Sharpening
Mar. 2nd, 2007 09:52 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
tcepsaAwhile back, ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
3ravensringo loaned me a knife-sharpening DVD. While I still haven't gotten all the way through it, I decided that I had gotten far enough (though the overview and demonstration of the whole sharpening process) that if I didn't actually try to sharpen something soon it risked falling into the category of things that I theoretically know how to do but haven't ever actually demonstrated that that's the case.
I went to the Woodcraft President's Day sale a few weeks back (on President's Day, go figure!) and got myself, among other things, a combination 800/4000 grit waterstone. Last night I soaked it for half an hour (or maybe a little more) and got myself an old, dull paring knife out of the kitchen (if it works, great, if not, it'll still probably be an improvement :p ) and went to town on the 800 grit side. Five or six strokes back-and-forth on each side, rinse the stone, repeat. Unfortunately, I may have bitten off a little much; after what felt like about half an hour of grinding, I still hadn't made much of a difference as far as I could tell, especially on the badly blunted areas (which is where I was focusing). I'll probably try some more tonight, but I can see how this might be a case where a grinding wheel or belt sander may have been a better place to start. I'm definitely removing metal from the areas where I want to be removing it, and the whole process is working approximately how I expected it to, it's just not as fast as I had thought it might be. (This is not surprising, as my primary examples for sharpening have been people who have been sharpening and, in some cases, making knives for years--they're obviously going to be much faster than I am).
So all in all I am happy with how it is coming along so far, and looking forward to seeing the results when I'm finished. Current focus is on resisting the urge to press what I feel like would be "too hard" and to trying to keep my strokes distributed across the surface of the stone so it'll wear down evenly. [EDIT: fixed flipped primary and secondary terms] I'm also thinking about maybe lifting up just a little bit so the force is concentrated on the secondary bevel (which holds the edge) edge instead of on the primary bevel until I've removed most of the bluntness. Thoughts?
3ravensringo loaned me a knife-sharpening DVD. While I still haven't gotten all the way through it, I decided that I had gotten far enough (though the overview and demonstration of the whole sharpening process) that if I didn't actually try to sharpen something soon it risked falling into the category of things that I theoretically know how to do but haven't ever actually demonstrated that that's the case.I went to the Woodcraft President's Day sale a few weeks back (on President's Day, go figure!) and got myself, among other things, a combination 800/4000 grit waterstone. Last night I soaked it for half an hour (or maybe a little more) and got myself an old, dull paring knife out of the kitchen (if it works, great, if not, it'll still probably be an improvement :p ) and went to town on the 800 grit side. Five or six strokes back-and-forth on each side, rinse the stone, repeat. Unfortunately, I may have bitten off a little much; after what felt like about half an hour of grinding, I still hadn't made much of a difference as far as I could tell, especially on the badly blunted areas (which is where I was focusing). I'll probably try some more tonight, but I can see how this might be a case where a grinding wheel or belt sander may have been a better place to start. I'm definitely removing metal from the areas where I want to be removing it, and the whole process is working approximately how I expected it to, it's just not as fast as I had thought it might be. (This is not surprising, as my primary examples for sharpening have been people who have been sharpening and, in some cases, making knives for years--they're obviously going to be much faster than I am).
So all in all I am happy with how it is coming along so far, and looking forward to seeing the results when I'm finished. Current focus is on resisting the urge to press what I feel like would be "too hard" and to trying to keep my strokes distributed across the surface of the stone so it'll wear down evenly. [EDIT: fixed flipped primary and secondary terms] I'm also thinking about maybe lifting up just a little bit so the force is concentrated on the secondary bevel (which holds the edge) edge instead of on the primary bevel until I've removed most of the bluntness. Thoughts?
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no subject
Date: 2007-03-02 03:49 pm (UTC)Focus on the edge bevel, and slowly change the angle there. What it will look like you're doing is making the edge bevel wider. Actually, that is what you're doing.
Over time, you keep doing that, and the primary and secondary bevels become one and the same.
Gentle, but firm pressure. Use your body to move the knife, not your wrists. That will add more power to the stroke without using muscle and forcing things to happen.
no subject
Date: 2007-03-02 04:31 pm (UTC)That having been said, thanks for the advice--what you said about focusing on the secondary and slowly changing the angle over time so that it becomes one with the primary (guess there's still some spirituality to be had there ;) ) makes a lot of sense.
I'm currently managing to mostly use my arms to move the knife... I suppose that's better than my wrists, but I can see how getting my whole body into it would help make things even more smooth. Make inertia work for me ^_^