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I am reminded of a video vignette done by Charles Kuralt during the media hub bub over the wedding of the emperor of Japan. He had found a temple in the countryside that was completely torn down and rebuilt every twenty years. To be selected to work on the project was an honor and only the finest wood workers were chosen. The rookies were guided by the earlier veterans chosen twenty years before and they in turn were watched over the elder craftsmen for whom it was their third temple. They were hand planing a massive beam and the rookie made a pass with his block plane raising an even, tight, curl of wood as he moved. He was halted however, by his mentor who made a pass with his plane. His curl was lighter and rose off the plane in a thin delicate strip. The old craftsman then rose and slowly made a pass with his plan and the wood floated off the plan like the finest silk in a breeze. There are levels to all things and the more you learn the more there is to learn.
Apparently there is a knack to sharpening knives and most people feel they don't have it. There is a whole industry built up to sell shapening gadgets to those of us who are so otherlyabled. All you need to put a good edge on a knife are a few simple tools, a few guidelines and patience. I will give you my guidelines and the patience you will learn.
The ideal knife edge would be one that started with the longest angle and disappeared into infinity. One that would cleave an atom or quarter a quark. Legend has blades that will split a lotus blossom floating onto it down a gently flowing stream. In the real world, most of us would be happy to have a blade sharp enough to do the job and one we can put on ourselves with minimal tools.
I have read descriptions of how to sharpen and most begin with discussion of angles. There are devices designed to hold the correct angle and guide the blade. Scissors Sam recommends a knife edge angle of 60 degrees. I find this very confusing, I don't deal with angles and protractors during my day, but I do cut things. To find the right angle when sharpening, I pretend I am I am cutting a slice off the stone. I will naturally hold the blade at the proper angle. I know when it is too acute or too blunt just from the experience of using the knife. The second part is to maintain that angle over the whole edge and do it consistently each stoke on the stone. You should use water or cutting oil with the stones to keep them from loading.
If you have a really dull knife or there are knicks and chips that need to be removed, you will need to begin sharpening with a coarse stone. A coarse stone will remove the steel quickly and allow you to set the edge and get rid of the knicks. You can hold small stones in your hand, but it is a good way to get cut and just adds another variable to the process. The best way is to have the stone sit on a flat surface, secure so it won't slip or move around. A rubberize mat will work or you can buy one of a number of stone holders that work well. Some stones come in special boxes that are designed for this purpose.
The coarse stone will put a scratch pattern on the steel. After a few passes you can check the blade and see where it is touching and get an idea of how much steel you will have to remove to get to the edge. Don't be tempted to tip the knife to a sharper angle to speed up the job, this is where patience comes in. Keep checking the edge, especially as you get closer to it with the stone. If you can see the edge as a bright line looking down on it, it is still dull. When you have finally reached the edge with the stone a "wire" will appear. This is actually a thin piece of metal and it will feel like a burr on the side opposite the stone. Keep stoning until all the knicks are removed.
Next move to a medium stone or soft Arkansas. This is a finer grit and will take out the rough scratches left by the coarse stone. You should still maintain the wire though it will be smaller. Continue with the medium stone until all the coarse scratches are removed and the bevel is clean and flat to the edge.
The final stone is a hard black Arkansas. This will put a polished razor edge on the knife. It should only take a few licks on this stone to remove the wire. This step can be skipped if you like a toothy or agressive edge, but it really is the final step to getting a ultra sharp blade.
The last step is to strop the blade. Stropping is the old trick that barbers used to prolong the sharpness of their razors between sharpening. It works well with knives too. A sharp edge can be maintained in the field by periodically stropping it on your pant leg, wallet or even the palm of your hand. Stropping is usually done using a fine buffing compound on the canvas side of the strop and then polishing by giving it a few passes on the smooth leather side. If you have a small bench grinder there are leather and cardboard wheels with compounds for sale in the various wood working catalogs. These wheels should be used at slow speeds, turing away from the edge and done with great care. Any motorized sharpening system should be used with caution and care. You can draw the hardness out of a knife by getting the blade too hot by grinding. Too hot is when any color shows on the steel. Unless you are sharpening a lot of blades power tools are not necessary and not recommended. If you are going to buy a system, get one that uses water cooled grinding stones running at slow speeds.
There are many alternatives to the stones I just described. A popular sharpening stone with wood workers are the Japanese water stones. They come in a wide range of grits and cut differently from the Arkansas stones. They are much softer and take some getting use to, but put on an exceptional edge. There are also ceramic stones and they work about the same as the natural hard stones. I have even used frosted glass tube for putting on a quick edge.
Some of the modern steels are damnably hard and some are purposefully abrasion resistant, this doesn't make them better knives by the way, but it sure does make them harder to sharpen. For mean steels, I recommend going to a diamond impregnated stone. Diamond stones come in a variety of grits and will cut any metal quickly and efficiently. They are a good way to begin resetting the edge.
For a good selection of sharpening stones and equipment, I recommend getting theWoodcraft catalog 1-800-225-1153. They also have a web site at www.woodcraft.com to find the store nearest you.
I won't address the care and maintainance of stain resistant knives since I don't have much experience with them. I will talk about carbon steel and Damascus knives. Jim Schmidt, friend and wonderful knifemaker, has said that he wouldn't own anything that didn't age. Perhaps the single most worrisome drawback to using a carbon steel knife is that it might stain or rust. This concern, mostly unfounded, has driven the current market for stainless knives, placing stain resistance before toughness, sharpenability, and edge holding. In fact, carbon steel and Damascus knives are quite easy to maintain and require little more attention than you would give your gun.
Knowing that the blades are susceptible to rusting, it is important that the blades be wiped down with a good grade gun oil after each handling and use and occasionally while in storage. For long term storage, there are some excellent products that coat the steel and protect it under even the most extreme conditions. I favor a gun oil called Breakfree CLP, but have to admit that I have tried just about everything on the market. I recommend spray Pam cooking oil if the knife is expected to cut food, meat or vegetable. Another favorite protectant is paste wax. Mr. Pettibone of the Higgins Amoury in Worcester, MA used Renaissance Wax on the extensive armor collection in his charge. It may be obtained from woodworker's supply and is an excellect wax.
Staining and light rusting can be removed using a mild polishing paste such as Simichrome or Flitz. These may affect the finish on Damascus blades if they have a patina and you should consult with the maker before using. I have heard that Duraglit, a cotton wadding impregnated with polish, will work as well.
There is something to consider before you rush to remove every stain and blemish and it is best illustrated by a story that Jimmy Fikes tells. Jimmy had a customer come to his shop to have him refurbish a hunting knife that he had bought several years before. Jimmy was about to take the knife to the buffer when he asked the man how he got the stain near the tip. "Well, that came from a hunt in Colorado. We skinned an elk with it and it left that small stain." Jimmy looked the knife over again and found a knick on the back of the blade and asked about it. "I got that on a camping trip in Maine when I had to use the back of the knife to free a frozen jack after we got a flat. We were out in the middle of nowhere and it was a good thing I had the knife." They went on for a while and each mark Jimmy pointed out had a story behind it. When they had about covered all the "imperfections" in the knife, Jimmy turned to the man, "So I guess what you are telling me is that you want me to remove all of the personal history from this knife." The man reached out and took it back, he just hadn't thought about it in that way.
I will keep this page open and encourage you to write me with suggestions and or stories that might be helpful to others.
To be continued...