Posted on 03/12/2022 7:37:02 AM PST by mylife
Any chef will tell you that you're only as good as your best kitchen knives despite your culinary skills. On top of that, if you have a top-of-the-line knife set, they'll quickly become useless if you don't maintain them and keep them sharp. It's kind of like a carpenter trying to frame a home with plastic nails or a hunter trying to take down a buck with a slingshot.
Even if you don't step foot in a kitchen but use knives for other things like work or outdoor survival, you need to keep them sharp. The bottom line is dull knives are dangerous. That's because you have a greater chance of misusing a dull knife and injuring yourself while sawing away at whatever you might be trying to cut, slice, or whittle. While proper handling is crucial, a razor-sharp blade should do the job in one stroke.
The art of knife sharpening can be intimidating and definitely takes some practice to perfect. However, learning to sharpen yourself is the prudent choice, instead of running out and buying a new knife every time it gets dull. Indeed, you can avoid the process altogether by paying a professional bladesmith to sharpen your knives. There are also knife companies that offer this service, and if you can't seem to get knife sharpening down, there's no shame in going this route.
But if you have the time and patience to learn, purchasing a whetstone (or water stone) and perfecting the art of blade sharpening will save you a lot of money in the long run. Like most knife experts, we believe using a whetstone to sharpen your blades is the best method for knife longevity. However, there are other methods available that we'll dive into a bit later.
(Excerpt) Read more at themanual.com ...
I can sharpen any number of things like wood gouges(figure 8 motion) but long curved blades stump me
Diamond stones work best for me.
DMT Magkit with extra course bought separately.
For the lawn mower, I use the fast metal shaving of a ceramic and tungsten carbide sharpener.
SHARPAL 103N All-in-1 Knife Garden Tool Multi-Sharpener
Just a few minutes with that on a mower blade and your good enough, again.
I got this for my swords:
(The Accusharp Knife and Tool Sharpener)
All of my knives and swords have great edges on them now. Even an old stainless steel, cheap kitchen knife that never took an edge before has an edge on it. I used it to sharpen a hatchet. It worked great.
They make another tool like this one for scissors.
With a knife sharpener.
I have course stones, I never use them since my blades never get that dull
I sharpen my wood chisels with 100 grit sand paper.
nice design, adjustable tool rest, but a worthless pos.
oh well, it was $20
yer doing it wrong
It’s all I have.
yer cabinet work must look like hell ;)
Actually I tack a piece of sand paper to my work bench and just start rubbing. It works pretty good.
“With a good steel and know how to use it.”
I use a steel for touch up on kitchen knives after anything but very lite use. If I get a good edge I try to keep it that way. Good sharpening steels are hard to find these days. I have never mastered using a stone. I have resorted to successively finer sandpaper that works for me. Lawn mower blades garden tools I use a file.
Yep. Arkansas stones are the way to go. Follow that up with a diamond hone and your all set.
L
I've found that my damascus steel styled knives keep an edge longer than my stainless knives, but I like both and use both daily.
Lawn mower blades garden tools I use a grinder. I grew up on a farm and we would butcher beef and hogs every year, usually 5-6 families together so there was a lot of work to do. As a kid I would marvel at the adults grabbibg a steel and wacking it 7-8 times and go right back to cutting. Most would be surprised that cutting meat will dull a knife as quickly as it does.Many of those knives used were home made in a blcksmith shop using old plow shears or other such meteal. My grandpaw farmed using mules so he would shoe them himself. He would fire up coal using and old billows for that high carbon into the steel. I still have his old meat cleaver, well over a hundred years old he made in his shop.
I use diamond hones. Favorite is one I got from Home Depot. Has course on one side and fine on another. Also have a leather strop I use with green compound. Really all you need if you use it before knife becomes dull.
Also if you sharpen a lot of knives try a Work Sharp
For the sharpener that most everyone would find sufficient;
I’ve had one for 30 years and easy to sharpen very quickly...Dressed many deer with knives sharpened by Edgemaker...
I have a kit with 3 stones, a different grit on each side. I’ve found it’s all dependent on the blade’s steel how sharp I can get it.
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