How To Sharpen Chip Carving Knives
The blades point should be needle-sharp to allow all the incisions to meet precisely at crisp corners.
How to sharpen chip carving knives. The fine grit ceramic stone sharpens that edge. The motion should feel as though you are trying to slice a thin layer of the stone clean off. If you raise the spine up the thickness of a dime while working on a stone or sandpaper you are creating a secondary bevel.
Lay the blade close to flat but at a slight angle on the stone and push the knife away from you as if you were trying to slice off a very thin layer of the stone. You need a sharp knife to chip carve properly. Instead of FINISHING the sharpening process at 2000 grit I wanted to use finer and finer abrasives to get a mirror shiny sharp edge.
Form the bevel on coarse grits or shards of metal and then hole them slightly into a convex. The sides of the blade should be polished to a mirror finish to reduce friction as the knife cuts and to lightly burnish the facets left behind as chips are carved away. I then sharpen one side of the blade on the 1200 grit strip using 10 strokes then turn the knife over and repeat this process turn the knife back to the first side and count down 9 stokes turn the knife back to the second side and repeat 9 strokes.
The ceramic stones that Dennis Moor sells are very well ssuited for chip carving knives. Youre trying to minimize the compression of the wood fibers when you chip carve so you want a very light angle and no rounding of the cutting edge. What good is a carving chisel if it is not sharp.
Lay the blade close to flat but at a slight angle on the stone and drag the knife toward you with the sharp side of the blade trailing. Super Easy sharpening instructions for the average Joe. How to REALLY sharpen my Chip knives.
If so they should be worked flat on the stone on both sides to maintain the original bevel. Ill start with a knife straight out of the factory packaging and tune it up for regular use. If you want to follow along and sharpen with me youll need a Swiss-style chip carving knife I use these knives for the record I am not sponsored by Pfeil or their distributors and an array of sharpening stonessurfaces from extra coarse to polishing plus a leather strop with strop compound and some water.
