Brief Mini Rant , no offence to anyone .

[Styerman]

Kool , Thanks !

Chris

[theonew]

The difficulty of free hand sharpening is overbought in my mind. You don't need to keep perfectly consistent angles with every stroke. The more slop in your angles the more convexity you will add to the edge profile and the longer it will take to finally get the sides to meet crisply, but a lot of folks seem to believe that convexity at the edge is a good thing. The only difference between now and say four years ago when I feel like I first really "owned" the skill of free hand sharpening is that now I can go from dull to sharp in a fraction of the time it used to take on account of using very consistent angles with each stroke. But the final, very sharp edge is the same as it ever was.

One of the things that helps to keep consistent angles, I have found, is being sensitive to how the edge slides across the abrasive. The more sensitive you are to this feedback the easier it is to know if you are lowering or raising the angle with each of your strokes.

The only aspect to free hand sharpening which I do think can be a little hard at first is being able to follow the curve of a knife and keep the bevel consistent across the length of the blade. For this reason, my recommendation to people who are new to free hand sharpening is to buy a Mora, if you don't already own one (and you should if you don't) and practice sharpening on it. The wide bevel makes it easy to feel how to follow the bevel as the blade curves. It also gives you an easy way to begin learning to use the feedback from the abrasive to sense when the angle is off.

[Styerman]

Well put . Most Old Skool knives were convex , most hollow grounds become convex once in use . I'm like you I go a lot on feel . I've seen some pretty awesome edges put on with well worn old oil stones .It truly isn't rocket science , just a hand and perception skill .

Chris

[jzmtl]

Yeah, free hand sharpened blade tend to be more or less convex. It reminds me that a certain manufacturer touts how convex edge is superior because all the old knives are like that, well maybe it's because they didn't have electrical motor powered belt sander back then.

[Gryffin]

The only aspect to free hand sharpening which I do think can be a little hard at first is being able to follow the curve of a knife and keep the bevel consistent across the length of the blade. For this reason, my recommendation to people who are new to free hand sharpening is to buy a Mora, if you don't already own one (and you should if you don't) and practice sharpening on it. The wide bevel makes it easy to feel how to follow the bevel as the blade curves. It also gives you an easy way to begin learning to use the feedback from the abrasive to sense when the angle is off.

Good advice. Never thought of Scandi grinds as "training wheels" for sharpening, but you make a good a point.

It's all about repeatability. I'm guessing the angles at the tips of my blades aren't exactly the same as the angles near the ricasso, but they're just as sharp.

The Love O' My Life teases me, that when I sharpen I look like I'm autistic. I sit at the end of the table, knife on the 8" diamond stone; I rock my whole body back and forth, my hand moving the blade from tip to choil in the exact same motion, time after time. Makes me feel like a machine tool of some sort, but once I get the rhythm, sharpening is short work.

It also happens to be ridiculously relaxing, almost like meditation.

That reminds me, I've got a lousy week ahead of me, but a few knives that need a little work...

[theonew]

It's all about repeatability. I'm guessing the angles at the tips of my blades aren't exactly the same as the angles near the ricasso, but they're just as sharp.

Agreed

I intentionally sharpened the recurve blade on my Benchmade 710 to have not only varying edge angle bevels but different finishing grits along its length as well.

[Waterlander]

....
The only aspect to free hand sharpening which I do think can be a little hard at first is being able to follow the curve of a knife and keep the bevel consistent across the length of the blade.
....

If anyone has trouble following the curve of the belly, try making a stroke with the tip first on the stone and ending at the heel, rather then otherway around like you normaly would.

Ofcourse if you profile and sharpen yourself, you have a good feel for the edge and touch-ups are easier and effective. I often use a smooth steel for this, or a very fine stone. Don't let nobody fool you that you can't use flat stones on convexed edges (or a small stone on a big blade). Stropping is common practise, but I still prefer a stone. Old dished out stones can be a good thing too.

So, I got me this Fallkniven the other day. Very nice convexed blade, I like that.
But here comes the horror: a machine at the factory has cut a nasty bevel on the edge!
Such a shame, why do they do that?? Only reason I can think of is that a convex profile can only be sharpened by hand on a belt, and extra labour means extra costs.

Doesn't matter, out comes the sharpening box.
First knocking off those shoulders and thinning out the thick convex with emery paper, until I have that nice arc all the way up to the edge. Second blending it in with sharpening powders.
Third bringing back the polish to mirror. This is the part you can watch TV with, thankfully.
I always finish with some wood cutting, and a few last strokes on a finishing stone.

This 3G steel is very hard, so all together 3 hours of work by hand. One time effort. But now I have it ready, it will go a long way before it needs a fresh sharpening session.
My old knife needed abbrasive sharpening once ever six months or so, and I'm using it daily at the workshop. No wheel grinder will be messing up my knives, not even my chisels!

 



 

[jekostas]

Try free hand sharpening after three concussions.  It ain't easy.

[mdsmith]

Im not someone that buys a bunch of sharpening kit, but i do have the Sharpmaker, and thats it. It does everything i need, and is nice and compact. I have thought about getting the xtra fine rods though.

[gustophersmob]

Meh, I have stones and can sharpen freehand just fine.  I get better results on my Sharpmaker.  To me it's just a tool to make things easier, not a belief system,

+1