Knife Sharpening

[IANARS]

I Would Like To Hear From Others As To What Is The Prefered Angle To Sharpen Your Knives. Is It 7 Or 15 Degrees Of Just A Smooth Taper To The Cutting Edge.
Thanks
Ianars

[Mark N. Akers]

Ianars:
I tend to try to keep the blade as flat as I can when sharpening,I like the bevel to follow all the way back to the back of the knife.I'd say about 5 deg.

[Hi_Ho_Sliver]

Ditto......flat from back to edge.....for both carving and chip carving...for me.

[AlArchie]

Unless you purchase a knife with a blade already ground with a taper from the cutting edge to the spine, or make your own that way, I think you will be hard pressed to resharpen most commercially produced knives in that configuration.

Most that I've dealt with have a bevel of about 15 degrees, which means practically nothing to the end user. I still go with the old addage of laying the blade flat on your stone and raising the back of the blade about the thickness of a dime. OK maybe a quarter. You really will have to find your own "best" position. Once you have found it and educated your hand to hold that position EVERY TIME YOU SHARPEN, you will be able to get your edge to that "perfect" state every time.

If you are lucky enough to have a blade with an edged to spine bevel, and it holds for you, keep up with the suggestions of Dave and Mark.

One more quick comment.....if you have a blade with an edge to spine taper, and somehow add a small bevel to it, it will be almost impossible to get back the original without a total regrind.

In either case, you will probably make many attempts before you get the hang of it. Sharpening, like any other skill is a matter of experience. "Good techniques are the result of experience; experience is the result of bad techniques." Take that for what it's worth.

Al

[IANARS]

Thanks I appreciate everyones response. Now comes the hard part of getting them sharp.

IANARS

[Lynn O. Doughty]

I don't know what angle "Old Reliable's" blades are but I do know that when I chuck in a new one it will be ground to the same exact angle as the last and after a quick strop just as sharp. Frankly, I hate having to sharpen knives. When I do I use my motorized water stone and, like Mark and the others, lay the blade flat against the stone until I see a wire edge, flip it over to the other side and then to the buffing wheel. I use a hard cloth wheel with Zam and then finish off with a leather strop. Still, after all that they never seem as sharp as my favorite metal-handled wood wizard.

[Blunt]

I do all my sharpening with wet dry sand paper on a soft backing. I have started giving away my Japanese water stone and ceramic as well as all my oil stones they just don't sharpen as well or as cheaply. I have spent 30 yrs with flat stones I wish i had found out about convexing edges yrs ago

[Dwayne Engle]

Hi Blunt,
Okay, my curiosity is piqued. I have to know more. Someone at my local WoodCraft store had made a quick mention of using paper years ago and I don't remember the details. When you have time can you please elaborate on how you sharpen. Grit of paper? What you use as a soft backing? Etc...
I want to try your method.

Thanks,
Dwayne

[Kenny_S]

Dewayne, I don't know about what others have done but I have a strop/sharpener that is 13 x 1 1/2 x 1 inch with the paper of 600 grit one one side and 2000 grit on the other side. A 1/16 " piece of rubber is glued between the wood and paper. Use the 600 grit first then the 2000.
here are a couple of pictures. Hope this helps.

[Dwayne Engle]

Thanks Kenny,

That actually helps a lot. I suppose 2000 grit is a auto body paper. I'll make a strop like yours and see what results I get.

I learn something new every day on this forum.

Thanks again,
Dwayne