On 17/04/2015 9:22 AM, Joe West wrote:
>
 > I bought a knife sharpener.
 >
 > It works well.  But, I can't get my knifes sharp enough to shave hair
 > off my arm.  I wonder if there is something wrong with my technique.
 > How do others sharpen their knives?
 >

Hi Joe,

Well, it depends on the knife.

Kitchen knives get sharpened using a small stone I keep in the
itchen drawer.  About half our kitchen knives are stainless, the
others are ugly, old, stained carbon steel.  Gotta love those old
ones, easy to get them wicked sharp.

Pocket knives get a similar treatment, but usually down in the shop
and on finer stones, so they get a bit sharper.

The carving knives (Frost and Opinel mostly) get serious treatment.
These are for carving spoons and other greenwood working.
Diamond plate to shape the edge if necessary, depends on what
level of abuse the knives have been through.  If the Scout Troop
has been doing a carving gig then yeah, the knives usually need
more than a touch-up.  Then the small cream coloured hard
arkansas oil-stone, followed by a strop.  Those knives you can
shave with.

Then it's the exotic stuff like the hook knives for hollowing
spoons and shrink pots.  They see the small ceramic hone
and then get polished on the strop.  I want these as sharp
as I can possibly get them.

One important thing about a knife is to *shape* the edge before
honing it.  I'll even drawfile a blade to get it to the shape I like
before going to the stones.  New knives often have a really poor
shape to them,  The Opinel and Frost knives are an exception.
They show up with a decent shape.  Most of the knives the
Scouts show up with just have what appears to be a 60 degree
angle for the edge, with a teeny little bevel.  Look at a new
one some time.  Awful stuff.  Bring me my file!

-- 
Darrell LaRue
Oakville ON
Wood Hoarder, Blade Sharpener, and Occasional Tool User