Sharpening - Ruined my Swiss Army Knife

Thank you all for bearing with my newbie question and for offering me your kind advice.

This particular Swiss Army knife has been with me since I was a young man and so it has some sentimental value, hence my fear that I had ruined it. Thankfully you've educated me.

Well after reading all the great replies the first thing I did was throw the little sharpening gadget in the trash. :)

I shall now pore through the forum and archives to educate myself on how to learn to sharpen a knife the correct way. There seems to be alot of love for Lansky, so I will pursue that avenue, but I wonder how one figures out the sharpening angle required for each knife? (I assume each grind has a different preferred sharpening angle).

I've always wanted to learn how to sharpen my knives using a wetstone (like they used to do in all those old spaghetti westerns I grew up watching). But I think that is beyond my current newbie capability.

Anyways time educate myself on how to sharpen my blades ..... I was going to check out some youtube vids but being unsure which ones are doing it correctly I figure I'll stick to the forum archives.

Last question: given what you can see of my blade, with the Lansky, would I start out with the coarse or the medium?
 
I use a Sharpmaker, and it's a piece of cake resharpening a SAK. As was already mentioned, you do NOT need to use much pressure at all. When using the Sharpmaker, don't run the tips off of the rods. Sometimes this can round the blade tips. If you're using the flat angle, end your stroke before the tip goes off the rod.

Jim
 
It's fairly easy to learn how to sharpen with a whetstone, and it's very relaxing. It's my preferred sharpening method, and it's the easiest (for me). There are a lot of good videos to check out on the internet as well. If you do want to learn how to use them, I suggest to start out with a 400/800 and a 2k grit water/oil stone. The oil provides really good feedback, because if you have the angle right, there is a thin wave of oil that will lead the part of the blade that is in contact. It's also pretty difficult to mess up an edge with one. GL
 
nealf5 said:
Thank you all for bearing with my newbie question and for offering me your kind advice.

This particular Swiss Army knife has been with me since I was a young man and so it has some sentimental value, hence my fear that I had ruined it. Thankfully you've educated me.
I shall now pore through the forum and archives to educate myself on how to learn to sharpen a knife the correct way. There seems to be alot of love for Lansky, so I will pursue that avenue, but I wonder how one figures out the sharpening angle required for each knife? (I assume each grind has a different preferred sharpening angle).

I've always wanted to learn how to sharpen my knives using a wetstone (like they used to do in all those old spaghetti westerns I grew up watching). But I think that is beyond my current newbie capability.

Anyways time educate myself on how to sharpen my blades ..... I was going to check out some youtube vids but being unsure which ones are doing it correctly I figure I'll stick to the forum archives.
Click to expand...

It's not hard to learn how to freehand, it just takes time and patience. Honestly whatever system you choose will have transferable skills if you ever try another method. The principle is always the same, consistency.
Keep reading the forums, watch videos, and combine what works for you. Many people get professional results with sandpaper, your patience is most important.
 
Thanks all, The Lansky Professional seems quite good and it has a gizmo to sharpen serrated edges too which would be handy for the kitchen. I think I will spring for that.

The whetstone is my grail, but it'll take me a while to get there, in the meantime any recommended videos I should watch? Theres so much otu there its hard for me to figure out who's doing it right and who is plain wrong. I'd rather start off right.
 
nealf5 said:
Thank you all for bearing with my newbie question and for offering me your kind advice.

This particular Swiss Army knife has been with me since I was a young man and so it has some sentimental value, hence my fear that I had ruined it. Thankfully you've educated me.

Well after reading all the great replies the first thing I did was throw the little sharpening gadget in the trash. :)

I shall now pore through the forum and archives to educate myself on how to learn to sharpen a knife the correct way. There seems to be alot of love for Lansky, so I will pursue that avenue, but I wonder how one figures out the sharpening angle required for each knife? (I assume each grind has a different preferred sharpening angle).

I've always wanted to learn how to sharpen my knives using a wetstone (like they used to do in all those old spaghetti westerns I grew up watching). But I think that is beyond my current newbie capability.

Anyways time educate myself on how to sharpen my blades ..... I was going to check out some youtube vids but being unsure which ones are doing it correctly I figure I'll stick to the forum archives.

Last question: given what you can see of my blade, with the Lansky, would I start out with the coarse or the medium?
Click to expand...

I don't see anything in the pics of your edge that couldn't be fixed with your medium hone. As I'd mentioned before, it doesn't take much grit to get a lot done on Victorinox's blades. The thin grind means not much metal has to come off, and your medium should be able to handle it easily. Just take the time to fully refine the grind pattern left by your other sharpener and fully apex the edge.

As for the angle, you could mark the bevels with a Sharpie and then mount the blade in the clamp and test how the hones are making contact. You'll be very close when you see the hone removing the ink from the full width of the bevel, instead of from just the shoulder (angle too low) or only at the edge (angle too high). Otherwise, these blades are easy and thin enough to re-grind an entirely new bevel if need be, in which case you can set your angle as you prefer. With the Lansky, I've generally preferred using the lowest setting ('17') for blades of this size/width; it'll establish an edge angle somewhere around 14-15°/side, maybe a little less.


David
 
I pulled out an old SAK yesterday by coincidence and became frustrated trying to restore the edge. The Spyderco system wasn't working. I YouTubed the issue and got to the Victorinox site. It recommended its carbide pull through sharpener to restore the edge. I had a similar brand. I used it, finished with the Spyderco duck foot stone and stropped a bit. It worked very well and fast. I did use some pressure with the carbide.

HiCap
 
buckman110 said:
Nealf I left u a message
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Hi Buckman, I had sent you an email earlier today, did you get it? .... my settings on the board did not allow other members to send me messages, I have now changed that.
I can;t seem to see how to send you a message on this board!
 
Knife nuts hate 'em, but pull through sharpeners do ok for lots of knives, particularly for finer grained steel on the softer side, like you'd find on a SAK. The problem you seem to have had, and knife nuts often have, is using it way too vigorously. That kind of over enthusiasm will produce similar results with a Lansky or Sharpmaker. It's not the tool, it's the skill, that produces results.

For freehand sharpening, I'd recommend diamond "stones". They work fast, do well with a light touch, and even inexpensive ones seem to last a pretty long time.
 
The difference with the pull-throughs, in using them too vigorously, is the damage left, and what has to be done to fix it. The first thing to go wrong, is the 'pinching' of the edge between the inserts, with too much pressure exerted. On softer steels especially, with the edge pinched in the carbide inserts, the longitudinal stroke will literally rip the steel perpendicularly to the cutting edge, to some depth behind the apex. Harder steels would be chipped to greater depth.

A simple stone, used too vigorously in a stroke that's perpendicular or at least diagonal to the cutting edge, will remove much more steel than necessary, and likely will generate some bigger burrs. But it doesn't rip the edge in the same manner, because the stone doesn't pinch the edge, and the force exerted isn't in the longitudinal direction (parallel to the cutting edge), as with the pull-through. Fixing such an edge from a stone just means refining the coarse scratch pattern left by the stone, instead of having to grind off more steel to the full depth of damaged & torn steel left by the carbide inserts.

This is why the pull-through is the worst possible tool in the hands of an inexperienced sharpener, and virtually any other device (non-powered, anyway) would at least be less damaging, if used incorrectly.


David
 
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