Sharpening Your Knife

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This is a very important subject and it will be very difficult to explain with out photos but I will do my best to be as clear as possible. I have had a great deal of experience sharpening knives of all kinds. There is nothing worse than using a dull knife because you have to exert more presure for it to be able to cut and then accidents happen. DULL KNIVES ARE VERY DANGEROUS TO USE.

The size of your knife blade will determine what size stone is best for you. I do not use machines to sharpen knives, I do it all by hand. I do not want my very expensive blades heated on a wheel, which could result in changing the temper of the steel and ruining my knife blade. If a knife can not hold an edge I have always found it was due to the tempering procedure before it was purchased. Knife blades are tested for hardness using a special machine that would give you a reading on the Rockwell hardness scale and denotes a reading on the "C" scale.

For instance a knife blade with a Rockwell hardness of 55, I would consider soft for a knife blade and it would be very easy to sharpen but it will not hold an edge. A knife blade that has a Rockwell hardness of 60 - 62 is a hard knife blade that will hold an edge but it will be more difficult to sharpen, providing it has been heat treated properly. The higher the carbon content of the knife blade steel, the sharper it generally can be made.

My NON METALLIC edged weapons I make for Police and Special Ops are 110 - 120 on the Rockwell "M" scale, that is very hard for a synthetic.
When I was a kid, Washita stones were very popular for general knife sharpening along with hard Arkansas natural stones.

Before any sharpening begins you must first establish whether your initial knife edge bevel is good or needs work. I use a 20 degree bevel, I find that using a 10 - 15 degree bevel on your knife edge is too thin for very hard use and the very edge will crumble. Sure you can make it razor sharp but it will not hold up during tough use. Its easier to get a sharp edge on a hollow ground blade for me. I find 25 degrees is too much, I recommend you use 20 degrees. Its very hard to determine what angle your knife blade is unless you have some experience or use a sharpening set as made by GATCO or LANSKY, they make very good knife sharpening kits.

Lets assume you have a 4 inch blade, you will want a 6 inch x 2 inch bench type stone. We will use this as a guideline as we proceed. A Japanese water stone is very popular and graded using their system, I will explain as we go on.
Japanese water stones are usually a combination type grit, one grading on one side and another grading on the other side. I have an 8 inch Japanese water stone that is excellent, but you must work the surface up into a slurry in order to use it.

You can even use coated abrasive sheets that you cut to size and you can glue it to a very flat piece of steel. There are so many stones that are excellent such as Cobalt, Aluminum Oxide, Silicone Carbide, Oil Type Bench and Combination stones, Soft and Hard Arkansas stones, and Diamond Plates, etc, etc. Everyone should own a jewelers loupe Tripplet pocket magnifier in 10 power, so you can see the knife edge and you will see how every different type stone leaves a different edge on your knife blade.

Japanese Water stones cut steel very well but my favorite sharpening procedure for my carry knives are a Diamond plate, which contains industrial diamonds, I like 600 grit. I own all these various stones, I have tried everything including micron graded mylar.
US GRIT is "NOT" the same as JAPANESE GRIT SIZES. For example, if you use an ULTRA FINE CERAMIC WHITE CERAMIC STONE THE US GRIT SIZE = 1000 - 1200 .
If you use an equal JAPANESE GRIT STONE it is 6000 GRIT.

I am ready to sharpen my knife on a 600 grit Diamond Plate which is 6 inches long and 2 inches wide. Rule of thumb to help you as a guide, lay a US QUARTER (25 cent coin) on the stone and never let the upper section of your knife blade lower than that quarter for an approx. angle. NOW YOU WILL FOLLOW ME CAREFULLY.
I am left handed so I will start cutting into my Diamond Plate with the heel of the blade, first pulling it toward me to the very point of the blade. Do NOT lay the blade flat on the plate, remember the 25 cent coin, well your blade is lifted about the height of the thickness of the 25 cent coin.

So I have made one stroke toward me and now I turn the blade over and start cutting into the plate starting at the heel of the blade toward the point by pushing it away from me. DO NOT apply to much pressure because you could slip off the end of the plate and scratch your knife blade. We do not want one scratch on this knife blade, if you are worried put some masking tape on the blade, just keep the tape away from the edge you are sharpening. I use a dry Diamond Plate, you could use water or a stoning oil, I like it dry.

If you never had a decent bevel to start with, you would have to establish a bevel at first using a medium grit stone or Diamond Plate. Once the bevel is established doing the final sharpening procedure with your knife blade will only take a few minutes. You would have to sharpen each side of your blade 4 to 6 times on average unless you have nicks in the blade that you will need to stone out. Using my favorite 600 grit, it will be extremely sharp for almost any daily task. I am not talking about shaving sharp, which can be very easily done using a finer grit and a little extra time but a razor edge will not hold up for long.

Check it using 10 power magnification. Always sharpen the blade by cutting into the stone or plate, some stones require a light weight stoning oil. REMEMBER FROM REAR OF BLADE TO POINT ON BOTH SIDES. You can swipe it across a flat piece of paper toweling and if its sharpened correctly it will cut the paper easily.

Any questions you can email me and I will try and help you. Like I said its hard to explain this without photos. Some of my favorite knife steel is S30V, D2, ATS-34, 154CM, etc.
Hope you have liked this type of commentary.
All the stones mentioned can acheive excellent results but when you are in a hurry nothing beats a Diamond Plate.

I have always wanted to make knives but there was never any time because my handgun action work takes up all my time.


AUTHORS PERSONAL NOTATION:
This commentary as well as all my previous commentaries are my personal opinion only and my personal viewpoint only. There are days when I have so many emails and as my work load dictates it is not always possible for me to get the new commentary typed the same time every day. I will continue to be as prompt as life and its related problems allow, I try and answer all my emails daily, if I have missed your email, please resend it.


Teddy Jacobson / Pistolsmith
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