Hi All,
Under the catagory of Gear Reviews we have a couple of excellent threads that provide a good deal of valuable information on Knives and knife sharpening products.
After contributing to these threads and then thinking about what it takes to really sharpen blades to a razor sharp edge I began to realize that most people really don't know or understand how to perform the correct steps or understand how to properly go about setting up to achieve a good edge even if they have the correct tools.
That said, I wanted to get some information out to those who might be interested and at the same open the door so others could also share some of their knowledge in this area. These techniques and tools should apply to sharpening anything, regardless if it's a broadhead, a knife or a pair of scissors for that matter.
Let's start at the beginning with some basic premises. In order to achieve any type of a decent edge on any type of knife the first and most important step is to insure whatever tool you are using to sharpen, you must be able to hold and maintain a consistent blade angle for every stroke on every stage of the sharpening process. So unless you have the ability to control this aspect of your sharpening you'll never attain as sharp and edge as you could.
An example of this might be a sharpener such as the Lansky Sharpening Systems. These tools will hold a blade in a locked position horizontally and then it allows the user to select any of four possible angles to use to sharpen a knife with any of the 4 to 6 sharpening stones in that set. Each stone will be faced with a different grit for cutting the blades edge.
While these systems are OK, they are far from good. The drawbacks with these systems are as follows: They only provide 4 possible sharpening angles, so this does nothing to match the original manufacturers edge on the knife. It basically forces the user to re-profile the knife with a new edge, which in most cases is unnecessary. The Lansky Systems only provides enough stones to perform a very light polishing which never gets close to the knife being truely razor sharp.
Let's talk for just a moment about what the most important tool in knife sharpening is? I'm sure that when I outline this very few people are going to know or understand what I'm talking about, since so few people actually use it in their sharpening process.
The single most important tool next to the one that controls the angle of the sharpener is a Sharpie Black Magic Marker. That's right, you heard it correctly! Before any sharpening strokes ever begin, we use a Black magic marker to draw a thin black line along the entire edge of the blade one each side of the knife or each side of the blade regardless of what type of a cutting tool it happens to be.
Next, we lock the knife or blade into whatever type of a holder we're using such that just the edge we are sharpening is exposed. Next, we want to position our sharpening stone at an angle so that as we push forward into the blade we are only removing the thin black line from the magic marker. We don't want to leave any black marker on the knifes edge, nor do we want to leave black marker exposed on the inside edge facing the back of the knife.
If any of the black line is still showing, then it tells us that are angle is either to steep or to shallow and we need to adjust until we have matched the angle correctly so that on each stroke we are removing the thin black line we created with the marker.
Once we have this angle correctly set, it doesn't change again for either side of this blade we're sharpening. The ability to set and maintain an angle in this manner is the key to achieving a perfect edge every time.
Next, it's also very important that we have a large enough assortment of grits on our sharpening tools, so that we can begin, when needed, by easily removing enough blade edge material to get beyond any major divets in the blade. The main process we are following is based upon sharpening until we have created a burr on the blades edge on the side opposite the one we're sharpening.
Once this has been achieved, we want to flip the knife around so we can sharpen the opposite side of the blade. Again, with the same sharpening stone at exactly the same angle as used on the first side, we again begin by moving the stone into the blade lightly. This continues until we have formed a light burr on the opposite side of the blade.
Once this happens, we want to flip the knife back to side one and only take one light pass of the stone into the blade to remove the burr that we just created.
Now it's time to move to a lighter grit sharpening stone, reposition the blade to the same angle as previously used and begin sharpening again in the same manner by creating a lighter burr, then turning the blade over and doing the same on the opposite side.
Each step of the way, the burr will continue to get smaller and more difficult to detect as you continue using finer and finer grit sharpening material.
Finally, when you reach about 1,000 grit and complete this final sharpening, try to remove the burr completely with your last stroke. It's now time to begin the polishing steps on the blade.
For polishing, I prefer to begin using a 2,000 or 3,000 grit polishing stone (Chosera Stone) or a Polishing Tape glued to a bare steel bar made for my sharpener. The polishing strokes are at exactly the same angle as used in all the sharpening steps exact they can be performed by pushing and pulling into or against the blade edge. I polish one side of the blade then turn it over and carefully do the opposite side the same way.
After this has been completed, I change to a 5,000 grit and perform the same polishing steps as outlined above. In most cases this will produce an edge that anyone could easily shave with and is incredibly sharp. It might be to sharp for normal kitchen cutlery use because if you slip and cut yourself with a knife with this type of an edge, it's going to be serious and not a surface cut.
For those who are looking for the best edge attainable, such as myself, I make one last sharpening change and switch to a Chosera Stone in a 10,000 grit and perform one last series of polishing strokes on each side of the blade. This creates a surgical edge that is sharper than a razor blade, but much stronger due to using the manufacturers original edge angle.
I hope this helps everybody understand the concepts involved in serious sharpening. The same steps are applied when sharpening broadheads, knives or anything else.
It's not a quick process, but if it's quick your looking for, then "Good" is not in the equation. To produce really good edges is not a fast or cheap process. It will take as much as 20 minutes to attain this type of an edge on a good knife.
Once an edge like this has been put on a knife, it literally only takes 4 or 5 light strokes on either side of the blade with a ceramic stick to put this edge right back on a knife that's been heavily used. This is the secret to maintain a superior edge on a knife. Remove the light burr that forms on knife as it dulls before any major resharpening is ever needed.
