How do you properly sharpen a knife?

Question

And what will I need to do it correctly?

It's a hunting knife.

I tried my arm, didn't work out TOO well.

Hey guys, don't question my motives!

Answer 1

Loki,

It is quite apparent than no one who has responded to this question knows a damned thing about sharpening knives.

I wish I could say that I'm an expert and give you great advise, but the truth is, I'm not very good at sharpening knives. But I can recognize rotten advise when I see it.

There are only two ways I can get a decent edge on a knife. The fast way is to use a knife sharpener from a respectable cutlery company, (NOT the honing steel that comes with many cutlery sets!) and I don't know how well that would work of a hunting knife.

The other way is to use a Lansky Sharpening System. It comes with five different grades of sharpening stones, a knife holder, and a jig to ensure the proper angle of blade to stone. This is a time consuming process, but it produces good results. I bought mine some years ago for about $25.00. I believe Smoky Mountain Knifeworks, Cabelas, and Bass Pro Shop all carry the Lansky Sharpening Systems if you can't find one locally.

I just wish I could sharpen a blade like my grandparents could. Big Daddy could practically take a piece of barstock and put an edge on it with nothing more than a broken piece of an old grind stone.

Doc

Answer 2

Hahahaha no question what your motives are hahaha.Anywho try using a knife sharpener I know it sounds rhetorical but ther are plenty of knife sharpening kits on the market.It also depends on what your uses are I used to manufacture razor blades and learned a lot about sharpening.Nowdays I use a kitchen knife sharpener got at walmart for $6.00.

Answer 3

Arkansas soft stone. Cut into stone at a 45 degree angle start with firm pressure and lighten up pressure as u go. Use equal strokes per side of blade. Honing stones and diamond stones work great for really dull knives but I dont reccomend them for touch-up sharpening. The stone or hone removes metal from the blade. The courser the stone or hone the quicker the knife wears out.

Doc Hudson You are definatly correct about not knowing how to sharpen a knife. People were sharpening knives before Lansky made its sharpener, lol.

Answer 4

Well you might want to buy a Knife-sharpener and read its manual to get the best of it. If not then you might want to use the primitive way sharpening the knife on stone. In the case of stone you should scratch the knife's edge inside out on the surface of the stone. For better result and getting the sharp edge add few drops of water during the process to keep the sharpened edge. Hope this is informative.

Answer 5

Because it's a hunting knife, and they're usually worth something I would NEVER recommend doing it yourself, have a professional do it.

Honing sets and/or tools can be bought. The most effective ones are honing stones with oil... NEVER WATER. The word Hone means sharpen, but you will rarely see anyone who knows anything call it a "Sharpening kit"... But like I said, No matter how you hear people tell you, you do not know how to do it properly unless you're a professional and have had some training.

Take it from a chef who needs sharp knives daily

The things you get with cutlery sets are NOT sharpeners.. those round things with ridges all over.. they do nothing for sharpness, they merely knock the edge back into alignment. I use them at the beginning and end of every day. And when I have free time durring the day too.

Answer 6

Get a sharpening stone, or one of those fancy knife sharpeners you can find in kitchen stores.

with the stone: place knife horizontal to the edge and scrape it against the stone AWAY from you. If you keep doing it to one spot, that one spot will be sharpened, so repeat to the other parts.

Now to lessen the work tilt the knife away from you, but more of the blade is covered by the stone's edge. Repeat, and rinse off after you're done

Answer 7

Knife sharpener, be it either leather strap, stone, or one that comes with a cutlery set.


All of the above though, it's simple, you grind the knife at a fine angle to sharpen the blade. Repeat on other side.

Begin with the tip of the knife at the top of the sharpener, and end with the base of the knife at the bottom of the sharpener keeping the angle same.

Answer 8

Whetstones and hones work quite well. You'll need to practice to refine your technique. But, the technique should be easily and quickly mastered.

DO NOT, under any circumstances use the "knife sharpeners" like the ones at Wal-mart. Those are notorious at rendering sharpened blades quite dull in seconds.

We generally like to keep our blades razor sharp.

Answer 9

you'll need a spyderco tri edge ceramic sharpener and thats it...no skill, not much time. I've taken chips out of SOG SEAL blades with that thing.
http://spyderco.com/catalog/details.php?product=77
its worth every penny, and easy to use. it presets the angles, all you do is push the blade down and draw it back, like cutting bread baby, YEAH!

Answer 10

It would be great if you had a bench grinder, but a honing stone will do just fine. Wet the stone with some water, hold the blad against the stone at about a 20 degree angle, and then stroke the blade against the stone as if you were trying to slice it. Do that about five times on each side.