Sharpening a Japanese type skiving knife with DMT Whetstone

[Hardrada]

5 minutes ago, Spyros said:

A Jap skiving knife is pretty much the easiest thing to sharpen because it has this giant bevel that you can lay flat on the stone, no secondary bevels, no curves, no complexities.  But I can see you have removed a bit more material towards the middle/right somehow.   Are you sure this blade is flat?   Have you flattened it from the other side?

Actually, Japanese knives have a micro-bevel, which must be ground at ~20°.

But, yes, the back side of the knife must be totally flat.

[Spyros]

15 minutes ago, Hardrada said:

Actually, Japanese knives have a micro-bevel, which must be ground at ~20°.

But, yes, the back side of the knife must be totally flat.

Man, I was actually just looking at the photos again and I was wondering if that knife actually has a secondary bevel.  I have two of them and they don't, why on earth would anyone put a secondary bevel on a knife for leather?  Secondary bevels are typically used in *some* wood chisels and planes because the very tip doesn't have a hope of lasting very long against something as hard as wood.  But leather???  Maybe those table top splitters need one, at most, because they sometimes get dozens of belts put through them every day, directly vertical against the blade, and the sharpening wouldn't last very long without it.

If I had a skiving knife with a secondary bevel I'd just grind it away personally.  I don't see the point of having one other than making your life miserable when sharpening it.  You need a well-tuned jig, no way you can sharpen two separate bevels freehand.

Edited February 16, 2022 by Spyros

[BMH]

This knife does have a bevel and I noticed that I removed more material toward the right middle, it most likely occurred when I was trying to figure out the angle. The back side of the knife is indeed flat.
As far as the stone, DMT doesn't give a grit for their diamond stones, it's just a "fine" one and the finest one they have is their "extra fine" IIRC.

 

[Spyros]

Get a knife without a secondary bevel.   I'm sorry, this is honestly the best advice I can give you, hand to heart.  Secondary bevels are a pain in the butt and (IMHO) unnecessary in skiving knives.

[Hardrada]

16 minutes ago, BMH said:

As far as the stone, DMT doesn't give a grit for their diamond stones, it's just a "fine" one and the finest one they have is their "extra fine" IIRC.

Actually, they do: https://www.dmtsharp.com/sharpeners/bench-stones/diamond-whetstone-bench-stone/6-in-diamond-whetstonetm-sharpener-coarse-with-hardwood-box.html

Click on the "Grit Chart" image.

[BMH]

Thanks! That's good to know.

[zuludog]

I have two JLKs that I use for both cutting & skiving and a 'chisel type' skiving knife I made myself from a piece of 40mm hacksaw blade. None of them have a secondary bevel and they work well enough

Search YouTube for 'sharpening a japanese leather knife'. There are several videos, and they will all help to show how it's done. I don't think any of them make a secondary bevel. They usually have a long low angled single bevel and flatten the back 

 

[Samalan]

Grind it to one bevel in one direction and that's into the bevel until you feel a slight wire on the flat side turn it over holding the flat side down on the stone very light pressure move it side to side until the wire is gone then the most important part strop with a leather strop charged with white lot's of people say green bar but in my opinion white is best be very carful not to roll the tool up at the end of the stroke one stroke on the flat side with the tool completely flat on the strop the bevel should look like a mirror don't do to much stropping get it to the mirror and stop you should be able to strop at lest ten times before you need the stone again and at that point the stone should take jus a few passes then strop again white bar is aggressive so not to much stropping I have been sharpening my carving tools this way for thirty years with the best results I can sharpen any one of my chisels to a razors edge in less than sixty seconds sharpening should be fast and easy hope this helps this is all IMHO.

[TomE]

My experience with DMT sharpeners is they are more agressive than my Arkansas oil stones.  The DMT sharpeners in blue (medium) and red (fine) are a good substitute for coarser stones to shape a blade.  I'd use a finer grit to finish. 

[chuck123wapati]

15 hours ago, BMH said:

 

Yep I've done that. When going up and down in a straight line like this I am hitting the right spot, but it just dulls the edge.

that young man is using a fine grit stone for one thing, you are using a more aggressive grit and by the pictures you are cutting a new angle, i can see at least three angles so your not hitting the right spot,  not even touching the original edge yet. Take a black sharpie and cover you r edge then make a pass and you can see where you are removing metal. You will have to correct what you have created first so stick with you diamond stone until you get one nice flat angle. Once you get the angle repaired then go on to finer stones. then what ever you use to polish your edge, strops are ok but another learning curve i would suggest a vey fine sandpaper glued to a very flat surface like your pounding granite or even a piece of glass i use a 1000 grit then a 2000 grit. The reason i suggest the sandpaper is its the same process as you use with a stones so you don't have to learn another technique.  Sharpening isn't hard or rocket science , its about repeatability and practice you don't need an exact angle but you need one straight flat angle of about 15 degrees+ -

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