Replies to This Discussion

In MemoriamPermalink Reply by Robert Burris on April 14, 2014 at 10:57

I have been sharping knives free hand all my life. I have my own system, that works for me. I don't plan on changing anything I do but others may have trouble learning my technique. Thanks for showing a good way to do free hand sharpening. It's really a great method, once you find a way that suits you.

Permalink Reply by Jack Haskins, Jr. on April 14, 2014 at 11:45

I got tons of help from people on forums when I decided to improve my sharpening skill. I asked the same questions everyon askes and got a number of different answers about different techniques. Use one hand. Use both hands. Sharpen the edge first. Sharpen the back (lower angle) bevel first. Everyone was doing it different. When Iwould try one thing and it didn't work right away I'd try something else. My main problem was I wasn't giving myself enough time to master one method before deciding it didn't work and try something else. I think the best way to learn to sharpen (or anything really) is to have face to face with someone who knows what they are doing. If there is more than one "expert" at least they would be in the same room to discuss any differences and the student can choose what to do. I am now doing what I'm doing after getting advice from lots of people, buying lots of stones, etc. The best thing to do IMO is decide which technique to try and stick with it. I'm sure your technique is as good as any. May be harder to learn. Maybe it's not. But my biggest recommendation is to give any method we try long enough to become comfortable with it. Then change if you want. Same with sharpening stones. I have bought a lot of stones in the past 5 years and all of them were really good quality. I think if I were still sharpening with any of them I'd be doing fine. I now use a set I love but the stones don't improve skill. Oh well. I'm rambling again.

Jack




Robert Burris said:

I have been sharping knives free hand all my life. I have my own system, that works for me. I don't plan on changing anything I do but others may have trouble learning my technique. Thanks for showing a good way to do free hand sharpening. It's really a great method, once you find a way that suits you.

In MemoriamPermalink Reply by Robert Burris on April 14, 2014 at 11:58

I have never tried to teach people my method. My Grand father taught me to sharpen a knife free hand. It took me a while but once I mastered it  I can really put an edge on a knife. I use oil stones and water stones, sometimes a flat diamond steel. My oil stone is an India IB6. I use to have an IB8 but I can't find it. My water stone is a Japanese one, that's all I can say about it because all the writing is in Japanese. I use it to polish an already sharp knife.

Permalink Reply by Stephen L. Corley on April 14, 2014 at 16:31

Jack, the technique you're using is very similar to mine.

Permalink Reply by Jack Haskins, Jr. on April 20, 2014 at 20:53

Here is a video I made of the same technique but only in one video.  I had to convert the MP4 (2.8GB) video to a AVI video (228MB) then upload to youtube.  Anyway, here it is in a single video if anyone is interested.

https://m.youtube.com/?#/watch?v=Q7nvng0GHcI

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