By Jim Dickson | Contributing Editor
I started out as a blacksmith where I learned tool dressing.
That is when you take blunt pavement breakers, axes, picks, chisels, etc. and hammer them back into shape then sharpen and heat treat them. I began to specialize in custom knives in the 1960s, all of which had to be sharpened to a razor edge. In addition, I sharpened for any customers who wanted their knives done. Often I had to sharpen 200 knives at a time, all by hand with no power tools. You quickly learn all the tricks under these conditions and I am going to pass on those to you now.
Usually when I see an article on knife sharpening it is someone touching up an edge on an Arkansas stone. That’s not sharpening. That’s touching up an edge on a finishing stone.
There are many products sold to help you sharpen but most of them end up wasting time for a man in my position. I often had to deal with chipped blades, broken points, and edges so blunt that you could see flat spots where the edges were supposed to come together sharp. The tools that worked were Norton Abrasives India oilstones in 180 grit and 360 grit followed by a 99 cent ceramic rod sharpener from Kmart and a barber’s razor strop.
For honing oil, I use kerosene. It’s cheap and works best. Never substitute WD-40 as for some reason it makes the stone wear away really fast.
The India oilstones hold up in hard service far better than the more popular Crystolon oilstones. Before using I clean one side with rubbing alcohol to remove as much oil as I can from the stone then use JB Weld to epoxy it to the edge of a thick board tall enough to rest on the bottom of my bench vise when it is open. I can now put the assembly in my vise and clamp down hard on the board with out worrying about cracking my stone. Now I can put my weight and my shoulders behind the knife and bear down hard enough to really move metal fast at the beginning.
All the real sharpening is done on the 180 grit stone. Everything else is just polishing the blade edge. Drag the cutting edge away from the stone so you don’t cut into the whetrock. Bear down hard at first but ease up pressure as the edge is formed ending with a light pressure. Keep a constant 20-degree angle between the blade and stone. That is the real skill and key to success. If the edge is extremely dull you can move the blade in small circles initially. This is the fastest way to remove metal on the stone but it is not practical for putting a finished edge on so only use it when you have a lot of metal to remove fast. Then sharpen as normal before proceeding to the 360 grit stone.
As the stone is used there will be dark streaks of metal removed from the edge showing up on the surface of the stone. The stone’s surface should always have some kerosene puddled on it. I use an old penetrating oil can as it’s spout works perfectly for applying the kerosene. You will need to wipe these dark streaks off with a paper towel regularly or they will fill the pores of the rock and prevent it cutting into the steel properly. Reapply kerosene before going back to sharpening each time. You will be able to feel a burr on the side of blade that is not against the stone. That burr must go all the way up and down the edge before you go to the 360 grit stone and from there to the ceramic rod sharpener. Then you strop it on the canvas side of the razor strop to remove any traces of burrs that might mar the finish of the surface of the leather side of the razor strop. Maintain that finish by rubbing a little lanolin into the strop from time to time. Do not wildly slap the razor strop. Use gentle movements so you protect the finish on the strop.
If you have a chip in the edge or a damaged point you will never be able to get it out by normal sharpening moves. For a chipped edge use a concrete step or paving stone and using the section with the chip cut into the edge of the concrete with a sawing motion until you have ground out the chip leaving a concave area that has enough of a slope to take sharpening. Bear down on the blade and work it in small circles until you have set the bevels and then sharpen as you normally would.
For a chipped point, begin to sharpen just the last bit of the curve by cutting into the stone with a 180-degree arc staying concentrated on the point. The handle will end up at a rather high angle during part of this arc but you are still maintaining a 20-degree angle between the blade and the stone. This will restore the point fast where no amount of regular sharpening will affect it.
Obviously there is a lot of skill connected to success here. That means practice. To learn you need a cold chisel and a cheap kitchen knife. The cold chisel is important as you can see it’s big bevels whereas the bevels being ground in a knife blade are too small for close examination. With a cold chisel you can see the bevels being ground until they meet and then being polished by the finer grits as you go along. It is possible to get a cold chisel sharp enough to shave but this serves no purpose on this tool.
The cheap kitchen knife is important because a beginner is going to scratch up the sides of the blade until he masters controlling that vital 20-degree angle between blade and stone. You don’t want to mar an expensive custom knife while you are learning. Those 180 grit scratches are hard to get out.
While there are some very nice devices to help you maintain the proper angle between blade and stone with practice you should be able to get the same results without them.
As for the Arkansas stones, they are finishing stones, not something for really dull or damaged blades. They do a fine job too. Back when I started there were still some surgeons using the old permanent scalpels. You used the Arkansas stones on these and you had to finish on the Black hard Arkansas stone.
For touch ups in the field the ceramic rods as well as the diamond sharpeners work well. Just don’t wait until the knife gets really dull before touching up the edge. A butcher will commonly take a sharpening steel to his knife each and every time he picks it up to use it. The idea is to not let them ever get dull. His knives are generally medium carbon steel and not too hard for an easy touch up with a sharpening steel.
It’s easy to keep a knife sharp but it can be very hard to deal with a dull knife in the field. Knives that are Rockwell 60 on the C scale or harder are a real beast to deal with out in the woods. Rockwell 57-58 is a much more practical hardness. Trying to skin out as many deer as you can without sharpening is stupid. The experienced knife man is more interested in keeping it razor sharp than how long he can go without sharpening.
