How To Sharpen A Round Knife

[pabloz]

when I apply the compound (Porter cable polishing compound), have tried two different grits, They just seem to gum up on top of the leather, am using grain side.

Pablo,

I am not familiar with the Porter Cable product so I really cannot offer any good suggestions for it. The best polishing compound that I know of for hardened tool steels is the green chrome oxide, Cr2O3. Some are greasy and waxy others are dry and hard. I use the dry hard stuff and to get it to stick to the leather takes some hard rubbing to generate heat or use a blow dryer to heat up the leather then apply it. I don't know if you saw it but Art did a great tutorial on making a strop here on LW. If you haven't already seen it check it out.

Hope this helps.

HASTA,

PZ

[Grappo73]

well i'm here from 10 minutes and i want a round knife nice start in LW lol. Great video

[MRknives]

Great video and very helpful!  The only part I would disagree with after reading much research including Jurach's books on sharpening, would be to use a new stone and never use water or oil for lubrication.

Lubrication retains metal filings creating gouges in the edge of your blade slowly destroying your edge (picture something more like a serrated edge being created with lubrication containing microscopic metal filings)  I wrote a short blog article summary if interested @ http://www.mrknives.com/blog/2013/09/24/Knife-Sharpenning-Creating-a-Fine-Edge.aspx 

[zuludog]

This is a reply to PABLO 27; though from about 5 years ago, others might find it useful

The leather for a strop should be used flesh side up, ie glue the grain to the wood

I have used Veritas Honing Compound product code 05M08.01 with no problems. It adheres to the leather OK and sharpens well. It is green, presumably chromium oxide based

Recently I got some Schmidts Poldermedel, also green, but that was harder and didn't stick as well, so I made my own concoction based on it

I made a water bath from a small frying pan and an aluminium foil pie tray,and used that to melt & mix some of the Schmidts, to which I added about 5 to 10 % beeswax and jeweller's rouge. This sticks better, doesn't clog up, and still gives a very sharp edge

[TonyRV2]

On 9/30/2017 at 7:15 AM, zuludog said:

This is a reply to PABLO 27; though from about 5 years ago, others might find it useful

The leather for a strop should be used flesh side up, ie glue the grain to the wood

I have used Veritas Honing Compound product code 05M08.01 with no problems. It adheres to the leather OK and sharpens well. It is green, presumably chromium oxide based

Recently I got some Schmidts Poldermedel, also green, but that was harder and didn't stick as well, so I made my own concoction based on it

I made a water bath from a small frying pan and an aluminium foil pie tray,and used that to melt & mix some of the Schmidts, to which I added about 5 to 10 % beeswax and jeweller's rouge. This sticks better, doesn't clog up, and still gives a very sharp edge

In the for what its worth department, as a knifemaker (making sheaths got me into leatherwork) I own a couple 2X72" knife grinders.  Not only can you purchase abrasive belts for these grinders, but they may also be fitted with a 2X72" strop.  These strops are made to be put on the machine with the grain side out.  In the final analysis, I personally don't believe it makes a difference if you strop on the grain side or on the flesh side.  After all, after several stropping the flesh side is going to be burnished down anyways.  The whole idea behind stropping is to realign all the little micro-teeth that have formed on the cutting edge as well as to apply a polish to the edge.  Green jewelers rouge is my preferred stropping compound.