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The Razor Edge Book of Sharpening (1985) [pdf]

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Re: The Razor Edge Book of Sharpening (1985) [pdf]

#31

Post by oldpersonintx »

noman-land wrote: post #22
btbuildem wrote: post #7

Years ago, when I lived in Seattle, I remember meeting an old Japanese blacksmith. I found him when I was looking to buy some of the pull-style hand saws, but when I met him to pick up the wares, it turned into a bit of a social call. He must've been around 80 or so, lived by himself in a house that was half home half workshop. Got into talking about saws and chisels and blades and sharpening, complete with a Mr.Miya…

Any tips to hold the angle steady?

you can buy guides to hold blades at a set angle

do not believe other answer that says to just "practice" - you cannot hope to steady a blade with sub-millimeter precision, you must secure it...if you are off by a fraction of a mm you are resetting the edge

Re: The Razor Edge Book of Sharpening (1985) [pdf]

#32

Post by oldpersonintx »

brabarossa wrote: post #6
rlonstein wrote: post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Nice. I learned this "at the knee" from my grandfather and father. A few things in no particular order... This skill takes practice, the sharpening systems only help to get the angle consistent; you'll be happier if you learn to do it without one, practice on knives and especially scissors you don't care too much about first, you'll need a few stones and probably end up with several before you find the ones that work…

Or you can buy a jig like Spyderco Sharpmaker and have a razor-sharp edge in 5 minutes.

this is basically the 2023 answer

I don't care if you are a fifteenth generation swordmaker who practiced for sixty years...you cannot hold a blade in your hands steadily, at sub-mm precision, for more than one stroke

changing the angle even slightly is effectively starting over

but if you must go old school - BELGIAN COTICULE...all other sharpening stones are inferior, it is no contest imho

Re: The Razor Edge Book of Sharpening (1985) [pdf]

#33

Post by Detrytus »

oldpersonintx wrote: post #32
brabarossa wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Or you can buy a jig like Spyderco Sharpmaker and have a razor-sharp edge in 5 minutes.

this is basically the 2023 answer I don't care if you are a fifteenth generation swordmaker who practiced for sixty years...you cannot hold a blade in your hands steadily, at sub-mm precision, for more than one stroke changing the angle even slightly is effectively starting over but if you must go old school - BELGIAN COTICULE...all other sharpening stones are inferior, it is no contest imho

>> you cannot hold a blade in your hands steadily, at sub-mm precision, for more than one stroke

That's what the guiding rails are for... So far whetstones with guiding rails are the best sharpening method I found. As you can see from my other comment in this sub-thread, I find Spyderco lacking.

Re: The Razor Edge Book of Sharpening (1985) [pdf]

#34

Post by edrxty »

downut wrote: post #17

I have been sharpening my own knives and tools for 45 years, and have been doing it in the same way since I was in my teens and my dad and I read some article (in Popular Science, maybe?) which Just Worked. My dad was a bit more patient than I have ever been and his edges always shaved hairs, dry. My edges are still quite good though. Anyway Ima procrastinating today and saw this HN item and hesitated, oh no, have I…

I had this exact same dilemma on the thalys then I remembered they don't actually inspect anything because it's a fucking train. Here in the US is impossible to get six feet without your stuff being rifled through though.

Re: The Razor Edge Book of Sharpening (1985) [pdf]

#35

Post by ana_winters »

raybb wrote: post #14
baaaaaah wrote: post #9

I happen to own a paper copy of this book, and as usual for sharpening books, they throw in a chapter on axes as an afterthought. Sharpening an ax is different enough from most other sharpening that you should get a specialized text for it. It's not that difficult or terribly specialized, but knife sharpeners always seem to want to apply the ideas of knife sharpening to axes, which isn't quite right all the time. Two…

The Ax Book by Dudley Cook is also in the Internet Archive https://openlibrary.org/works/OL495023W/The_Ax_Book So is "One Moving Part" https://openlibrary.org/works/OL36779701W/One_moving_part

[dead]

Re: The Razor Edge Book of Sharpening (1985) [pdf]

#36

Post by KennyBlanken »

lcuff wrote: post #8

I bought this book years ago, and found the information interesting and useful. But it's also a shill for their products. Annoyingly, I found the home jig for knives and chisels extremely fiddly. You have to adjust 4 separate set screws (allen screws) to install the jig (mount it on a knife or chisel), and you have to do it twice: once for the coarse stone and one for the fine stone. I eventually switched to EdgePro…

[flagged]

Re: The Razor Edge Book of Sharpening (1985) [pdf]

#37

Post by blindriver »

I have a Japanese whetstone and I've been practicing sharpening my knives and watching Youtube videos and I'm still terrible. It's a source of frustration because I'll watching butcher TikTok videos and the way they can slice through meat makes me extremely envious.

Any good Youtube videos in particular that can help me with this, as well as maintaining the sharpness for a long time?

Re: The Razor Edge Book of Sharpening (1985) [pdf]

#38

Post by fuzztester »

btbuildem wrote: post #7

Years ago, when I lived in Seattle, I remember meeting an old Japanese blacksmith. I found him when I was looking to buy some of the pull-style hand saws, but when I met him to pick up the wares, it turned into a bit of a social call. He must've been around 80 or so, lived by himself in a house that was half home half workshop. Got into talking about saws and chisels and blades and sharpening, complete with a Mr.Miya…

Japanese saws were written about in one of the editions of the Whole Earth Catalog, which I had read back in the day. The WEC was on the front page of HN recently.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese_saw

Re: The Razor Edge Book of Sharpening (1985) [pdf]

#40

Post by c0pium »

oldpersonintx wrote: post #31
noman-land wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Any tips to hold the angle steady?

you can buy guides to hold blades at a set angle do not believe other answer that says to just "practice" - you cannot hope to steady a blade with sub-millimeter precision, you must secure it...if you are off by a fraction of a mm you are resetting the edge

This is nonsense. Every chef I know sharpens by hand and they get an insanely sharp edge.
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