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Archive for January, 2008
You’ll need a special sharpening stone to get a new edge on fish hooks and other small, pointy implements, such as needles, darts and pins. Look for a “fish hook groove,” which has a small, curved track inside where the hook will be placed and stroked. The actual process is quite simple. Place the hook in the groove with the point in the direction you plan to stroke. Start at the beginning of the groove and proceed to the end. Be sure to use a very gentle stroke as you’re working with fragile metal. Check your progress frequently, as you’ll likely be done sooner than you imagined.
Serrated knife blades and gut hooks are sharpened differently than straight blades. Flat sharpening stones must not be used on them. You’ll need a specially-made, cone-shaped taper sharpener to get serrations. These often come with diamond layers, and they’re specifically designed to get inside each serration.
Picking your serrated knife sharpener
You’re going to need a tapered or cone-shaped sharpener for serrations. Push the sharpener toward the edge you wish to sharpen and work each serration individually. Be careful not to widen the serrations. Be sure, too to sharpen only one side of them (as the back provides support for the serrations). Note: Serrations are practically impossible to return to a pristine, factory-like state. If you do loose them, though, it’s not the end of your knife. Just sharpen the backside, and you’ve got a straight blade that will cut as well as any of your other straight knives. Another approach to sharpening serrations is to hold the rod sharpener still, place your thumb on the back of the knife, then slide your knife up and down against the sharpener. This can make it a bit more difficult to see exactly what you’re doing, but it’s markedly faster.
The trouble with serrations
Even with a special sharpener, it’s difficult to return the original edge to the serrations on your blade. Because of their construction, they’re more easily worn down than straight blades. There is one upside, though. Serrations work because they provide a sharp and varied surface against which things like rope can snag and more easily cut. That means, you don’t have to get your serrated edge perfect. It is, after all, the imperfections that make it so effective.
When to sharpen your serrated knife
Because of their unique construction, serrated knives are extremely difficult to sharpen, even with a taper sharpener. They’re prone to distortion and damage since they’re only cut into one side of the blade. Because they’re so easily damaged, it’s best to sharpen your serrated edges only when absolutely necessary — when you notice a dull spot for instance.
Using your taper sharpener
Place the point of the sharpener in the serration’s valley, and push the narrow end into the serration. Be careful not to push the taper too far, as you could widen the serration. Twist or rotate the taper while sharpening for a better result. With patience, your serrations will not grow wider, and they should get somewhere close to the sharpness they were when you purchased the knife.
Now that all the major imperfections have been removed. You’re ready to move onto Stage 2. Clean your blade, and switch to a more moderate-grit stone, perhaps a 400 grit stone. Add oil to the stone and sharpen using the same techniques you did earlier, but with a much lighter touch. This stage gets rid of all the scratches you may have introduced with your rougher stone. If you sharpen your blade regularly (as you should!), this will always be the stage you start with.
Check regularly to see how your sharpening is progressing. Dry off your blade and look at it lengthwise. Both sides should have the same angle to their edges. You’ll also want to be sure they’re both flat. Dips, nicks and flat spots should all be removed by the time you reach Stage 2. Take the time, too, to clean your stone. You should do this regularly, particularly if you notice grayness, yellowness or streaks in your oil or water.
I managed to make a trip to the movies this holiday weekend to see the new Sweeney Todd “The Demon Barber of Fleet Street” movie starring Johnny Depp. I was surprised to discover that Tim Burton did not pay much attention to learning the proper straight razor stropping(sharpening) technique before filming. Mr. Todd, played by Johnny Depp, was stropping his straight razor blade in the wrong direction along his leather strop belt throughout the entire movie. This would result in a very very dull straight razor in real life! Not very believable behavior for someone who is supposed to be the best barber in London. One would think that proper stropping technique would be an important detail in a movie with so many leather stropping scenes. I did notice that the Italian barber played by the Borat guy was stropping his straight razor blade in the right direction.
