blue spruce marking knives

[andyavast]

Does anyone have a blue spruce marking knife? I bought a pair and they are starting to lose their edge a bit, how do y'all go about sharpening them? I'm not so hot with honing by hand but if that is the only way then I guess that is that.

I'd love to hear any solutions y'all might have to this problem!

thanks

andy.

 

[mr]

I have one - very pretty aren't they. As you might expect the only way to sharpen it is by hand really, couple of strokes on an appropriate stone. Can't think of any neat and whizzy "solutions" I'm afraid. No doubt someone will come along with some fiendish device soon enough though


Cheers Mike

 

[tnimble]

Sharpening them early and often makes it easier. Postponing the sharpening until there's no way around it any more makes is harder to do.

 

[MrJay]

You'll just have to purchase another pair. You can send me the tatty old knives for 'recycling'.

 

[dunbarhamlin]

Yep, freehand. Did one just yesterday (got three days off doing nothing but making chips and shavings woohoo).
Didn't stop me working, just turned to the stone for a few seconds, and then back to it.
Just get in a good balanced position, feel the bevel angle contact the stone, 'lock' your arms and rock from your feet - pretty soon you'll be touching up those pesky router blades, and even chisels and plane blades without having to stop work for a sharpening session.

 

[bugbear]

Does anyone have a blue spruce marking knife? I bought a pair and they are starting to lose their edge a bit, how do y'all go about sharpening them? I'm not so hot with honing by hand but if that is the only way then I guess that is that.

I'd love to hear any solutions y'all might have to this problem!

thanks

andy.

A ludicrous jig would do it, but few people want to go there.

A jig like mine can handle pretty much anything, but the setup time can be "considerable", and (some would say) unjustifiable.

http://www.geocities.com/plybench/tour. ... pening_jig

If you find honing by hand tricky, a tip for small items is to use small (short) strokes. This limits the bevel angle changes caused by pivoting at the shoulders.

BugBear

 

[Harbo]

You could invest in one of these - great for sharpening knives:
http://www.edgeproinc.com/

Or do what I do - freehand - though I found grinding the original profile (on my clone) on the grinder easy than honing

Rod

 

[Wiley Horne]

Hi Andy,

Something you might try is to pull the edge toward you across the stone. Rather than push. I do this with marking knives, particularly the smaller ones. Hold the knife in position with one hand, and put the forefinger of the off-hand right on the tip of the blade. In this position, I can feel the registration better than if pushing, plus I can see the whole operation better. Also, you can experiment with different orientations--from direct 'edge-on' all the way around to sideways sharpening--to see which one gives you the better feel of the blade's registration.

Just a thought.

Wiley

 

[andyavast]

thanks for the advice fellas! I'm going to hone them by hand, I don't reckon it'll be too dramatic as I have sharpened edges without jigs before and have never made a proper a**e of it yet!

Another wee question... when sharpening marking knives should you use a secondary bevel or do you just hone the bevel as supplied?

Cheers.

Andy.

 

[Anonymous]

On small things like marking knives etc. I find it a lot easier to use something like these