Knife Sharpening Tricks

There are many ways to sharpen a knife. This method produces a good general purpose edge.

Safety note: As my Granddad used to say: "Don't cut toward yourself, and you'll never get cut."

Excellent photos by Christy Canida the whale butcher.
See what she does with these knives at Skinning and Filleting Catfish

People have always cared about sharp tools. Some "Bog Man" remains from thousands of years ago have been found with sharpening stones worn as a pendant.

This first video shows how to make your own Bog Man stone from a regular sharpening stone, or any soft abrasive stone you happen to find.

First we will make a drill bit from a nail, drill a hole in the stone, saw the stone in half, and flatten it. Just like an ancient bog man would have if he had the battery drill we fixed last week.

This second video shows how to sharpen a knife for butchering and how to sharpen it for carving wood. I bought the knife in the video from a husband-and-wife team of blacksmiths in China. Blacksmithing seems to be a job for couples in many parts of the world.

Links to the ipod formated videos are at the bottom of this page.

Step 1 Look at the Edge

Get under a bright light such as the sun, and hold up the edge. You'll see reflections on flat spots and nicks.
On this blade the inch near the tip is pretty bad.

Comments

[ImperialKnives]

OK , heres my story. I was going over my aunts house. she told me that if I find anything very , very interesting , that I could keep it. So I went right to my uncles garage (he just died.) and found this rusty, OLD imperial. So i kept it. Ive bean trying to get it all nice (Scrubbing it with steel wool , washing it , sharping it , ect.).
But i need some help. For one , it is still dirty and i need some help finding the right polish and stuff. For two, I need a way to sharpen it with Out using the Smith's CCKS 2 way sharpener! So if antbody can help me Please Reply!! ;)

[nedward]

nedward says
start with penetrating oil or spray take 600 grit sandpaper roll it around wine cork and sand the blade by hand the rust will come off just work hard it is gonna take time clean the blade take a finer grit 800 and you will see the shine
i am from southafrica in my country we dont have all the stones you have but you can start with a rough stone 220 grit go to medium 1000 and fine 5000 waterstones they will be alright there is a couple of american authors you can consult steve bottorf he is an expert the book is cheap in your country i grew up on a farm were we had to slaughter with sharp knives it is something you must learn a sharp knife is merciful to the animal it is like a well maintained tool get some theory it will help and persevere you can always write to me what is a smiths ccks 2 is it a benchstone? god bless

[nedward]

a new knife the profile must be changed a ceramic benchstone 120 grit take the knife flat on the stone start on one side take the meat away dont worry about the scratches then the otherside you will see the blade thinning persevere in my country we call it elbow grease south africa then you lift the blade 15 degrees on the stone grit size medium 800 then rub it again as the yankeys say you will see the primary bevel come rub till you get a burr then change to 1200 grit to get rid of the burr now lift the blade to 20 degree rub again till you feel the burr
now you can work it on a 5000 stone after that you can remove that microscopic burr with a leather strop pasted with jewllers rouge now you can test that knife it will cut a4 printing paper take a wine cork roll 600 grit and you can get that scratch marks out you can use 800 and 1200 sandpaper
to polish your blade your knife will slaughter like a dream remember a knife is a tool it is designed to help man not always a showpiece okapi is also good
wim from south africa

[masterochicken]

Do you suggest any specific angle for cutting hard rubber?

[pcooper2]

That's best done with a serrate-edge knife or a saw. I use a steak knife or serrated bread knife for cutting rubber tubing, garden hose, and the like.

[pcooper2]

The Smith's CCKS 2-step sharpener is all I need. I picked up a couple of them from my local Ace Hardware. One is in the kitchen and the other is in my camping kit.

[jcbbnd]

These work ok for really dull knives, but they can also ruin your blade if you use them to much. Moreover, you can get your knife much sharper if you use a bench stone.

[pcooper2]

Not true. The ceramic rod side is equivalent to a butcher's steel. It doesn't remove material; it straightens out the curled metal on the edge. All manner of stones remove material through abrasion and will wear out an edge far faster than the Smith's CCK-2 and similar sharpening tools. The tungsten carbide side is for "really dull knives" that have gotten that way through abuse. Once I sharpen a blade, I rarely use anything but a ceramic or steel rod to keep it sharp for months on end.

[jcbbnd]

Ok, If you role your edge its better to remove the edge and re-sharpen the knife. Once an edge is rolled the edge metal is weaker. Moreover, instead of straightening the metal the ceramic side will fold it over and eventually tear it out. Leaving your blade with pits and a weak/useless edge. Not to mention the cck only offers one angle of sharpening. The cck-2 (and similar sharpeners) is, in all honesty, an easy way out of learning how to use a bench stone. It just doesn't work. If you dont use your knife much, the ceramic side works ok for a quick, short lasting edge. The carbide works well for establishing an angle on a really dull knife. But neither work well for maintaining a strong sharp blade.

[jcbbnd]

Oh, and butcher's steel is not a SHARPENING device, it is designed to realign the deformed edge. Thats why butchers and chefs use it. Its a quick honing technique, not the proper way to sharpen a knife. Outside the kitchen, one needs to take the time to learn how to use a stone and strop.

