Knife Sharpenrs
Posted: 15 Aug 2021 13:01
This is gonna be long, but if you like sharp knives, maybe worth it.
Maybe I put too much thought into it, dunno. But, I've been looking at knife sharpeners and I'm picking them to pieces, so decided to "invent" my own.
For a long time, decades, I used a modified Lansky sharpener. Modified because as they come the little lip that holds the blades is woefully inadequate. I put mine on the Bridgeport and milled off the old, milled in a new ledge. The Lansky has done sort of ok, and I've put razor edges on knives with it. I like the four angle approach, depending on the knife and its usage, but.... the Lansky has drawbacks.
First drawback is that whatever the angle is you choose, you need to place the holder in the _exact_ same position on the blade every time you sharpen. Moving the point of reference for the stone will change the angle. The other thing is for short, straight or convex blade edges, its fine. But if you get a longish blade, like a kitchen knife, or a nice Tanto the angle becomes smaller the further the edge is from the "reference" point of the Lansky guide. Can't be helped (its geometry), even for short blades, but for long blades its really noticeable and can be an issue. Second thing is that the Lansky stones come in cheap-o plastic and where the nice brass ferrule is (for the lock screw) the plastic always breaks. You can glue and reinforce 'em to death, and they still let go someplace else.
If you have a long blade, or a blade with a concave belly like a Kukri, then the Lansky just won't do.
I considered a belt grinder type of sharpener, and there are a few models to choose from, but while they address the long blade issue, they don't really address the concave blade issue.
Then there are V sticks. Any length or shape of blade will work if the sticks are round, not triangular or square), but V sticks take a lot more effort if you're profiling the edge. Plus, V sticks come at a "fixed" angle for the most part, or have two very close angles - one for the basic edge, slightly wider one to touch up that basic edge.
Well, I got a new Kukri, a beast of a camp knife, which I intend to use for everything from kindling making to root chopping. I thought and thought about a sharpener, and here's what I came up with -
A re-settable, variable angle, V-stick sharpener, with diamond, and alumina-ceramic rods.
Its a DIY thing for a few dollars of parts, plus the cost of the rods (which will add considerable expense over the DIY part if you go for high quality and long length rods).
A little wooden frame, three cabinet knobs, a few screws, some glue, a little piece of all thread, some nuts, bolts and washers, including one T-nut. The "hard" part is making the wedges in the angles you want to use to "set" the V angle. The more industrious can mark some points on the sharpener instead of using wedges.
If anyone is interested, I'll post some pics as things progress. Rods and knobs are inbound, so I should be able to get things all done by next weekend, good Lord willing.
If someone's got a better thought/plan/intent.... feel free to bonk my noggin', because this old thinkin organ has been out in the sun way way too long lately to really congeal around more than simple concepts.
Maybe I put too much thought into it, dunno. But, I've been looking at knife sharpeners and I'm picking them to pieces, so decided to "invent" my own.
For a long time, decades, I used a modified Lansky sharpener. Modified because as they come the little lip that holds the blades is woefully inadequate. I put mine on the Bridgeport and milled off the old, milled in a new ledge. The Lansky has done sort of ok, and I've put razor edges on knives with it. I like the four angle approach, depending on the knife and its usage, but.... the Lansky has drawbacks.
First drawback is that whatever the angle is you choose, you need to place the holder in the _exact_ same position on the blade every time you sharpen. Moving the point of reference for the stone will change the angle. The other thing is for short, straight or convex blade edges, its fine. But if you get a longish blade, like a kitchen knife, or a nice Tanto the angle becomes smaller the further the edge is from the "reference" point of the Lansky guide. Can't be helped (its geometry), even for short blades, but for long blades its really noticeable and can be an issue. Second thing is that the Lansky stones come in cheap-o plastic and where the nice brass ferrule is (for the lock screw) the plastic always breaks. You can glue and reinforce 'em to death, and they still let go someplace else.
If you have a long blade, or a blade with a concave belly like a Kukri, then the Lansky just won't do.
I considered a belt grinder type of sharpener, and there are a few models to choose from, but while they address the long blade issue, they don't really address the concave blade issue.
Then there are V sticks. Any length or shape of blade will work if the sticks are round, not triangular or square), but V sticks take a lot more effort if you're profiling the edge. Plus, V sticks come at a "fixed" angle for the most part, or have two very close angles - one for the basic edge, slightly wider one to touch up that basic edge.
Well, I got a new Kukri, a beast of a camp knife, which I intend to use for everything from kindling making to root chopping. I thought and thought about a sharpener, and here's what I came up with -
A re-settable, variable angle, V-stick sharpener, with diamond, and alumina-ceramic rods.
Its a DIY thing for a few dollars of parts, plus the cost of the rods (which will add considerable expense over the DIY part if you go for high quality and long length rods).
A little wooden frame, three cabinet knobs, a few screws, some glue, a little piece of all thread, some nuts, bolts and washers, including one T-nut. The "hard" part is making the wedges in the angles you want to use to "set" the V angle. The more industrious can mark some points on the sharpener instead of using wedges.
If anyone is interested, I'll post some pics as things progress. Rods and knobs are inbound, so I should be able to get things all done by next weekend, good Lord willing.
If someone's got a better thought/plan/intent.... feel free to bonk my noggin', because this old thinkin organ has been out in the sun way way too long lately to really congeal around more than simple concepts.