Knife sharpeners

Thanks, Joe - I will buy some honing oil.

Sure Chicago Cutlery would be fine on oil stones. I recommend you start slow and see how it goes. You don't have any idea which stone it is do you? By knowing that you can tell if it is a course, fine or medium stone.

It is a Norton India Combination 1B8. Does that help?

Here is what I found so does this look like it then it is 2 stones one course side and one fine side. You will want to start with the course till you get a flat bevel on the blade on both sides. You should feel a burr at the point of a perfect intersection of the two bevels. Now you can remove the burr by slicing into a piece of soft wood, a cork, gum eraser or some other thing that will help remove it. Then move to the fine and finish the edge as you did on the course side again removing the burr if any using what ever method you like.

Here is what I found by typing Norton India Combination 1B8 in Google. http://www.soonerstateknives.com/NT-IB8.JPG

Thank you so much, Joe. I didn't know about the burr, but it explains a lot. One final question - do I clean off the gunk on the stone first?

You can try but I doubt you will get much off short of taking it to concrete to flatten it. I would actually try as is with some oil of course and see how it goes. You might just apply some oil and wipe it gently with a paper towel and see what that does for it.

FM, your stone appears to have been used very little so don't worry about flattening it at this time. You need to learn basic skills and one of the secrets is to start slowly as you develop muscle memory.

[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vpWNJOCYA1A&feature=related[/ame]


[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QuOlGGl97dI&feature=related[/ame]


[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PgPI_Gs117c[/ame]

Thank you for these videos, Buzz. I was intending to watch a lot of videos and then follow whatever the majority of them recommend. You've just saved me the trouble of trying to figure out what is good practice and what isn't.

I intend to go very, very slowly. I don't expect to get great results any time soon, but maybe I can end up with useable edges.

There are as many ways to sharpen as there people. Watch Dave Martell in the following video. I sharpen the same way he does with the spine toward me because it is easier to "see" the angle by using the spine height about the stone as a guide.

[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q7qokYntdHU[/ame]

A really easy way to do it is to elevate one end of the stone and have it rest on something solid, thus leaving the skill portion to merely keep the blade parallel to mother earth.

Just keep in mind that Carter and Martel are both using water stones. Other than that the method is the same for sharpening. Oh I was there when Dave's video was made as it was at the first ECG at Warren's house.

FM, from what I can see your stone looks like my Norton. If it is similar to my Norton :

The rough side of the stone ranges from useless to damaging. At least for softer metals. Good for a ax, not so much for cutlery unless doing a massive reshaping of the blade. Scratches the crap out of about anything it touches.

To clean the gunk I would soak the stone in mineral spirits/ Naphtha. That will also pull some of the oil out of the stone, no big deal.

This stone is bad assed hard. I wouldn't worry about it being flat. If you eyeball it and it looks straight, or you can't feel a dip, you should be fine. About the only way to check this for straigntness is by looking for daylight under and feeler gaging against a steel rule ... or spotting it against a granite table. But really, you aren't polishing plugs against a machine way, it would have to be pretty bad before being unusable.

Far as flattening, about the only way your going to wear this stone away is against another stone. I believe these stones made of alumina which is one step softer than diamond.

You take two similar stones, wet them with a light lube like mineral spirits then rub them together. Rinse with spirits, turn the stones 180 degrees and rub them together, rinse, rotate and rub, etc etc etc. With patience and care the stones will become very flat. If done with three stones they can become flatter than flat. In theory immeasurably flat.

Fact, we use to make our standards by spotting standards together, scraping the high spots, rotating, spotting and scraping. Etc, etc, etc ...