Early Retirement Extreme Forums

I bought some whetstones and would like to start sharpening chisels and plane irons and such.

Any recommendations on the ERE way to get to a sharpening jig, such as resources to make one myself or recommended to buy?

I still use "scary sharp". Sandpaper from about 400 to 10000 grit tack-glued on glass. It's the cheapest way to get started. I can't say I enjoy using it. It's not supermessy but unless you change the paper pretty often, it's a lot of work.

I have one of those roller jigs from Veritas/Lee Valley to keep angle consistent.

I put a few of my suggestions here. Cheap stuff. Works very well. The Harbor Freight diamond homes are a little coarse. But they are really good at saving dead blades. I dig a lot of stuff from the trash. Like dull scissors. The Harbor Freight coarse, medium and fine (not really fine) cut them really fast. I’ll polish with a fine stone afterwards.

The HF stuff comes on these really thin pieces of plastic. I salvaged some hardwood kids building blocks from the trash and hot glued the diamond stones to those for a better grip. They really cut fast. I guess I already said that.

viewtopic.php?p=199429&hilit=Sharpening+stones#p199429

@jacob

Those seem expensive. Did you get them used?

This helped me get my terminology correct -- I'm looking for honing guides. Using this term helped me find one I think I'm going to try to build one from a YouTube video:

https://youtu.be/dSXbIl7bcjY


@Sclass

It seems from the thread that you free hand sharpen you knifes. Do you remember what the learning process was like to get it right? Do you work with chisels or planes as well?

candide wrote: ↑

Sun May 15, 2022 1:24 am

Those seem expensive. Did you get them used?

Yes and yes. I have the Mk1.

Yes I free hand sharpen. The best way to learn is visualize what you’re trying to do. Then go and do it on a knife you buy at a yard sale or thrift store. The key here is you won’t be afraid to ruin it and you can try over and over again till you learn. You can always keep sharpening it till you get the desired result or the knife disappears because you grind it to dust. You’ll have a lot of tries. Keep in mind it’s never “ruined”. You just have to start over. I love undoing bad sharpening jobs on high quality knives I buy at yard sales. I literally have grind the edge flat (blunt) first before I put an edge on it.

I sharpen my chisels this way. Never tried a plane but I’ve seen the owner of Hida Tools in Berkeley do it. It’s the same idea.

I check my work with some junk mail I pile up. Just shred it with your razor sharp knife to see how it cuts and how fast it dulls. That’ll tell you a lot about your grind angles (and grit size) and the trade offs you’re making.

There is a really neat YouTube video where some guy from Japan takes a dime store chef’s knife and sharpens it to an unbelievably sharp edge. You can learn this. Humans have been doing it by hand a long time now.

Cut try cut try. Or I should say grind try grind try. I like those cheap diamond stones because they cut so fast you can iterate faster.

This is the video. Enjoy. Don’t be afraid to ruin things. It’s how you learn. I started sharpening by hand forty years ago in the Boy Scouts. I didn’t quite get it for another twenty years. At year forty I’ve mastered the skill. I would have saved twenty five years if I’d seen this video.

https://youtu.be/7dFFEBnY0Bo

Sclass wrote: ↑

Mon May 16, 2022 10:47 am

This is the video. Enjoy.

I visited for the knife sharpening lesson, but I stayed for the cat...

Thanks for sharing.This was a good reminder that I should sharpen my knives and consider getting a proper stone.

I was so worried about the cat. He shouldn’t be near such a sharp knife.

ETA - cool! I just found a YouTube video of the guy at Hida Tool sharpening a knife. This guy is a master with Japanese style planes. If your into this kind of stuff and you’re in the Berkeley CA it’s worth stopping by. They have amazing Japanese style tools there and they demo the stuff for you.

https://youtu.be/d5Dcw1Na7TU

This skill is best picked up by first watching somebody do it properly. We have YouTube for that now. Then do the lab at home with a blade and a stone. I’ve gotten great results with really basic corundum stones from restaurant supplies ($6 Chinese blocks with two grits).



I love these things because they can make any good quality knife BIFL. I’ll never buy another kitchen knife again. I use my mom’s forty year old knives. They cut better than they did when new.

I second the recommendation on just some stones and learning to do it by hand. I am by no means a master but I can get knives to slice newspaper which is more than good enough for me. Definitely watch some videos and practice away! If you've never sharpened your knives before the first session may take a while to get a good edge. It took me about 10 minutes per knife I think when I first went through all of ours. Now it's about a minute or so just to touch up and they are back to chopping.

I use a combination stone like Sclass recommends above, though mine was not nearly so inexpensive! I like the convenience of having the two grits in one stone, but have found that I could do with a rougher grit for jobs that require an entirely new edge to be created. The grits are #3000 and #1000.

I tried sharpening free hand, but I wasn't able to get any consistency: sometimes I would end up with a relatively sharp knife, other times it would be duller than before I had taken it to the stone, yet every time I was unable tell what I needed to do differently. Of course, I knew my angle had been incorrect, but knowing that is of little help if you don't then know what adjustment to make. In the end I bought a very cheap honing guide that clips onto the back of the knife; at least now my knives are consistently sharp. I still want to develop the skill for free hand someday.