North American Fruit Explorers mailing list at ibiblio

[Ginda Fisher <ginda@concentric.net>]

Very interesting.  What is your take on using oil or water on the stone?

pinewoodel@hotmail.com wrote:
> 
> --- In nafex@egroups.com, Tom Olenio <tolenio@s...> wrote:
> > Hello List,
> >
> > I have been looking for a good means to sharpen my garden
> > knives that is simple, and only uses simple resources.  I
> > found the following information and thought I would share it
> > with the list.
> >
> > If anyone has any comments on how to get a good knife edge,
> > suitable for grafting, I would love to hear them.
> > this is my 1st attempt at replying to a letter, my ignorance of the cyber 
> > buttons is vast.......im swamped with building a house before freezup, 
> > but your sharpening inquiry hit home so ill start a reply ......my other 
> > life is producing professional woodcarving knives,   mostly for 
> > instructors in scandinavian specialty woodcarving,  they have to be 
> > sharpened quite beyond hair shaving.    1st off mr juranitch is an 
> > expert, perhaps, in the meat cutting field, but nothing else,   keep this 
> > in mind reading his "bible".        i have only grafted a few hundred 
> > trees, so am no authority on grafting,  but what i have been learning is 
> > that its best to have one bevel  (for me, the one underneath the knife as 
> > i am drawing it towards me in a cleft whip graft)   absolutly dead flat, 
> > without so much as a microbevel on that side  ( this is the side that is 
> > the guide in the cut). the cross section oof  the other side is of course 
> > important, but not nearly so;   IT only can follow his advise to
> have a bevel with a course angle different from the sharpening angle.  this 
> is in principle sound advise.    a COMMON misunderstanding i find in 
> woodcarvers (grafting is woodcarving as well) is takig a sharp knife which 
> needs only a touch up- to one of these coarse carburundum stones and thuis 
> wasting 10 times the steel needed to actually sharpen it. if i knew how to 
> draw on this computeer it would help considerably   this is al the time my 
> 2 fingers have to type today...i guess a start would be... what grafting 
> knife do you have?  what sharpening stones etc do you have.?  next spring 
> ive thought of offering a couple of my modified carving knives hot rodded 
> for grafting to serious grafters for trial, more later
> > ======================
> >
> > Note: All the following were gleaned from the bible of knife
> > sharpening called "The Razor Edge Book of Sharpening" by
> > John Juranitch, published by Warner Books
> >
> > 1. The specific angle is not as important as keeping a
> > constant angle (angle of knife edge to sharpening stone).
> > The more acute the angle the sharper the knife, but the edge
> > will not last as long.
> >
> > 2. When using the rough grit stone use a shallower angle
> > than when using  the fine stone. That is, grind the
> > (usually) sorry factory edge to a shallow angle with the
> > rough grit stone and I want to stress here that there is no
> > special way to do this because you are just removing useless
> > stock from the blade. Just grind one side of the blade until
> > it is ground down enough.   What is enough? Well enough is
> > defined like this: Once you have ground the blade down
> > enough (maintaining the same angle all the while) to have
> > touched the cutting edge, start to test the edge on the
> > opposite side of the blade by running your finger nail at a
> > 90 degree angle to the opposite edge moving from the back of
> > the blade towards the edge. Why? Well you are trying to find
> > the curled edge (or burr) created by the grinding down of
> > the first edge. Once you have this curled lip along the edge
> > from tip to tang then turn the knife over and begin grinding
> > the other side until you have the same curled lip for that
> > side. Once you are done you should have a roughly ground
> > edge with a fairly shallow angle.
> >
> > 3. Now take your fine grit stone (at least 400 grit or
> > finer) and raise the angle of the blade you just ground down
> > by just a little more and using moderate pressure make a
> > single cutting stroke maintaining as much as possible the
> > same angle down the stone making sure to sharpen the whole
> > length of the edge on the stroke. Now after one single
> > stroke turn the knife over and repeat the same process. Do
> > all this slowly and deliberately. Repeat this about 6 times
> > and then begin to lighten the pressure on the blade as it
> > strokes the stone. At about the 10th or 12th repetition
> > about only the weight of the blade should be pressing on the
> > stone.
> >
> > 4. IMPORTANT! Do not use water or oil of any kind on any
> > stone to sharpen your knife. In fact if you have been using
> > some liquid on your stone, wipe it off as best you can or
> > get a new stone which has not been tainted with such a
> > substance. I know this goes against years and years of
> > trusted advise from friends, fathers, aunts, uncles,
> > grandfathers and etc.... Trust me on this one. Read the book
> > to find out why this is true.
> >
> > 5. After step 3 test the sharpness (carefully) by cutting a
> > sheet of paper or (even more carefully) trying to shave a
> > few hairs off your arm.  If you followed step 2 faithfully
> > you should have an almost razor sharp edge. If not then
> > re-read step 2 and do it again from the course stone.  Step
> > 2 is most important. Step 3 actually does the sharpening.
> >
> > 6. The more highly polished an edge the better it cuts.
> > "Teeth" does not a razor edge make.
> >
> > ================
> >
> > --
> > Thomas Olenio
> > Ontario, Canada
> > Hardiness Zone 6a
> 
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