Tool Sharpening Basics

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He's even proved it repeatedly by having pairs of novices—his daughters, Boy Scouts, professional outdoor writers—use his guide to sharpen pocketknives and then by shaving his own face with those blades. OK, guided or not, work that one side of the blade until you can raise a burr along the whole edge. Keep working until you get that burr—let it be your teacher. Once you've got a full-length burr, turn the knife over and sharpen the other side by pulling the blade toward you. Your blade hand position will have to change here.

This time put your fingers behind the blade and let your thumb press down on the side (Fig. 17). Everything else is the same. Keep a constant blade angle (the same one you had on the other side), stroke the whole blade on the stone, and lift the handle some as you get to the tip so it will get sharpened too (Fig. 18). Work that side until you raise a full burr going the other way. Now switch to your fine stone for the finish work. Stroke once away from you (as you did at first) and once toward you. Alternate about a dozen strokes, forward and backward, on the stone. Don't press as hard on these strokes as you did on the rough-side ones. And you can keep lightening up so your last few strokes carry just the weight of the knife.

You're done—or are you? How can you tell if your knife is sharp? Well, you can run your thumb over (not down—ow!) the edge and feel if it tends to catch in your thumbprint grooves. You can hold a piece of paper by the corner and see if your knife will- cut (not tear) into it. And you can try to shave hair off the back of your arm with it. If it does all that, congratulations! You've done well. If not, repeat your steps on the fine stone. That'll probably do the trick. If it doesn't, you're most likely not holding the knife at a constant sharpening angle. Keep practicing—or get a sharpening guide. Once you've got a fine edge, you might want to put an extra finishing touch on it by stroking it down a steel or a pair of ceramic sticks. Most of these are set at an angle. All you have to do is hold your blade vertical and run it straight down the stick, drawing the full blade against it as you do.

Regular use of these last aids will help keep a good edge on a blade, but they will not fix a dull one. Put that kind back on the stone. Now you can sharpen all the knives in your home. Most of them will take that same slight angle you put on your first blade. If you're honing a butchering knife that's going to be going through bone, put a steep angle on it so the edge won't be likely to break. If you're keening a delicate-work fillet knife, give it a very slim taper.

Let's move on and sharpen a wood chisel or a plane . Another two-stage job, rough then fine. You can do the rough work with a coarse stone, a file or a grinding wheel (if you're real careful). Remember, the most important thing: This is a single-bevel blade so sharpen it only on the angled side or all is lost. Follow the original bevel unless you're going to be cutting into very hard wood—in which case, you'd want a steeper (tougher) angle. Hollen Orr clamps his chisel in a vise, so that the edge is horizontal, then runs his file down the face of it until he raises a burr (Fig. 19). Note: He uses a fine file for this operation, following the rule that the harder the object, the finer the file. (A fine file's tiny teeth can better reach into the fine pores of a hard object.) He smooths the burr off by rubbing the back side with a fine stone set flat (not at an angle), then touches up the cutting side a bit with the fine stone. When he's done, that chisel will pop the hairs off his arm. If you're not so confident about your own freehand sharpening, you could use Juranitch's knife sharpening guide (but not the Honemaster) on it and be sure you'll maintain a set angle.

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