Axe grinding for beginners (and kitchen knives too)
December 1, 2024 12:35 PM Subscribe
I recently got an inexpensive Fiskars hatchet and basic knives for spoon carving with green wood. I'm thinking of getting the Work Sharp Benchstone Knife Sharpener as a relatively inexpensive kit to get me started with the craft of sharpening my carving tools (as well as hopefully some kitchen knives).
This Work Sharp set-up seems to have generally really good reviews, but sharpening seems to be an area where folks have super strong feelings as far as tools and technique. My big concern with this kit is that it seems like the plates are pretty coarse (320 and 600 Grit Diamond and Fine Ceramic). Some of the carving axe videos I've seen use grits that are more like 1000, 1500, 2500.
Since I'm very much a beginner I'm looking for something that isn't too expensive or high maintenance or difficult to learn with. Ideally I would use this to sharpen up a hatchet (for wood carving - not splitting logs) and wood carving knives as well as my kitchen knives and even some garden tools.
Previous questions on kitchen knife sharpening and pull-through sharpeners.
This Work Sharp set-up seems to have generally really good reviews, but sharpening seems to be an area where folks have super strong feelings as far as tools and technique. My big concern with this kit is that it seems like the plates are pretty coarse (320 and 600 Grit Diamond and Fine Ceramic). Some of the carving axe videos I've seen use grits that are more like 1000, 1500, 2500.
Since I'm very much a beginner I'm looking for something that isn't too expensive or high maintenance or difficult to learn with. Ideally I would use this to sharpen up a hatchet (for wood carving - not splitting logs) and wood carving knives as well as my kitchen knives and even some garden tools.
Previous questions on kitchen knife sharpening and pull-through sharpeners.
I used to work in professional kitchens, these days I do a lot of fine woodworking.
I have a wide array of sharpening tools, from Tormek wheels and the various jigs, Japanese water stones (2,000 and 9,000 grit), diamond honing plates, and have tried various pull through kitchen knife sharpeners, sharpening guides, etc.
For my super sharp dovetail chisels, I have a five part process of resharpening finishing with a leather strop. This is excessive I know, but it's a pleasure I treat myself with doing. But it's certainly not cheap nor a beginner method.
My general wood chisels miss a few of these steps, but are still plenty sharp enough for their daily purposes.
My kitchen knives, after a few years of trials and adaptions: I just use a diamond steel (elliptical shape rod) that's pretty fine grit for quick resharpening by hand after every couple of uses. And then I have a similar ceramic rod I use immediately after the diamond rod, in what I see as the traditional chef / butcher sharpening methods: steel in one hand, blade in the other, sliding the blade towards the opposing hand in a slicing motion.
It took me years to work out that to get my edges as sharp as I felt they needed for the kitchen, I was looking to 'polish' the edge with a ceramic rod, just just 'sharpen' with a diamond rod. The old 'sharpening steel' for me really didn't get things sharp at all.
In terms of comparative cost, both of these new rods shouldn't be 'too' expensive. And should last you decades of use. And if it's always you doing the sharpening, you'll develop a muscle memory for the angles, so you're building on that same edge, rather than too much work each time.
My hand method is to initially sharpen at around 22 degrees and then slowly angle the blade against the rod to a slightly steeper angle as I work to finish off with the ceramic (much like adding a second bevel as people do with chisels). The whole process takes maybe 20 seconds.
This keeps me going (with my kitchen knives) for months before I might take it to the Tormek to rebuild a fresh edge. Or you could take yours to a professional local sharpening service.
For wood carving, you'll want a finer sharp edge than for splitting wood. So very regular sharpening way before it feels 'blunt' (every 5-10 minutes or so of carving) will keep your edge crisp and make your carving process easier. You should be able to do this with those same sharpening rods, just in a slightly different form.
Then you can take it to much finer grit stones (like Japanese water stones), to rebuild an edge when the quick 'by hand' method isn't getting it back.
But in general, as mentioned above, practice and technique (both shapening and carving), you'll work out what works best for you. And so long as you're 'teasing' an edge or a cut, rather than forcing, the process should be pretty quick and easy in both regards.
posted by many-things at 1:20 PM on December 1, 2024 [1 favorite]
I have a wide array of sharpening tools, from Tormek wheels and the various jigs, Japanese water stones (2,000 and 9,000 grit), diamond honing plates, and have tried various pull through kitchen knife sharpeners, sharpening guides, etc.
For my super sharp dovetail chisels, I have a five part process of resharpening finishing with a leather strop. This is excessive I know, but it's a pleasure I treat myself with doing. But it's certainly not cheap nor a beginner method.
