Honing Our Skills

September 5, 2023 - We both carry pocket knives, even at home. It’s just convenient. The problem with that, if you carry your knife you use your knife. Mine was as dull as a butter knife. 

His grandmother always carried a knife in her purse. She would routinely have to sharpen it using a whetstone and when she passed away at 98 it came to us. Which is especially nice since it‘s an Arkansas stone (a whetstone mined in Arkansas) so it is a link to both home and family. 

Honing Steel and two-sided Whetstone

Yesterday I decided my pocket “butter” knife was no longer very useful so I should sharpen it. I have tried this before with no real success. 
I started with YouTube videos. There are many knife sharpening videos so I watched a couple. Everyone seems to have a slightly different method which is reassuring as slight variations in method appear to not be a problem.

I tried a back and forth method that seemed to be the most common. The knife was very dull so I started on the medium grit side. After about 10 minutes on both sides of my knife, I switched to the fine grain side of the stone and continued to refine the edge. It was looking good. So I tried it on a paper edge like they did in the videos. There was no way this knife was cutting paper! This was a fail. I consulted a knowledgeable friend to see if he had any experience in this area. Like me, he typically used a honing steel. That, metal rod you see chefs on TV use. He also mentioned a grinding wheel which neither of us own. I decided to abandon the project in favor of watching YouTubers travel and take photos in Iceland. 

Sometimes I’m a little slow. While I have a magnifying glass, I also have a camera that takes really sharp images and can magnify more than a magnifying glass. I could take a photo of the knife edge to see the problem. And also show you.

The Knife Edge

The problem

Once I took a photo and zoomed in on the bevel, I could see that I was creating a third surface, labeled A. This very shallow angle would be too pointy and wear down quickly. The width of the original bevel at B and C is not consistent indicating that my whetstone is not level.

In my effort to not have too steep an angle, I had too shallow of an angle. The bevel on my blade was now shaped like an obelisk!

A Whetstone Set

Day two of sharpening began with purchasing a new whetstone.  So you know, “whet” in this case means, to sharpen - from old English. Also used in, “whet your appetite”. I decided to purchase a new one as the old one was very badly out of level and was causing uneven sharpening. If you have two stones you can use one to level the other. Starting with a new one would eliminate that problem and I needed all the help I could get. Also a whetstone set is less that $30. 

Day 2 of Sharpening

I started over knowing the angle needed to be steeper. One video said half a thumbs width. The guy on the video’s thumb must be a lot bigger than mine. 

This time I concentrated on angle consistency and a steeper angle. After a few minutes on the course side I switched to medium then fine. I took more photos. It’s looking better.

Edge After Fine Grit

The knife will cut paper but is far from as sharp as the guy’s was on the video. 

One of the videos mentioned a strop. That’s a strip of leather used for final polishing. I don’t have a strop but I do have an old leather seat cushion. You could use an old leather belt too. I turned my cushion suede side out, added a bit of honing oil and began polishing. The guy said it made a lot of difference.

Edge Post Stropping

He was right the knife is much sharper after using the strop, but my technique needs practice. I can see from the photo that I needed to spend more time on a finer grit stone to remove all those scratches in the beveled area. Also, all the brown bits are leather.

If you wondered how this is a travel topic, Knife sharpening is a bushcraft skill, like starting a fire without matches or a lighter. Actually, we were trying to make tie-downs for our camp chairs. My knife would not cut a thin piece a paracord! We were at home so we had to get scissors from the house. Our chair tie-downs are done and our knives are sharper now for the next project.

Unfortunately, like my knife sharpening skills the chair tie-downs were not as successful as we had hoped.

***