45
General Sharpening Procedures
Using Stones
Stones are not quite as fast as a belt sander, but they
are kinder to fi ne knives. Unless a knife needs major
reshaping, a water stone in the 800x to 1200x range is
fi ne. Such a stone will remove metal at a good rate and
still leave just a nice amount of tooth in the edge.
I fi nd the wooden-based water stones particularly suitable
for knife sharpening. There is a 1000x stone in a
1
/
2
in. ×
2
1
/
2
-in. × 7-in. size that is just right. It is easy to hold safely,
is inexpensive and handles the full range of kitchen knives.
Marking Knives
Used to scribe cut lines on stock, marking (or striking)
knives are generally superior to pencils because they
mark a narrower line and sever fi bers at the same time,
preventing splintering during the cutting process.
There are two basic types of marking knife: those beveled
on both sides of the blade and those beveled on one side
only (see the photo below). The latter is the easiest to
use with accuracy. Available as skews (not shown) or
with V-points, the V-point style is the most versatile. It
can be used left- or right-handed, and for striking a line
away from you as well as toward you. The angle of the V
should be about 120°, and the bevel angle about 25°.
Either style can be sharpened freehand on a stone (800x
to 1200x). Some users prefer to adjust the skew angle
so that the entire cutting edge is normally below the top
of the try-square blade; others purposely dull a portion
of the blade after honing so that it will not grate along
the side of the try-square blade. For anyone using the
brass try squares currently on the market, I strongly
recommend the second technique to avoid accidentally
dimensioning your try square.
Drawknives
New drawknives usually require a fairly substantial
amount of work to make them usable. As they come
from the factory, drawknives usually have a bevel angle
of 25° or 30°, which is far steeper than necessary and
should be reduced to 20° as a fi rst step in the sharpening
process. Depending upon what you are going to do to
the knife later, you may even want to start with a bevel
angle as low as 15°.
Drawknives are designed to be used bevel up, but if the
face of the knife is perfectly fl at, only straight cuts can
be made this way. Since a drawknife is more frequently
used for general shaping than for straight cuts, it is
often used bevel down so that you can not only cut into
the wood but also change direction and cut out as well.
There is an alternative to this. If you put a 15° basic bevel
on a drawknife and dub from 2° to 5° off the face of the
knife, you will fi nd that it is much more maneuverable.
Only for a very sharp arc would it be necessary to turn
the drawknife over and use it bevel down. Even then,
you would have to round the primary bevel somewhat
or you would still have diffi culty making the cut.
So the basic bevel angle that you put on a drawknife is
going to depend on the way you later intend to use it. If
you bought it solely to remove bark from logs, you might
want to hone it at whatever angle it had when you got it.
The standard drawknife can readily be sharpened on a
belt sander or with a hand-held stone. I prefer to hone a
drawknife by clamping the knife in position on the edge
of a bench and then going to work on it with a water
stone, stroking the edge at the angle I want. When using
an 800x to 1200x stone, I would stroke into the edge,
just as you might do with a fi le. When honing with a
4000x or 8000x stone, I stroke from the back of the
knife to the front, because it is too easy to misjudge the
angle and put a gouge in the stone.
Carver’s Drawknife
A modifi cation of the standard drawknife, carver’s
drawknives usually have much shorter blades and often
have the handles cocked at 45°, which gives them excellent
control and makes them very comfortable to use. Also,
unlike standard drawknives, these knives usually come
with a lower bevel angle. Since they are used almost
exclusively in woods with excellent consistency (i.e.,
woods that are knot-free), they can be sharpened at a
15° bevel angle and hold their edge well. Again, you
may wish to put a couple of degrees of back bevel on the
blade. Often you will fi nd that just holding a drawknife in
position and stropping the edge on the unbeveled side will
give you just about the right amount of back bevel. This
is all a matter of personal taste, and you should adjust the
process to what works best for you.
There are dozens of knife types that have not been
covered in this chapter, but all can be sharpened with
one or more of the methods outlined. Shape the blade for
the action you want and the edge strength you need.
Two styles of marking knife: the top knife is beveled on one
side of the blade only, the bottom knife is beveled on both
sides and has an integral scratch awl.
Summary of Contents for Mk.II
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