Thread: Knife sharpening

Great knife, I have 3 of the larger size say 30 cm and a small 10 cm, my favorite. I know my limitations, I use a good pull through sharpener, but gently, it's not perfect but matches my skill set.

I borrowed a mates Lansky sharpener for a play over a month or so.
I only have three blades I truly care about - The cooks knife get sharp but not truly sharpened (usually on the linisher cause its quick dirty and easy)

Anyways... I played with the Lansky and found that my eye-by-feel-by-vibe technique on an oil stone was so close to the "calibrated" Lansky angles that - well - I not gonna bother buying an angle gauge.

Consistency is definitely the key - get that any way you can and you will have an edge.
Now I am no expert - I have a mate who can razor a blade so it peels coconuts like bananas but I get by...

Oh and for general knife duties, knocking down fish/meat/stuff IME nothing beats a
Victorinox 5.6503.15

Nice blade, good re-curve and holds an edge even when whacked through bone . . . . I would happily forgo all other blades if need be for that one.

Steve

I never expected a topic like this to generate such differing views!

I have a genuine Norton stone which I bought about 40 years ago. It is far superior at sharpening my chisels and planes than a more recent Bunnings stone.

I don't have a steel. I'm not sure I could use one. I might have to visit the local butcher to ask about getting the knife sharpened.

Thanks for all the replies.

If you are going to pay someone to do it, ask how they are going to do it first. Just because you pay them doesn't mean they are going to do it right. Bench grinders or anything that will put heat into the steel are a no no.

You can do it easily enough on your oil stone, it's pretty much like sharpening your chisels. Just hold the blade at an angle of about 20 degrees to the face of the stone.

Some general info:

How fine you can get the edge depends on the grit (how rough the surface of your sharpening tool is).
360 grit will do very well for most purposes - certainly for a general purpose kitchen knife.
If you're push cutting (like with a chisel) then a more highly polished edge is preferable.

A traditional steel does not, technically, sharpen the edge. It straightens out any rollovers or burrs & delays the necessity for going to the stones.

Then there's your edge geometry, and type - bevel, double bevel, Scandinavian, full flat, etc. etc.

I'm by no means great at sharpening, but can easily get any of my knives sharp enough to shave arm hair off. I've even used a pocket knife to shave my face with, just to prove it can be done. All it takes is time & a little practice.
Personally I have a selection of stones, diamond 'stones', steels & a leather strop.

Basic steps of sharpening:
Coarse stone to remove relatively large amounts of metal, in the case that the edge is dinged or the geometry is hopelessly stuffed up.
Medium to fine stones to smooth out the toothy edge that the coarse stone leaves.
Strop - this knocks off the fine burr left by the medium to fine stones & polishes the edge.
Finally, back to a very few passes on a medium grit if you've over polished the edge & it's not slicing. Done that a few times, especially when using my Japanese water stone followed by a strop.
Rule of three: increase by a factor of three, the number of passes on the sharpening tool as you move up the grits.
So for 1 pass of the coarse, 3 on the medium, 9 on the fine, 27 on the strop.

Edit: If you are keen to learn to sharpen your knives freehand, the usuall recommendation is to find an old knife that you don't care about, or buy a cheap knife. Use this to practice with until you are confident to have a go with your good knives.

A skill lost to 99% of us, methinks.

Dad always used a steel, and taught me to when I was a teenager - been using one ever since. A quick run over a knife with the steel every couple of weeks (as needed) keeps them razor sharp.

It's usually SWMBO complaining she can't cut something well that makes me do it.

Originally Posted by rangieman

A good knife will have a shamfered edge called a V bevel , Simple to sharpen on a oil stone . The knife pictured is more a butchers knife where a steel is more commonly used to sharpen

Sharpen on a stone then use the steel to remove the small burrs, i would never have any of my knive's professionally sharpened as most use a bench grinder to put an edge on them .
I have a really nice diamond coated oval steel that i've had for over 20 years as well as most of my knife set that i bought as a first year apprentice back in 1985.

A double sided dual grit stone works well.