Regards,
Xbow755
Under the catagory of Gear Reviews we have a couple of excellent threads that provide a good deal of valuable information on Knives and knife sharpening products.
After contributing to these threads and then thinking about what it takes to really sharpen blades to a razor sharp edge I began to realize that most people really don't know or understand how to perform the correct steps or understand how to properly go about setting up to achieve a good edge even if they have the correct tools.
That said, I wanted to get some information out to those who might be interested and at the same open the door so others could also share some of their knowledge in this area. These techniques and tools should apply to sharpening anything, regardless if it's a broadhead, a knife or a pair of scissors for that matter.
Let's start at the beginning with some basic premises. In order to achieve any type of a decent edge on any type of knife the first and most important step is to insure whatever tool you are using to sharpen, you must be able to hold and maintain a consistent blade angle for every stroke on every stage of the sharpening process. So unless you have the ability to control this aspect of your sharpening you'll never attain as sharp and edge as you could.
An example of this might be a sharpener such as the Lansky Sharpening Systems. These tools will hold a blade in a locked position horizontally and then it allows the user to select any of four possible angles to use to sharpen a knife with any of the 4 to 6 sharpening stones in that set. Each stone will be faced with a different grit for cutting the blades edge.
While these systems are OK, they are far from good. The drawbacks with these systems are as follows: They only provide 4 possible sharpening angles, so this does nothing to match the original manufacturers edge on the knife. It basically forces the user to re-profile the knife with a new edge, which in most cases is unnecessary. The Lansky Systems only provides enough stones to perform a very light polishing which never gets close to the knife being truely razor sharp.
Let's talk for just a moment about what the most important tool in knife sharpening is? I'm sure that when I outline this very few people are going to know or understand what I'm talking about, since so few people actually use it in their sharpening process.
The single most important tool next to the one that controls the angle of the sharpener is a Sharpie Black Magic Marker. That's right, you heard it correctly! Before any sharpening strokes ever begin, we use a Black magic marker to draw a thin black line along the entire edge of the blade one each side of the knife or each side of the blade regardless of what type of a cutting tool it happens to be.
Next, we lock the knife or blade into whatever type of a holder we're using such that just the edge we are sharpening is exposed. Next, we want to position our sharpening stone at an angle so that as we push forward into the blade we are only removing the thin black line from the magic marker. We don't want to leave any black marker on the knifes edge, nor do we want to leave black marker exposed on the inside edge facing the back of the knife.
If any of the black line is still showing, then it tells us that are angle is either to steep or to shallow and we need to adjust until we have matched the angle correctly so that on each stroke we are removing the thin black line we created with the marker.
Once we have this angle correctly set, it doesn't change again for either side of this blade we're sharpening. The ability to set and maintain an angle in this manner is the key to achieving a perfect edge every time.
Next, it's also very important that we have a large enough assortment of grits on our sharpening tools, so that we can begin, when needed, by easily removing enough blade edge material to get beyond any major divets in the blade. The main process we are following is based upon sharpening until we have created a burr on the blades edge on the side opposite the one we're sharpening.
Once this has been achieved, we want to flip the knife around so we can sharpen the opposite side of the blade. Again, with the same sharpening stone at exactly the same angle as used on the first side, we again begin by moving the stone into the blade lightly. This continues until we have formed a light burr on the opposite side of the blade.
Once this happens, we want to flip the knife back to side one and only take one light pass of the stone into the blade to remove the burr that we just created.
Now it's time to move to a lighter grit sharpening stone, reposition the blade to the same angle as previously used and begin sharpening again in the same manner by creating a lighter burr, then turning the blade over and doing the same on the opposite side.
Each step of the way, the burr will continue to get smaller and more difficult to detect as you continue using finer and finer grit sharpening material.
Finally, when you reach about 1,000 grit and complete this final sharpening, try to remove the burr completely with your last stroke. It's now time to begin the polishing steps on the blade.
For polishing, I prefer to begin using a 2,000 or 3,000 grit polishing stone (Chosera Stone) or a Polishing Tape glued to a bare steel bar made for my sharpener. The polishing strokes are at exactly the same angle as used in all the sharpening steps exact they can be performed by pushing and pulling into or against the blade edge. I polish one side of the blade then turn it over and carefully do the opposite side the same way.
After this has been completed, I change to a 5,000 grit and perform the same polishing steps as outlined above. In most cases this will produce an edge that anyone could easily shave with and is incredibly sharp. It might be to sharp for normal kitchen cutlery use because if you slip and cut yourself with a knife with this type of an edge, it's going to be serious and not a surface cut.
For those who are looking for the best edge attainable, such as myself, I make one last sharpening change and switch to a Chosera Stone in a 10,000 grit and perform one last series of polishing strokes on each side of the blade. This creates a surgical edge that is sharper than a razor blade, but much stronger due to using the manufacturers original edge angle.
I hope this helps everybody understand the concepts involved in serious sharpening. The same steps are applied when sharpening broadheads, knives or anything else.
It's not a quick process, but if it's quick your looking for, then "Good" is not in the equation. To produce really good edges is not a fast or cheap process. It will take as much as 20 minutes to attain this type of an edge on a good knife.
Once an edge like this has been put on a knife, it literally only takes 4 or 5 light strokes on either side of the blade with a ceramic stick to put this edge right back on a knife that's been heavily used. This is the secret to maintain a superior edge on a knife. Remove the light burr that forms on knife as it dulls before any major resharpening is ever needed.
Regards,
Xbow755
