Sharpening your wood carving knives
When reading the favorite woodcarving magazines, we might think that we need expensive Japanese water stones, perfectly machined flat diamond plates, complicated motorized sharpening setups and patience of a zen master.
It isn't true!
I knew a man who carried his sharpening kit in an envelope! He would sit at his table at the beginning of the carving club meeting, pull out his cloth backed 600 grit wet sandpaper and a strop and sharpen as he listened to business end of meeting. By time carving part of the meeting started he had a razor sharp knife.
To get the best edge on a carving knife that'll be used to carve some of softer woods such as Basswood, Tupelo, and Butternut you'll use some cloth backed wet sand paper, a heavy piece of leather or gray tablet cardboard and some Aluminum oxide buffing compound. All totaled up, less that ten dollars worth of equipment.
Depending on how damaged your blade is, you will use a 400 grit wet sandpaper laid on a flat surface such as edge of the table or a smooth board. Place blade edge down and drag it across wet surface of the paper at an eleven degree angle. Right now we thinking an eleven degree angle? What does an eleven degree angle look like?
There are two ways to find this out. Take a post-it note, fold it corner to corner to give we a triangle. Take newly formed folded edge and fold it again to bottom. We now have a twenty two and a half degree triangle. Fold it again and now you have a Eleven and a quarter degree triangle. Close enough. The top edge of triangle represents your blade and bottom of the triangle represents your sharpening surface.
OR the simple way,
If your carving blade is three quarters of and inch in width or more, lay your blade flat on the sharpening surface and raise the spine of blade until you can fit the edge of a nickel under it. If it's less than three quarters of an inch, use a dime.
Now drag edge along wet sandpaper surface at your eleven degree angle until all nicks are gone and we have a smooth edge. Move on to a 600 grit wet sandpaper and do same thing on both sides.
Now we will load your cardboard or leather up with your white aluminum oxide to point that it'll not absorb any more compound. You may use some light oil to help this process to create a paste-like consistency. Wipe your blade clean of any sandpaper residue with a cloth. You don't want to get any grit on your strop.
Now, drag your knife edge along this strop at same 11 degree angle, and continue equally on both sides until we get a mirrored edge.
To test your edge to see if we still have any nicks, LIGHTLY and slowly, drag the edge of your knife across surface of your thumbnail. If we have any nicks, we will feel edge catch on your nail. If you feel any nicks, go back to sandpaper again, then strop.
Another test. Take your knife and carve across end grain of a piece of your favorite carving wood. After taking this slice, we should see a smooth shiny surface and the end grain clearly. If we see a white line in your slice, we have a nick in your edge. We need to go back and start process over.
When we are done with your sandpaper, wash it off with water and dish detergent. And your paper will last longer. Keep your strop clean. That nice surface we have created loves to attract sand and dirt.
Once we have the edge we like on your knife, all we should have to do is protect your edge when we aren't using your knife with some plastic tubing over your blade edge, and strop often, say every fifteen minutes or so.
The whole point of this article is that we do not need a lot of stones etc. to achieve perfect cutting edge. Enjoy your wood carving knives.