My general wood chisels miss a few of these steps, but are still plenty sharp enough for their daily purposes.
My kitchen knives, after a few years of trials and adaptions: I just use a diamond steel (elliptical shape rod) that's pretty fine grit for quick resharpening by hand after every couple of uses. And then I have a similar ceramic rod I use immediately after the diamond rod, in what I see as the traditional chef / butcher sharpening methods: steel in one hand, blade in the other, sliding the blade towards the opposing hand in a slicing motion.
It took me years to work out that to get my edges as sharp as I felt they needed for the kitchen, I was looking to 'polish' the edge with a ceramic rod, just just 'sharpen' with a diamond rod. The old 'sharpening steel' for me really didn't get things sharp at all.
In terms of comparative cost, both of these new rods shouldn't be 'too' expensive. And should last you decades of use. And if it's always you doing the sharpening, you'll develop a muscle memory for the angles, so you're building on that same edge, rather than too much work each time.
My hand method is to initially sharpen at around 22 degrees and then slowly angle the blade against the rod to a slightly steeper angle as I work to finish off with the ceramic (much like adding a second bevel as people do with chisels). The whole process takes maybe 20 seconds.
This keeps me going (with my kitchen knives) for months before I might take it to the Tormek to rebuild a fresh edge. Or you could take yours to a professional local sharpening service.
For wood carving, you'll want a finer sharp edge than for splitting wood. So very regular sharpening way before it feels 'blunt' (every 5-10 minutes or so of carving) will keep your edge crisp and make your carving process easier. You should be able to do this with those same sharpening rods, just in a slightly different form.
Then you can take it to much finer grit stones (like Japanese water stones), to rebuild an edge when the quick 'by hand' method isn't getting it back.
But in general, as mentioned above, practice and technique (both shapening and carving), you'll work out what works best for you. And so long as you're 'teasing' an edge or a cut, rather than forcing, the process should be pretty quick and easy in both regards.
posted by many-things at 1:20 PM on December 1, 2024 [1 favorite]
That sharpener looks pretty small to me; I think it would be annoying to sharpen larger kitchen knives or a hatchet on such a small surface. These grits are fine for general purpose sharpening, but you'd only really need to the use the 320 if the edge was in bad shape (maybe for a hatchet, not for regular kitchen knife sharpening). 2500 grit on a hatchet seems a bit silly to me, especially a not particularly hard Fiskars hatchet.
I have a double-sided DMT diamond plate, which is totally fine and maybe a better option to give you some more space, but if I were to start again, I think I'd just buy whetstones. In any case, for something like a sharpener that you're going to use for hopefully many years, I'd opt for something simple and durable rather than a system with a lot of plastic parts and small plates that will eventually need to be replaced.
posted by ssg at 1:21 PM on December 1, 2024
I have a double-sided DMT diamond plate, which is totally fine and maybe a better option to give you some more space, but if I were to start again, I think I'd just buy whetstones. In any case, for something like a sharpener that you're going to use for hopefully many years, I'd opt for something simple and durable rather than a system with a lot of plastic parts and small plates that will eventually need to be replaced.
posted by ssg at 1:21 PM on December 1, 2024
The Work Sharp seems fine. You will be sharpening freehand with that device. An alternate, simpler, 4-sided device can be had from Harbor Freight for about $12. Or you could buy individual diamond plates in a wide variety of grits from ebay/aliexpress very inexpensively. They all work fine. Fine ceramic stones can sometimes be found very inexpensively there, too.
I much prefer diamond plates to any natural/manufactured stones. They cut faster and produce great results with less effort.
New diamond plates of any grit will often have a few high areas/proud grits that will get knocked down and even out after the first few uses.
The key to diamond plates is to let the diamonds do the work by using a fairly light touch. Don't press hard into the diamond coating. Doing so will wear them out prematurely by dislodging the diamond grit from the substrate.
Diamond plates can be used dry, or with water for a sharpening lubricant. Oil is unnecessarily messy, as the plates are not porous, unlike traditional sharpening stones. The lubricant helps keep the grit from loading up with bits of steel (swarf) during sharpening. Water works well enough for diamond plates. I prefer glycerine, as water runs off making a wet mess, and dries fairly quickly, necessitating more water. Glycerine is more goopy, doesn't run off, doesn't dry quickly and being water soluble, washes off, with the swarf easily.
Ceramic stones will definitely load up, even when lubricated with anything, and will need cleaning to keep working optimally. Scrubbing with Barkeeper's Friend scouring powder is best, but any scouring powder will probably suffice.
