Sharpening of knife and C. S. Osborne No. 245 leather belt punch

[ScottEnglish]

I only make very simple leather footwear with a few basic hand tools. But I hope nonetheless that this topic proves helpful to someone.

Sharpening of knife: I strop my knife on a strip of cereal-box cardboard with Autosol Metal Polish upon it. The strip of cardboard is hooked over, by two folds, a pane of glass. This strop doesn't compress as much as leather so the knife bevel doesn't curve as much near the cutting edge with repeated stropping. Give it a go! Tell me what you think. By the way, I can't take credit for using cardboard as a strop. Credit for that goes to members of the Woodcarving Illustrated forum. The Autosol Metal Polish? Morakniv use it. So it must be good stuff!

C. S. Osborne No. 245 leather belt punch: Take advantage of the round section of this punch by making a simple jig for sharpening it. Here's how I do it. I use a rectangular block about an inch and a half high. I place this alongside my sharpening stone. I then put the punch cutting-edge on the stone and rest the body of the punch upon the block. I eyeball the bevel on the stone and adjust the punch so that the bevel is flat to the stone. Then I note the point on the body of the punch where it touches the edge of the block and wrap a bit of masking tape around the punch at that point. I then align the edge of the masking tape with the edge of the block and again eyeball the bevel to ensure it's still flat to the stone. If the masking tape is correctly positioned I proceed to roll the punch along the stone and block ensuring the edge of the masking tape remains in alignment with the edge of the block. Left hand at the cutting end and right hand at the hammering end. This method of sharpening is very accurate. I finish the punch by using some wooden dowel with a smidge of Autosol Metal Polish upon it to remove the burr within the hole. Before putting the polish on the dowel knife (verb!) it roughly to shape to fit the hole. Then put the dowel in the hole and carefully twist it to and fro until the wood is shaped by the hole and cutting edge to conform to the exact shape of the hole. Then put a smidge of polish on the end of the dowel and remove that burr! Job done.

Scott

Edited February 27 by ScottEnglish

[ScottEnglish]

I've recently had success using brown packing paper, one side glossy and the other matt, instead of cereal-box cardboard for a strop. It compresses less than cereal-box cardboard so there is less curvature of the bevel near the cutting edge.