mine in a 3/8 drill and I run the drill about 1/2 speed, I guess about 800 - 1000 rpm. Before I go to carving, I probably run the gouges 5 -7 seconds on each one I intend to use and they are sharp. If one gets really dull, even after buying a water powered stone, I still take the slikem sharp, 3x3, 3x3, and then on to the power strop. Its so easy with power to take too much off. I do hope this helps - - Earl

[Smee]

I think Earl hit it. When sharpening on a stone you must be able to 'lock your wrist'. By this I mean you must maintan a constant angle on your blade. Keep your knife flat on the strop. The small amount of give in the leather gives you your micro bevel. If your cloth wheel is too soft, there is too much give and it rounds over the edge.

[Eddy-Smiles]

In fear of being taken as a real dummy... when I hone or strop I keep two fingers placed on the back of the knife blade so that the blade maintains constant contact with the hone or strop. I also work the blade at an angel to the hone or strop as was suggested by someone in a recent thread. In this way the blade lays flat against the hone or strop and I don't have to worry about ending up with a roll. Someone might suggest that this could be dangerous to the health of my fingers but I'm very careful, have been doing it this way for quite sometime with out losing any pinkies, and I end up with a very sharp tool.