For simple sharpening of a blade that has no damage (such as chipping), the fine ceramic stone will usually suffice. To correct damage, the coarser plates/stones will me needed to grind away the damage, progressing to as fine as you desire.
Powered abrasives such as wheels, belts and hard buffs are certainly the quickest way to sharpen, and can get excellent results. However, they demand more skill, as they remove steel very quickly, can overheat the steel, ruining the temper and edge holding ability, and can be hazardous to the user. I would avoid the temptation to go that route.
There are guides to sharpening all over the internet and are generally good advice. Some methods are quite involved, but just remember that the basic goal isn't all that complicated, and it's easy to follow instructions to the point of, well, missing the point. Literally.
posted by 2N2222 at 3:12 PM on December 1, 2024 [1 favorite]
I much prefer diamond plates to any natural/manufactured stones. They cut faster and produce great results with less effort.
New diamond plates of any grit will often have a few high areas/proud grits that will get knocked down and even out after the first few uses.
The key to diamond plates is to let the diamonds do the work by using a fairly light touch. Don't press hard into the diamond coating. Doing so will wear them out prematurely by dislodging the diamond grit from the substrate.
Diamond plates can be used dry, or with water for a sharpening lubricant. Oil is unnecessarily messy, as the plates are not porous, unlike traditional sharpening stones. The lubricant helps keep the grit from loading up with bits of steel (swarf) during sharpening. Water works well enough for diamond plates. I prefer glycerine, as water runs off making a wet mess, and dries fairly quickly, necessitating more water. Glycerine is more goopy, doesn't run off, doesn't dry quickly and being water soluble, washes off, with the swarf easily.
Ceramic stones will definitely load up, even when lubricated with anything, and will need cleaning to keep working optimally. Scrubbing with Barkeeper's Friend scouring powder is best, but any scouring powder will probably suffice.
For simple sharpening of a blade that has no damage (such as chipping), the fine ceramic stone will usually suffice. To correct damage, the coarser plates/stones will me needed to grind away the damage, progressing to as fine as you desire.
Powered abrasives such as wheels, belts and hard buffs are certainly the quickest way to sharpen, and can get excellent results. However, they demand more skill, as they remove steel very quickly, can overheat the steel, ruining the temper and edge holding ability, and can be hazardous to the user. I would avoid the temptation to go that route.
There are guides to sharpening all over the internet and are generally good advice. Some methods are quite involved, but just remember that the basic goal isn't all that complicated, and it's easy to follow instructions to the point of, well, missing the point. Literally.
posted by 2N2222 at 3:12 PM on December 1, 2024 [1 favorite]
I like to use a good sized sharpening stone with a coarser side and a finer side, and the kitchen tap. It gets stored in the knife drawer, and it is so darned easy to just stick the stone and the knife under the kitchen tap and then carefully drag it over the stone, flip the knife over and do the other side.
I recommend you start like that, with your cheaper knives and with the hatchet. That way you can learn the technique, find out if you actually enjoy the process and if you actually have the motivation to keep doing it. If you do, you can try to get something more high tech or more fancy. I wouldn't start with any expensive tool or any powered grinder because until you learn how to hold the tool you can easily make them more blunt rather than sharpening them.
The stone I use is a lot like this one and could be purchased at any half decent ironmonger/hardware store. You could pick one up to try it out just for a couple of weeks.
As someone who likes working with my hands, I very much enjoy using hand tools, and sharpening them by hand. That's part of the joy of it, rather than having some noisy motor doing the work.
posted by Jane the Brown at 8:07 AM on December 2, 2024 [1 favorite]
I recommend you start like that, with your cheaper knives and with the hatchet. That way you can learn the technique, find out if you actually enjoy the process and if you actually have the motivation to keep doing it. If you do, you can try to get something more high tech or more fancy. I wouldn't start with any expensive tool or any powered grinder because until you learn how to hold the tool you can easily make them more blunt rather than sharpening them.
The stone I use is a lot like this one and could be purchased at any half decent ironmonger/hardware store. You could pick one up to try it out just for a couple of weeks.
As someone who likes working with my hands, I very much enjoy using hand tools, and sharpening them by hand. That's part of the joy of it, rather than having some noisy motor doing the work.
posted by Jane the Brown at 8:07 AM on December 2, 2024 [1 favorite]
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until you're not a beginner.
Yes there are lots of methods and opinions but I think this is true for any method except for those contraptions that pin the blade to your desired angle.
Which is all to say: this is a fine and good stone to practice sharpening your hatchet with. Working blades need to be sharp but not sharp enough to shave with. And if you make them that sharp, you'll chip them with use, unless you have a lot of expertise there too.
posted by SaltySalticid at 1:14 PM on December 1, 2024