frost 106 knife sharpening

[mac1012]

hi I need some advice on sharpening or honing the above knife.

I am slowly getting my head around this sharpening business so many choices and techniques !!

I have seen vids and instructions on diff ways of keeping a knife sharp , well a new one anyway , I am using the knife for cutting tapers on some branches for my craft work , am I right in thinking you just need to strop a knife on some leather and paste to keep the edge , also can I do the stropping on a fine waterstone ?

advice on suitable stropping materials would be great thanks

mark

 

[Jacob]

There's loadsa stuff about knife sharpening - they are even madder than woodworkers!
The (Sundqvist) advice on woodcarving knife is to maintain just one bevel (30º ish) but a more general cutting knife can have two - ground at 22º ish with a 2nd bevel taking it to 30º, as per the ordinary (kitchen) carving knife - honed with a steel and very occasionally reground.
I'd stick with oil stones - all the modern methods are just so much bother and are very expensive.

PS I see you are in Chezza - not far, you are welcome to pop in here I've got several varieties of sharpening kit you could have a go on.

 

[mac1012]

ok Jacob thanks , where are you ? I couldn't see your location , I have decided after all this to get a 6 inch trend diamond double sided bench stone they seem popular on here and I think I prefer over waterstone

I can then use it for my chisels and stropping my knife and get a slip stone for finishing gouges etc.

its like you think " oh I will do the cheap method of wet and dry going through the grits and place on mdf but by the time I got mdf and wet and dry various grits from Halfords it will cost me 20 notes where as the trend stone is only 40 , I sure I could cover more bases with the wet and dry set up but cant be bothered with the faff I like things straight forward and with spare time a premium Ill take the quicker route

 

[bugbear]

This appears to be fairly relevant, straight from a woodcarver.

http://www.robin-wood.co.uk/wood-craft- ... whittling/

BugBear

 

[Cottonwood]

You made a good choice. Jap water stones are too fragile. I personally use a norton india stone for everything now, chisles, plane irons, axe's, drawknife-and it works great for knives too. I have bothe the mora's in Rob's article, excellent blades. I personally mostly use a home made knife with a bigger drop point blade (made by Lauri of Finnland) for carving and trimming tennons, whittling draw bore peg's etc where I need a bit more of a hefty cut along straight lines. Especially useful for tapered pegs.

It has the flat scandi grind, so any cuts are easy to control without them dipping and diving in and out of the wood as happens more readily with a secondary bevel. To keep it in condition it just needs 10 or 15 seconds either side on the fine (1200) norton, then a strop on leather. For some purposes I dont always even bother with the strop. If your doing finish cuts on dry spoons you would probably want a well stropped mirror polish on the knife so as to elinmiate scratches and get a ready burnished surface on the wood being cut.
I quite recently experimented and did a sacrildgeous experiment, I ground up a jap waterstone in a mortar and pestle and used the powder as a stropping compound it works great, as does the more commonly used solvol autosol metal polish.
cheers Jonathan

 

[bugbear]

I quite recently experimented and did a sacrildgeous experiment, I ground up a jap waterstone in a mortar and pestle and used the powder as a stropping compound it works great, as does the more commonly used solvol autosol metal polish.
cheers Jonathan

I was recently flattening a very fine and soft English green slate stone (exact type as yet unknown).

I kept the resulting powder - great strop paste!

BugBear

 

[dannykaye]

Have a look at something like this http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/DMT-Dia-Sharp-Diamond-Mini-Hone-Sharpeners-Set-D2K-/390332701960 and practice (possibly on a cheapish penknife) until you can get an edge you like.

Don't buy cheap (or really expensive) diamond stuff until you know what you are doing. For penknives I keep an edge that I can shave my arm with with one of these http://www.screwfix.com/p/forge-steel-diamond-sharpening-pen/20835 That edge might be too fragile for carving.

 

[Cottonwood]

I quite recently experimented and did a sacrildgeous experiment, I ground up a jap waterstone in a mortar and pestle and used the powder as a stropping compound it works great, as does the more commonly used solvol autosol metal polish.
cheers Jonathan

I was recently flattening a very fine and soft English green slate stone (exact type as yet unknown).

I kept the resulting powder - great strop paste!

BugBear

Not forgetting the original stropping compound, (silver sand and tallow) that the labourers used to sharpen their scythes and sicklles before carburnudum was invenyted :idea:
I mixed the jap dust with oil, makes a sort of an abrasive oil paint. Keeps it from blowing about