[pcooper2]

Whatever. Whether I use a butcher's steel or the ceramic rods of a Smith's CCK-2, the blade is sharp enough to slice through a piece of 18 lb bond paper held between two fingers in the air or the skin of a tomato as if it were soft butter, i.e., razor-sharp. That's all I care about.

[gizmo19]

this is in no way revelant but putting a battery on concret will kill it

[jtejkowski]

That used to be true when batteries had a hard rubber case. Today car batteries have plastic cases and this is no longer an issue. Working at an auto shop in college gave me lots of practice lifting car batteries off a concrete floor.

[jeaton1]

Hmmm, I've never seen sharpening stone for sale in Chinatown.

My choice, which works in many places, is a small hardware store - no, not 'home depot' or that ilk, but the little ones. In Canada, try a Home Hardware. In the USA, Ace Hardware or True Value I think would also have them.

[gitm]

I use the pad of my finger. I run my finger over the edge perpendicular to the length of the blade and without pressure. I also polish the blade, which I've found can make a fresh razor even sharper. There is a dramatic difference in the performance of gouges once they've been polished.

[mthomp1]

A fresh razor blade is never smooth or polished. Examine it under a strong magnifier, you will see what I mean.

[weaponscollector94]

how do you polish the edge?

[mthomp1]

You never need to polish the edge of the knife. Try cutting a tomato with a polished edge knife. It just won't cut it. There is a very tough thin layer on the skin of the tomato will prove it.

[mthomp1]

I sharpen my kitchen knives with 600 grit wet/dry sandpaper. I adds "tooth" to the edge and cuts tomatoes cleanly without effort. This is the best method than anything else.

[=SMART=]

Thanks for the info ! Entertaining as ever !

[=SMART=]

It seems the sharpening grit has snuck into my knife's opening mechanism....

[ilpug]

blast it with Canned Air or an air compressor.

[knifesharpener]

thank you for teaching me one day i got home from school took a showerand as i was in the shower some onee broke in and good thing my knifewas right next to me or maybe i wouldnt be here

[ilpug]

two things: (1) what did you do to the person who broke in? and (2) you shower with a knife?

[djsc]

I think ineed to practice. tried this for the first time today on a 3" folding knife (stainless), It was completely blunt before, it's a bit better now, but by no means truly sharp. Do I need to grind more agressively, for longer?

[maurice1993]

with my 2 years of knife-operator (I used to cut leather in a shoe factory) you'll possibly will achieve sharpening, but it'll take forever. just use a more abrasive stone, ou sandpaper. I often had to made knives with raw stell, I sand papered them in the sander, first with high profile sandpapers, after with low profile, and finally, the stone, first the more abrasive, than the low abrasive side of the stone.

and by less than 15 minutes I had a well sharpen-as-hell precision knife ready to use.

with your folding knife I recomend you to use just a little more pressure, and sharp first the the 'heavy' side of the stone, and when it's barelly cutting things, you refine the work on the 'smoth' side of the stone.

sorry the poor english. I'm still learning ;-)

[todbicks]

A comment to the author from a British citizen with blunt knives. Your Step 8 begins as follows: "Cut your leg off. Not" Why add the "Not" afterwards ? In the UK we would never do that. Your joke consists in the fact that you make it seem you mean it which would constitute a kind of irony (although a weak form of it)....and then you go ahead and spoil it with that "Not" thing? I'm gonna go away now and cut my wrists. NOT REALLY. I'M ONLY JOKING.

[kikiorg]

I had remembered the "...NOT!" phrase from Wayne's World, circa early 90's, which made it very popular at the time (and likely lost on international folks, as well as those under 25yo,) but when I geeked out on it a bit, I found this:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Not!

Apparently it goes back to 1893!

[_Scratch_]

I approve of this message.

[danlab]

You sound like someone that needs to watch Borat.

[thestyrofoampeanut]

 my name-a borat
give me your tears gypsy or i shall take them.......

[valhallas_end]

Americans love a lawsuit.  Fine print alleviates that danger.  Ergo, not.

[jadronx]

very true

[frogmeetcog]

Just a thought: with the many, many shoes that step on sidewalks every day, grinding little divots out of them with grit and pebbles... how flat is a given sidewalk going to be?

[tightsweater]

http://www.furitechnics.com.au/Ozitech/ozitech_main.html

stones and steels will be needed no more...

[masterochicken]

seeing as that page 404d, your statement way be less than accurate.

[binky82]

don't slide to cut, just see if it catches, just touch your nail and don't move it, sharp it should stop sliding and just catch 'on' the nail, not'in' the nail.

[Lighthouse]

My house is over a 100 years old. Most of the electric system of the house was old fashioned "knob and tube." The knobs are ceramic insulators where the wire wrapped around to change direction and the tubes are hollow ceramic rods that insulate the wood when wires pass through joists and studs. Those tubes make great touch-up rods. I have a couple laying around wherever I have sharp edges in the house or shop. I usually mount 'em on the end of a pencil to keep my fingers clear of the business end of things.

[jack8559]

The ceramic tubes in high pressure sodium light bulbs (industrial) work great too! Get one from a really big bulb (say, 1000 Watt) and set in a wood handle with epoxy, but remember that if you drop it, it will break and be totally useless. Go to a place where they use them and ask for a burned out one since the bulbs are about 45 dollars each new....

[MisterHankie]

You can also sharpen a knife with the top of a car window rolled about two thirds of the way down.