Knife Sharpening With Cutting Edge Technology (part 1)

Last night I watched the movie 'Alamo'. I always enjoy these 'historic renditions' of how the US had its beginnings; how it grew up and those who helped 'grew' it up. I am intrigued by the 'larger than life' folk who were driven to push into the unknown, yet ever elusive frontier (I have to chuckle when Tennessee or Kentucky were referred to as 'the frontier' only a couple hundred years ago).

Well, I have been from coast to coast a few times, and, frankly, neither side looks much like frontier to me! Now days you might refer to the frontier in business ventures or scientific research; or the remote areas of the country where we travel to on vacation, might be labeled a frontier (for us). We image that we are the first ones to set foot there, until we spy the almost buried coke can near the forest fire we've built to keep the wild beasts at bay!

The frontier is rather like tomorrow, when it finally comes then it is no more. But, nevertheless, what remains are the historic accounts of those who ushered in frontier's tomorrows, like Davy Crockett and Jim Bowie. Ah yes, I love the scene where drunken Sam Houston mocks the Irish gentleman during a meeting, begging to get skewered, when Jim Bowie enters on cue. Noting the scene before him, Bowie draws his knife and offers the Irishman to upgrade his toothpick to a broadsword. Well, that's what the knife looked like to me; five pounds of steel as long as his forearm, unceremoniously dropped onto the wooden table with a resounding THUNK!

How many of us have desired or owned one of those legendary blades? I seem to recall owning one (or two?), but only the big ones and not the humongous ones. Jim Bowie was the man! I don't think I ever took this knife anywhere, or used it on anything except imaginary foes and the odd block of wood or tree trunk in the backyard.

So how do you sharpen a Bowie? Well, I don't rightly know exactly how Jim did it. Can't rightly picture him carrying around a Lansky Super Hard Arkansas Pocket Stone, (Arkansas: still frontier), or Smith's Diamond Edge Pro Electric Knife & Scissor Sharpener (Electricity: still frontier). I reckon that any flat rock with a fine-grained surface probably did the trick.

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Today, a century of knowledge (and scars) down the road, we have much more sophisticated tools and techniques at our disposal for knife sharpening.

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I have a good friend who takes great pride in his knife sharpening ability, and rightly so; he can get a razor-edge on just about anything made of steel!

Trick question #1: Is a smooth, razor-edged knife the most useful?

Of course, you are going to spend hours agonizing over this, kicking the dog, asking all your friends and even Google himself. Finally, you will surmise that this 'trick question' must be the opposite of what you, and the majority of others, would naturally think (otherwise it would not be a 'trick' question), and that is 'NO!'.

You are wrong! The answer is 'yes'. But before you go back and kick the dog again (if you can find him) lets look into the two schools of 'knife sharpening thought'.

There are those who like some roughness left on the edge, then there are those who strive for smoothness. Actually, there are benefits to both of these types of knife edge.

Rough-edged blades act like a very fine toothed saw, this being best when the blade is thin. A saw-like edge proves to be a good tool for slicing materials made up of fiber, such as rope. To achieve the rough edge the use of a medium stone, 200 to 300 grit, is used. Blades sharpened this way will need to be re-sharpened more frequently.

Smooth-edged blades are best for cutting with a straight push and are preferred by barbers, surgeons and woodworkers. To attain a smooth edge requires more work, but the results are worth it, and the edge will remain sharp for a longer period of time before needing a touch-up.

In part 2 of this article we will look more closely at the various tools used for knife sharpening.