Draw knife sharpening
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- This topic has 4 replies, 3 voices, and was last updated 8 years, 9 months ago by Ed.
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Ed, I just finished sharping mine with a variation on the plane/chisel sharping. Since mine has fixed handles and a straight blade, I clamped a flattened section of 2×4 to my work bench so that about 11″ over hung the side. I then attached the various grits of sandpaper to it as I worked from 80 down to 600 grit (it needed a lot of work). I worked across the width of the blade each set of passes just like planing a wide board. I need to go back and really do more work to fix left over artifacts from previous bad sharping and neglect, but I was still able to make it sharp enough to work if still ugly.
I’m imagining that what you did would be equivalent to clamping a 2×4 so that it projects from the bench by 8 inches or so, putting one of the diamond plates on it, and then grinding about 3 inches of the blade at a pass, using the projecting 2×4 to give clearance for the handles. Sounds like it would work, but I’m hoping there’s a simpler way.
I’m able to shove one handle into my right armpit and hold the other handle in my right hand so that the knife is projecting outwards from my chest at chest level, then I hold a stone in my left and and pass it back and forth along the length of the blade (I am left handed). This seems to work for the back of the drawknife, although you must take care with your fingers holding the stone! On my knife, the back of the blade seems to be hollow, so I just rest the stone flat on the back of the blade and the cutting edge and heel of the back of the blade grind off quickly.
I don’t see how to do some thing similar with the bevel. Since this is a shaping tool, it seems the bevel should be rounded, like one of Paul’s chisels.
What I’m doing may be dumb from a safety perspective. I cannot decide. The stone is big enough to keep my fingers away from the edge, but it is easy to loose focus.
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