Hand sharpening tips and techniques for even bevels?

[Hydrashok]

Hello everyone, after sharpening my Atlantic salt by hand I was able to get the knife sharp enough for my needs, but I am disappointed by the uneven secondary bevel, I tried putting sharpie on before sharpening and frequently checking and that helped some but I frequently do a pass or two at too low of an angle and end up with the “idiot mark” as I like to call it, on the right side of the blade, any tips or techniques to hold a more consistent angle? Picture of the bevel attached, please

[Michael Janich]

Dear Hydrashok:

Welcome to Spyderco Forum.

Freehand sharpening is a definite art form that requires practice to master. Don't get discouraged and keep at it. It's a skill worth the investment of time and effort.

Stay safe,

Mike

[WilliamMunny]

Try making or buys guide blocks. It helps you start your knife at the correct angle each time as it gives you a solid reference point. It should help your have a more consistent angle. It works well for me.

BTW the 25° and 30° are for my chisels.

[Wandering_About]

Practice, practice, practice. That's pretty much the story of freehand. You can use things like guides as aids, and it's okay to experiment with different positions of the stone, knife, and hands to fine one that is most stable. But in the end it takes time to develop the proper feel and muscle memory to make it work right. If you're getting the knife sharp you're off to a good start.

A 10x loupe is an excellent tool also. Check the edge frequently, whether you're just using your eyes or some magnification. Magnification really helps. Personally I'd rather have a 10x loupe than a sharpie.

[vivi]

It's all about practice. There's no real short cuts to getting consistent at it. Thousands of repetitions to develop the muscle memory.

Don't be discouraged, it's a great skill to have. I made plenty of knives look worse than yours when I started out, and now I can get good, even edges on all sorts of sizes and blade shapes.

These days I could never imagine having to rely on anything besides a stone and a good flat work surface to edge my knives. I have my touch-ups done before the average person has their sharpening setup situated. It's very fast once you get the hang of it.

Looks like you didn't fully apex the heel of the blade on the back side. Looks like maybe you were applying pressure unevenly. It's not solely about maintaining the correct angle...you also want to evenly apply pressure across the blade with your two hands, and make sure neither side is coming off the stone a bit.

[WilliamMunny]

It's all about practice. There's no real short cuts to getting consistent at it. Thousands of repetitions to develop the muscle memory.

Don't be discouraged, it's a great skill to have. I made plenty of knives look worse than yours when I started out, and now I can get good, even edges on all sorts of sizes and blade shapes.

These days I could never imagine having to rely on anything besides a stone and a good flat work surface to edge my knives. I have my touch-ups done before the average person has their sharpening setup situated. It's very fast once you get the hang of it.

Looks like you didn't fully apex the heel of the blade on the back side. Looks like maybe you were applying pressure unevenly. It's not solely about maintaining the correct angle...you also want to evenly apply pressure across the blade with your two hands, and make sure neither side is coming off the stone a bit.

Totally agree, it takes a lot of practice. The blocks I suggested are good for someone getting into hand sharpening, to get a feel for the angles and develop that muscle memory.

I find a fixed system is good to reprofile/fix an edge (I am thinking about picking up a KME personally for this). But a hand stone or Sharpmaker is better for maintaining that edge and much faster for quick weekly touch ups.

[Guts]

Yep, no substitute for practice when we're talking about freehand. I'll say that I find the wharncliffe and similar style edges to be a little trickier to freehand, at least for me. This is because you need to keep the entire edge even over the stone, whereas on a more traditional blade like the leaf shape, you're only sharpening a smaller section of the blade at a time due to the curve. On wharncliffes I find I tend to over or under sharpen towards the tip or the heel, or both lol. Hard getting that even pressure across the length of the blade, but most likely a technique issue on my part since I'm still getting comfortable with freehand myself. More practice needed on my part for sure.

[Mage7]

It's all about practice. There's no real short cuts to getting consistent at it. Thousands of repetitions to develop the muscle memory.

Don't be discouraged, it's a great skill to have. I made plenty of knives look worse than yours when I started out, and now I can get good, even edges on all sorts of sizes and blade shapes.

These days I could never imagine having to rely on anything besides a stone and a good flat work surface to edge my knives. I have my touch-ups done before the average person has their sharpening setup situated. It's very fast once you get the hang of it.

Looks like you didn't fully apex the heel of the blade on the back side. Looks like maybe you were applying pressure unevenly. It's not solely about maintaining the correct angle...you also want to evenly apply pressure across the blade with your two hands, and make sure neither side is coming off the stone a bit.

Totally agree, it takes a lot of practice. The blocks I suggested are good for someone getting into hand sharpening, to get a feel for the angles and develop that muscle memory.

I find a fixed system is good to reprofile/fix an edge (I am thinking about picking up a KME personally for this). But a hand stone or Sharpmaker is better for maintaining that edge and much faster for quick weekly touch ups.

I disagree with the notion that using something like an angle wedge should be seen akin to training wheels. Would you try to frame a house without a tape measure? I suppose it can be done, but why not just use the tools available to you? The answer to "can you" and "should you" comes into play here.

