Recommend Some One To Sharpen A Head Knife

[rccolt45]

Hi guys I have a head knife I need sharpened and have given up hope of doing it myself. Can anyone suggest a good guy to sharpen it for me?

[WoodBoneAndStone]

A head knife is really quite easy to sharpen if you have a good whetstone, some jeweler's rouge and a leather strop. I actually enjoy sharpening both of mine. It almost puts me in a trance. I'm sure you can sharpen yours yourself.

I lay the right tip of the bade on the oiled whetstone almost flat and make small clockwise circles while slowly turning the blade toward the other tip of the blade. When I get to the left tip I reverse the small circles to counterclockwise while slowly turning the blade toward the right tip. Then I flip the head knife over and do the same on the other side. I follow this procedure a number of times.

The strop I use consists of a small board with canvass glued to one side and a piece of leather glued to the other side (available at Tandy). I rub jeweler's rouge on the canvass side and pull the blade across it, again laying almost flat, away from the cutting edge starting at the right tip of the blade while turning the blade toward the left tip as I pull it across the canvass. I do this a couple of times on both sides of the blade. Then I go through the same motions on the leather side of the strop. It doesn't need to be a speedy motion on the strop. Just use a little pressure and it will give your knife a razor edge.

I hope I explained that clearly enough. You can do it!

[TwinOaks]

http://leatherworker.net/sharpenheadknife.htm

[Nikole]

There is a video on youtube

[TwoMikes]

This video from leather wranglers helped me alot:

The diamond hones are the secret, especially the 8000 grit one.

Edited February 17, 2013 by TwoMikes

[WoodBoneAndStone]

Although this isn't exactly the way I go about sharpening a head knife it is a good method. I saw one video by someone else that made me cringe. I would freak out if he was doing that to my knife!

[Randy Cornelius]

PM me, would be glad to do it for you, done it for a couple others on here.

[Chef niloc]

I consider myself a very proficient sharpener both by hand and mechanically (belt grinders ext.). Haveing sad that

certain knives still intimidate me or give trouble. Very expensive knives (For obvious reasons), Knives that have been miss-sharpened repeatedly therefore have uneven grinde to them that must be corrected, and the subject on hand round knives. I have gotten comfortable sharpening my own round knives, but I still send off my expensive or damaged ones. The man I send them to is Dave at japanease knife sharpaning ( don't let the name fool you he's the best at any thing that has a edge)

http://www.japaneseknifesharpening.com/

If you decide to use him you can tell him Colin referred you so that he knowers the type of edge and preformance you'd be looking for.

IMHO hand sharpaning is a skill that takes years (and Desire) to become proficient at, I have seen many of the videos and online tutorials and most of them make me cringe. The best advice I can give you if you choose to hand sharpen your own is to use a permanent black marker. Mark the whole cutting edge of the of the knife with the marker. When your sharpening you should notice the middle of the black marker line abrading away first. As sharpen that "scratch abrasion" marks should widen evenly in both directions. Most important is that you continue to do this until you feel a bur form on the edge, most common mistake people make is not establishing that bur from the start.

Another note is that this type of "bench sharpening" on flat stones produces just that, a flat edge. I find that a convex edge is best suited for a round knife. This edge is created using a slack belt (belt sander), Once established this edge is easier to maintain using a strop then one created using a flat bench stone. Hey strop can "roll the edge" on a flat or (God for bid) hollowed ground edge, While the "give" of the strop surface naturally conforms to the convex edge. convex edge stayes sharp a lot longer to.

Edited February 17, 2013 by Chef niloc

[WoodBoneAndStone]

While I'm quite comfortable sharpening my head knives I would like to know how to best sharpen my Al Stohlman Brand Trim Knife. I once ran across some cylindrical whet stones once and regret not buying them. It seems like something like that would be useful for sharpening a curved blade like this. Please advise.

[rccolt45]

Thanks for the links guys. I have tried and tried and never get the edge sharp enough to cut 7-8 oz leather. So I need professional help. Colin thank you for the link. I just emailed him and hope he gets back to me.

[billymac814]

I use the slack belt method on that same knife, its the only way I've found to sharpen knives like that effectively. I tried a round stone and while it worked it wasn't great. I even spent 800 bucks on a tormek to find out it didn't really work for most of my knives. The slack belt set up costs about 70 bucks or so and has been a great investment. Bruce Johnson provide me with a link and some advice and its very simple to get great edges. Do a YouTube search of Harbor freight belt sander knife sharpening and you'll find a bunch of how tos.

While I'm quite comfortable sharpening my head knives I would like to know how to best sharpen my Al Stohlman Brand Trim Knife. I once ran across some cylindrical whet stones once and regret not buying them. It seems like something like that would be useful for sharpening a curved blade like this. Please advise.

[WoodBoneAndStone]

Thanks! I'll have to look into getting a belt sander. That would be useful for a lot of things.