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What did you hone today? -Knife and tool edition

David

B&B’s Champion Corn Shucker
It was sharpening exactly that kind of folding mushroom / grafting knife that led me to playing around with rounding the edges of stones. This is a piece of YL type slate I made for it.

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I have a drawer full of goodies for wonky blades -every shape imaginable in hard arks, indias, and carbos.
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One of the advantages of getting into honing razors and knives is that eventually you realize that every cutting tool can be sharpened. Today I worked on a dog nail cutter using a circular soft Ark file and a Buck 134 Washita. I use the same file on my serrated bread knife as well as severely warped razors when required. I was happy with the results - my pug, not so much!
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One of the advantages of getting into honing razors and knives is that eventually you realize that every cutting tool can be sharpened. Today I worked on a dog nail cutter using a circular soft Ark file and a Buck 134 Washita. I use the same file on my serrated bread knife as well as severely warped razors when required. I was happy with the results - my pug, not so much!
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Respect M!
 
For recurve knives and tools Wet &Dry glued to wooden dowels and PVC pipe and couplings works a treat for custom hones. Rarely go more than 1k but for large carving gouges leather glued to the other end of the dowel or pipe and a dab of metal polish will keep you carving just fine.

I also hone box cutters and razorblades used for scraping. Sometimes it is quicker than changing blades.
 
For recurve knives and tools Wet &Dry glued to wooden dowels and PVC pipe and couplings works a treat for custom hones. Rarely go more than 1k but for large carving gouges leather glued to the other end of the dowel or pipe and a dab of metal polish will keep you carving just fine.

I also hone box cutters and razorblades used for scraping. Sometimes it is quicker than changing blades.


I actually did the dowel thing too for the original work on that grafting knife, before moving onto the shaped Yellow Lake. First time I'd used sandpaper for a curved blade in that way and worked very well. :)
 
Testing out this new Washita. It comes out of the Simple Green gleaming white but dries down to a patchy brown. It might need a few more cycles.

It seems to do the trick on the kitchen knives. I was expecting more swarf but the finished edge looks good. I’m not sure where the standard is for knives. I can slice glossy magazine paper and photocopy paper just fine but am no where close to cutting paper towel or shaving arm hair. My edges do slice through meat and vegetables with ease so I guess they’re good enough. Not much for parkour tricks though.

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Legion

Staff member
Testing out this new Washita. It comes out of the Simple Green gleaming white but dries down to a patchy brown. It might need a few more cycles.

It seems to do the trick on the kitchen knives. I was expecting more swarf but the finished edge looks good. I’m not sure where the standard is for knives. I can slice glossy magazine paper and photocopy paper just fine but am no where close to cutting paper towel or shaving arm hair. My edges do slice through meat and vegetables with ease so I guess they’re good enough. Not much for parkour tricks though.

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My Norton #1 (which I think yours might be as well) will cut paper, and shave arm hair, but not paper towel. But it is a nice toothy edge which is great in the kitchen, and I've been breaking myself of the habit of going to a finer hone afterwards, because the edge lasts longer off the washita.
 
Testing out this new Washita. It comes out of the Simple Green gleaming white but dries down to a patchy brown. It might need a few more cycles.

It seems to do the trick on the kitchen knives. I was expecting more swarf but the finished edge looks good. I’m not sure where the standard is for knives. I can slice glossy magazine paper and photocopy paper just fine but am no where close to cutting paper towel or shaving arm hair. My edges do slice through meat and vegetables with ease so I guess they’re good enough. Not much for parkour tricks though.

View attachment 1555748
This is exactly where I’m stuck with my Cerax 1k/3k. I can’t get it to arm shaving or paper towel sharpness. It’s a good working level but for some of them I want more. I have ordered a small BBW/Les Pyrenees that will arrive tomorrow to see if I can improve my edges without overpolishing them.
 
This is exactly where I’m stuck with my Cerax 1k/3k. I can’t get it to arm shaving or paper towel sharpness. It’s a good working level but for some of them I want more. I have ordered a small BBW/Les Pyrenees that will arrive tomorrow to see if I can improve my edges without overpolishing them.
I think that my issue lies in maintaining a perfectly consistent honing angle. This is pretty hard to do when you’re honing free hand. I can’t blame the equipment.
 
I think that my issue lies in maintaining a consistent honing angle. This is pretty hard to do when you’re honing free hand. I can’t blame the equipment.
I can’t see/feel any burrs, shiny spots or weird scratch marks on mine.

The only thing that I haven’t tried was @cotedupy advise to strop on some Yellow pages (those are kind of hard to come by nowadays) :)
 

Legion

Staff member
I think that my issue lies in maintaining a perfectly consistent honing angle. This is pretty hard to do when you’re honing free hand. I can’t blame the equipment.
That was always my problem as well. With practice I am getting better at it.
 

Legion

Staff member
I can’t see/feel any burrs, shiny spots or weird scratch marks on mine.

The only thing that I haven’t tried was @cotedupy advise to strop on some Yellow pages (those are kind of hard to come by nowadays) :)
To know if I have properly deburred, near the end I run the edge lightly through a cork, then do about ten light alternating strokes. If you look at a lot of the old wooden hone boxes, they have notches cut into the end grain where people have used the box to wipe off burrs.

For stropping I just made a leather bench strop, kangaroo leather (it could be cow) bonded to a flat wood surface. Newspaper, cardboard, the phone book will work, but it is handy having something you just keep in your honing stuff, so you are not hunting around.
 
To know if I have properly deburred, near the end I run the edge lightly through a cork, then do about ten light alternating strokes. If you look at a lot of the old wooden hone boxes, they have notches cut into the end grain where people have used the box to wipe off burrs.

For stropping I just made a leather bench strop, kangaroo leather (it could be cow) bonded to a flat wood surface. Newspaper, cardboard, the phone book will work, but it is handy having something you just keep in your honing stuff, so you are not hunting around.
A clean strop or loaded with some compound?
 
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