As far as tips to holding a steadier angle, pay attention to what parts of your body you're using to hold the angle and pressure, and which you're using to move the blade. Do what works best for you, but for example I like to use my hands and wrists to lock in the angle and pressure, and most of the actual movement comes from moving my torso back and forth and pivoting at the shoulders. I was taught this in a machine shop where we hand filed parts down to +/- .005" tolerances.

[vivi]

Angles being true on a house frame is waaaaaay more critical than a knife edge.

Angle blocks are good for getting a feel for what a particular angle feels like when holding your knife to your stone, but they can definitely slow things down.

I remove them on any stone I use that has them, like the work sharp 3 sided bench stone I got to try at work one time.

Any sort of guided system can also limit your angles. I've seen some that only go down to 15dps, some that only go down to 10dps, etc. What if you want a more acute edge than the system allows? Will you be able to ride your sharpening bike without the "training wheels?"

Use whatever works best for you, but there's pros and cons to every method.

For me that's free hand. It's fast and gives me great results. From reprofiling, smoothing out the bevel and getting things nice and even, applying a microbevel, doing touch-ups....100% free hand works best for me.

Downsides of my method is it requires much more practice than a guided system and has the potential to produce uneven and / or convexed edges if you don't put in the work to develop consistent strokes.

One upside is I can use whatever abrasives I want. I can wrap a sheet of sandpaper around a ruler and touch up a knife. I can rub diamond compound onto a leather shoe lace and touch up in the field with it. I can use a river rock. I can use a belt sander, or a sharpmaker rod held between my thumb and middle finger, or a cheap diamond stone, or an expensive japanese water stone, or any strop in any size or dimension I can find. I'm not limited by what fits into my edge pro.

[Mage7]

Angles being true on a house frame is waaaaaay more critical than a knife edge.

Angle blocks are good for getting a feel for what a particular angle feels like when holding your knife to your stone, but they can definitely slow things down.

I remove them on any stone I use that has them, like the work sharp 3 sided bench stone I got to try at work one time.

Any sort of guided system can also limit your angles. I've seen some that only go down to 15dps, some that only go down to 10dps, etc. What if you want a more acute edge than the system allows? Will you be able to ride your sharpening bike without the "training wheels?"

Use whatever works best for you, but there's pros and cons to every method.

For me that's free hand. It's fast and gives me great results. From reprofiling, smoothing out the bevel and getting things nice and even, applying a microbevel, doing touch-ups....100% free hand works best for me.

Downsides of my method is it requires much more practice than a guided system and has the potential to produce uneven and / or convexed edges if you don't put in the work to develop consistent strokes.

One upside is I can use whatever abrasives I want. I can wrap a sheet of sandpaper around a ruler and touch up a knife. I can rub diamond compound onto a leather shoe lace and touch up in the field with it. I can use a river rock. I can use a belt sander, or a sharpmaker rod held between my thumb and middle finger, or a cheap diamond stone, or an expensive japanese water stone, or any strop in any size or dimension I can find. I'm not limited by what fits into my edge pro.

Yeah, see I think of them less as training wheels, and more like a wheelie bar. It's not that I can't ride without it, just gives me a lot less to focus on.

I am pretty unorthodox with sharpening in general though. Whenever I do a touch up, I basically stare straight down whatever abrasive I want to use and just visually confirm the apex is in contact with the hone. I suppose they will leave me screwed when my vision goes bad though.

I just never really have been able to do the whole "muscle memory" thing. Or, at least not to any specific degree. So I like using the wedges to make sure I'm way closer to the ball park if the angle I'm intending on.

[Bemo]

I think it's important to periodically check your angles. I found my wrist would drift. I'd start out at a really nice 15 degree or sub and over time without feedback drifted higher. I also have played around greatly with pressure and have come to the idea that minimal to moderate is best. If nothing else, your hand will fatigue less and the angle will drift less. And lastly, if you don't get a good apex on the coarse stone, then all the polishing in the world won't help. There are way more knowledgeable sharpeners here than me. I look forward to reading and learning.

[vivi]

I think it's important to periodically check your angles. I found my wrist would drift. I'd start out at a really nice 15 degree or sub and over time without feedback drifted higher. I also have played around greatly with pressure and have come to the idea that minimal to moderate is best. If nothing else, your hand will fatigue less and the angle will drift less. And lastly, if you don't get a good apex on the coarse stone, then all the polishing in the world won't help. There are way more knowledgeable sharpeners here than me. I look forward to reading and learning.

I'll second everything you said. 100% spot on, especially when it comes to getting a clean apex off the coarse stones.

If you're not scrape shaving off 200-300 grit you're not getting a clean apex between grits.

It gets more important the higher grit you go, as finer stones give less feedback at the apex than coarse stones do.

If you miss your angle by 1-3 degrees on a 100 grit diamond stone it doesn't matter as much because you'll create a new apex anyways.

[Manifestgtr]

You’re doing better than you think you are. You got an edge worth using and you didn’t do anything silly (like those meme photos we’ve all seen from “professional sharpeners” at the mall). Hang in there and keep practicing.