How to sharpen a head knife

[Troy Burch]

Fred, I've been wanting an excuse to buy that, so I guess I will now. Will it sharpen a swivel knife blade or a skiver knife thats beveled on only one side? Is it the deluxe 5 stone system 49.99? Thanks Troy

[Claykan]

Fred, I've been wanting an excuse to buy that, so I guess I will now. Will it sharpen a swivel knife blade or a skiver knife thats beveled on only one side? Is it the deluxe 5 stone system 49.99? Thanks Troy

Hi Troy - In answer to your questions:

No, it will not sharpen a swivel knife blade. The blade is just too small to work with. The good news is, if you don't drop or otherwise damage your swivel knife blade, all it should need is stropping. If needed, there are special guides made just for swivel knife blades, which can be purchased through a leathercraft supplier.

Sharpening a knife with the blade beveled on just one side is no problem. But since the system is designed to work with knives that have the blade edge running along the long side of the blade, I think you'll have to use a bench stone for a skiver.

I just looked at Lansky's webpage and wow, they have really added to their products. A lot more to pick from now. The Deluxe 5 stone system for $49.99 is the one I have, but it may not be right for you.

If you're going to be using it to maintain blades that you buy new, the 3 stone system is all you need.

If, like me, you buy some used knives, then probably the 5 stone system is the way to go. I bought some great, 100 year old C.S. Osborne head and round knives off of ebay. Great steel, but over the years the blade edges were in terrible shape and it took all five stones to make them right. But brother, do they slice through the leather.

Lastly, if you plan to sharpen knives for others, or your work load is such that you'll be using the system weekly, then you might think about getting one of the higher grade systems.

Let me know if you have any other questions.

Fred

[Troy Burch]

Hey Fred, I bought a few things from Lansky's today, thanks for the advice.

[Claykan]

Hey Fred, I bought a few things from Lansky's today, thanks for the advice.

Good deal. Let me know if you have any questions. Especially when it comes to a head knife or round knife. You should only do half the blade at a time. I'll explain in detail if you plan to sharpen one of those. Really simple when you set it up correctly.

Fred

[simontuntelder]

I've become sufficient at sharpening and honing, but I'm still at a beginners level. I don't have that many problems keeping the knife in the same angle and I can quite easily get my knives sharp enough to go through 6mm veg tan.

However I'm using DMT diamond stones, which are fairly aggressive and when I go from the 1200-ish grit to honing on the strop, I find that I need something with a higher grit, as it's very hard removing some of the small scratches.

What would be a good grit number for the step after 1200 but before stropping?

And can you recommend a specific stone/brand etc.

Ps I know that DMT offers a 8000 grit and I would like to purchase that one, but it's very expensive in Europe.

[Colt W Knight]

I've become sufficient at sharpening and honing, but I'm still at a beginners level. I don't have that many problems keeping the knife in the same angle and I can quite easily get my knives sharp enough to go through 6mm veg tan.

However I'm using DMT diamond stones, which are fairly aggressive and when I go from the 1200-ish grit to honing on the strop, I find that I need something with a higher grit, as it's very hard removing some of the small scratches.

What would be a good grit number for the step after 1200 but before stropping?

And can you recommend a specific stone/brand etc.

Ps I know that DMT offers a 8000 grit and I would like to purchase that one, but it's very expensive in Europe.

I do all my sharpening on DMT DiaSharp Stones, but I have Extra coarse, coarse, fine, and extra fine. If you don't do much sharpening, you can buy some automotive wet sanding paper for polishing paint, and lay it on some plate glass or your tooling marble to save some money.

[Mudruck]

I do all my sharpening on DMT DiaSharp Stones, but I have Extra coarse, coarse, fine, and extra fine. If you don't do much sharpening, you can buy some automotive wet sanding paper for polishing paint, and lay it on some plate glass or your tooling marble to save some money.

This is what I have moved to when I sharpen. With 2000 and 3000 grit wet dry on my slab, I can get a nice sharp edge and do touch ups if I need to on a blade.

[Pablo27]

I had a lot of trouble getting my head knifes sharp until I bought a Video called "Use & Care of Hand Tools" by Andy Stasiak. It shows in detail how to sharpen ALL you leather knives and tools. It really helps me when I can actually see someone doing the chore. Don't remember where I bought it but you can google it and find it, The best $20 I ever spent. Just sayin.....

Paul

[hornm]

I've become sufficient at sharpening and honing, but I'm still at a beginners level. I don't have that many problems keeping the knife in the same angle and I can quite easily get my knives sharp enough to go through 6mm veg tan.

However I'm using DMT diamond stones, which are fairly aggressive and when I go from the 1200-ish grit to honing on the strop, I find that I need something with a higher grit, as it's very hard removing some of the small scratches.

What would be a good grit number for the step after 1200 but before stropping?

And can you recommend a specific stone/brand etc.

Ps I know that DMT offers a 8000 grit and I would like to purchase that one, but it's very expensive in Europe.

You could find another brand of diamond hone or just find a synthetic or nautral wetstone. If you go to the synthetic/natural then then go for something like a 4000/8000 combo.The only real advantage to the DMT is that they are fast cutting and won't dish out on you. but for most of the steels used any of the previously mentioned natural or synthetic will do the job. If you are working with the blades from Paul / Leather Wranglers then you'd want to lean more on the diamond stones.

After all that.. you'd still want to go to some sort of finisher though to put a silky smooth final polish at the edge..

I'll stop with that before my OCD tendencies kick in.

Horn

Edited August 13, 2014 by hornm

[rawcustom]

Diamonds are great for moving material fast, but I doubt you would really need one for maintaining a head knife. I prefer diamonds in the coarse grits, but switch to Spyderco synthetic stones for the final steps before a strop. Not sure availability of them in Europe, but I would think you have some choices of maybe different brands. The method mentioned above using sandpaper is a inexpensive and effective solution. Plus you may use it to find what grit you are really in search of, i.e., if 2000 grit is removing the scratches and making your edges more strop ready, then you don't need to overshoot the fine grit on your stone or diamond.