Five pound sharpening kit

[Bunnerz]

I am after a first time sharpening set, but not willing to pay too much as I dont want to make a mess of things! what goes into making this kinda set? I mean just a simple list of ingredients!

Cheers, Bunn

[British Red]

Bunnerz,

Three flat bits of "stuff" (wood, tiles whatever)

3 grades of wet and dry (240, 400, 600 grit)

tape or glue

Thats it mate (see first post)

Red

[Bunnerz]

Genious. Im gunnu have to give that a try! does it ruin the belt? haha I only have one leather one and I wear it alot! Guess I can just get a cheap one.

Cheers, Bunn

[British Red]

Cheap old belt or hand bag from the charity shop mate - not more than a quid

[Clavius]

amazing, thanks a lot for the tips guys!

[rubhadubh]

Hi, the photos have dropped off your first post, Red. Is there any chance of re-instating them?

Also, could someone post the product codes for recommended grades of paper at the abrasivesplus.com website? I'm looking and not seeing - cheers.

[British Red]

I'll check if I still have them mate - they should be around somewhere

[bushyboo]

Excellent thead Red
Got myself some wet and dry today going to put it on boards tomorrow and give it a try.
Been using a bladetec and leather strop which was giving me a good edge on my mora ,enough to shave hair from my arm but i know it could be sharper hopefully this should do the the trick

[British Red]

I've dug out the old images and will re-host the early ones soon guys promise !

Between doing new pictures on axe sharpening for heath, the F1 auction and Bucksaw thread, being mad busy at work and so on its all a bit mad right now!

Red

[FGYT]

well apart from getting confused on which grind to put on a knife im making and thinking of following OldJimbos (from his web) advice on sharpening my large Kukri (if i do actually have a chance of achiving that )

do any here use a fixed polishing mop for final finishing they resharpen stanly blades a treat

Obviously not under £5 and not portable into the bush

anybody put a convex on a woodlore

how about a Scandi-Convex

[British Red]

All pictures now re-hosted on original post

Post #51 describes how to do a scandi convex (yuk)

Red

[bushyboo]

cheers red
ive got my boards and ready to sharpen

[British Red]

Make sure you tell us how you get on mate!

[bushyboo]

Hi
sharpened my mora and it is sharp
problem is my brother saw it and now i have to do his lol

bye the way instead of using rubber on the back i used blue tack worked a treat

[British Red]

Oh good call - that would work better!

It really is surprisingly effective huh?

Red

[FGYT]

All pictures now re-hosted on original post

Post #51 describes how to do a scandi convex (yuk)

Red

Im makeing a woodlore to see what its like ( cant afford to waste £200-£400 or months on a waiting list ) and never had a Scandi grind either before so i will stick to the original design which is only fair (4mm thick jeez )

ATB

Duncan

[Dances with Wolves]

All of this is brilliant, I bought a survival knife from Springfields in Burton for around £12-£15 i think, (although i might invest in a nice Frost Mara knife if they are only around £10). But I was sharpening my survival knife all wrong, this has been really informative, I have managed to borrow my dad's diamond edged knife sharpening and honing set, with 3 pieces which look like this:

I was sharpening for about half an hour and it just didn't feel like it was getting any sharper, so I'm gonna try again on saturday using the proper technique basically I was pulling not pushing, so I would have been creating the burr on the knife edge.

Wolves.

[Hoodoo]

Making your tools
Note.
Never pull the knife towards you. In honing a knife, you are pulling the metal around. If you pull the knife, you built a soft burr or wire in front of the cutting edge. Magnified, it would look like this:
Red

Hmmm, I do it exactly the opposite. In fact, I count on the burr forming because it lets me know when I've taken one side all the way down to the edge. As you move up to finer and finer grits, the burr becomes so thin it's easily remove by super fine grit and/or stropping.

Also, trying to move the edge forward when convexing on a mousepad backed sharpener doesn't work very well.

[British Red]

Each to their own mate....convexing is diferent of course!

[addyb]

When I use the five pound sharpening kit (that's almost 12 bucks Canadian by the way) I also pull and not push. If I can't feel the wire edge, it's difficult to tell how sharp the blade is.

But as you said Red, to each their own.

Adam

[Blacklamp]

POO i tried it on my knife and it worked all the way up until the blade was sooooo shiny i made myself cry in joy....but it wasn't razor sharp! me thinks its my technique i think i'm getting a slightly convex ground by accident....need to work on it more....any suggestions??

[British Red]

What grind is your knife Blacklamp? Scandy or flat?

Red

[Blacklamp]

scandy, got the blade off woodlore.

[British Red]

Hmmm
The only thing that would make that convex would be lifting the spine a fraction when pushing. I tend to do that (in fact I let myself when sharpening a convex blade like an axe etc.). I tend to push the bevel flat with my non-knife hand nd spread my fingers over the top to hold the bevel flat to the board. This avoids convexing or secondary bevels

Red

[Blacklamp]

i'll give that ago! i think i am lifting at the end of the stroke because i can kind of see it in the blade, the scatch marks seem a little inconsistant especially moving up a grit grade.....i'll try again tomorrow! is there any benefit to having a flat grind? or a scandy grind for that matter?

[British Red]

I prefer a scandy for bushcraft but I mainly slice and push cut - thin full flats make great butchery knives, convex are the best impact cutters (axes, knives for batoning etc.), hollow grinds are fantastically sharp but fragile....guess it depends on purpose!

Red

[reddeath]

This is a fantastic thread and a real eye opener guys, ive neer been able to sharpen a knife well and have experimented with all the traditional tools ( stones, ceramic rods etc)
basically ran out of patience and wasnt grown up enough to gain satisfaction from it!
BUT all these are cheap - and as the mrs says thats my middle name so im gonna have a go now - my clipper will be arriving shortly but i think ill start on my folder
From a complete novice at sharpening ill let you know how i get on

[veldini]

Instead of carrying around a whole belt for stropping I have cut the belt into 18 inch lengths and clued it to a piece of wood (same width as the belt)
It makes it easy to strop even if you can't find something to attach the end of the belt to.

The most readily available abrasive paste is toothpaste. It works on just about everyting, even getting minor scratches of the car.

[benp1]

this is a superb thread. on convex blades do you pull or push, as in swipe it back first or blade first?

i'm just thinking that swiping blade first might cut into the paper

[British Red]

benp1 - for convex put something soft under the paper (like the leather in Hoodoos picture or a piece of mouse mat). I've known people do both. I push but many pull - either works! You aren't talking about a large "veuve" - it should be subtle but there.

Red