mikaloyd
Active Member
Ive been thinking about doing it for awhile but sort of procrastinating due to ego I guess. Except for the similar filing jigs that many knifemakers (even some very good ones who dont lack a giant shop full of groovy power tools) use, I hadnt really wanted a sharpening jig. In some ways I took pride in doing a good (enough) job of sharpening using my eyes and ears and experience and the feel of the knifes vibrations passing over stone or strop to know when I was doing good or harm to an edge. But while ag gives us much it also takes from us as well. My eyes and ears and even the feeling in my fingers is not what they once were and what Ive pretended to myself sometimes that they still are. I can no longer sharpen as accurately or as fast or as mistake free as I could at one time So I have decided that since I still want sharp edges on the regular ads I wont get any younger, I need to help the old man out and get a crutch to help, Maybe two crutches if I see a cheap enough USB microscope to gawp at edges with.
The problem is that every hand powered sharpening jig that I have seen has stuff I dont care for. Especially the ones that I can afford. Most of the budget models like the Ruixpin and Lansky and Smith and DTM and to a slightly lesser degree the Jino and to a much greater degree the Work Sharp precision have slop, play, or inadequate hardware that has the knife and the stones flexing and shaking and not at the same wavelength. I am looking to improve the blade to stone interaction with a machine, not shake them up and teach them new dances But it isnt just the inexpensive jigs that arent quite right for me Every single one has at least a bit of geometric inaccuracy built into it which changes the angle of the edge as the distance between the edge and the pivot center of the arm holding the stone changes Yep even Wicked Sharp. And wicked sharp makes you buy two of each stone that you use. Which bugs me.And Edge pro points the knife skyward so the knife edge is describing an elipsis pointing upward into the cone described by the sharpening stone instead of a circle like everybody else, making sure that Edge Pros edge angle geometric errors are still there but harder to plot than everyone else's Which bugs me. I could go on but does that really matter as long as the blades get sharp enough and the edge stays centered in the blade? Probably not, at lest not in a measurable way. At some point the induced errors are smaller than steel can physically demonstrate in its shape and structure. but it bugs me a little bit. Some other things bug me too about the various available jigs.. But despite what it might sound like Im not here to bad mouth knife sharpening systems nor the people that make them nor the people who use them and love them They work well and are a godsend to many who would otherwise never have the joy of using a sharp blade Im just explaining how I have ended up deciding to build one
So once I figured out that the thing that the sharpening jig which I think I want doesnt exist I made a list of things that I want to fix or at least improve somewhat on a jig .I came up with a bunch of wishes. andwants. Things like a jig should not have any built in geometric problems that force the sharpening angle to change.
In fact it should be able to hold the knife well enough and the jig should be built sturdy and stable enough to keep he edge angle you set from the first stroke on the coarsest stone until the last stroke on the finest stone you take at that sharpening. And you shouldnt have to remove and re-clamp the blade to change sides or for burrs. But if you so want to change angle, say add half a degree or two for some stropping...well you should be able to do that without too much trouble. Also you should be able to use any stone or strop you own (or find or borrow) to sharpen your knives with. Not just expensive and tiny ones that came with it. All stones And whether your abrasives are tall or small, leather or diamond or a hardened arkansawyer with glasstones and 3M wet or dry in his pockets you should be able to change grit and continue sharpening in under a minute(not including soak time for whetstones or dressing strops etc) and that minute should includse any shenanigans needed to keep the edge angle the same despite the different height media I that to much to ask from a sharpening jig?
Yes it is, or it was for me.I have since decided that I can let it have 1/10000 of an inch of built in error across an eighth inch wide ground edge. Maybe as much as half a thousandth way up by the tip on a long curved blade.But i guarantee his bugs me
But i also decided it needed two more things. It needs to be safe-ish as knife sharpening jigs go. I dont think any will ever get OSHA approval much less receive their safety machine of the year award. They are still playing with knives at the end of he dayBut at least it shouldn't fling knives across the room or drop them from its clamp or look like something children should climb on lso it should be somewhat natural and not too awkward for the operator. That's where I think Ill need to do the most changes, bearing in mind that initially most of them feel like you are trying to learn juggling while learning to ride a unicycle on top of a souped up paint shaker.
But I did choose a path only a couple of the commercial jigs have chosen. The knife in mine will be what Is moved around by hand and the stones will stay in one spot. There are some really sensible and logical reasons to do it that way and some other good and logical sensible reasons to never do it that way. Im going to find out though. Or I will if I ever quit writing this and finish collecting the hardware I still need to get, Anyhow I thought Id warn yall that soon there will be a new kind of sharpener that will no doubt look like it is in the R&D stages. Hopefully we can all point and laugh mu crazy machine next to my ambitious goal then learn something as it gets into testing and failure stages
The problem is that every hand powered sharpening jig that I have seen has stuff I dont care for. Especially the ones that I can afford. Most of the budget models like the Ruixpin and Lansky and Smith and DTM and to a slightly lesser degree the Jino and to a much greater degree the Work Sharp precision have slop, play, or inadequate hardware that has the knife and the stones flexing and shaking and not at the same wavelength. I am looking to improve the blade to stone interaction with a machine, not shake them up and teach them new dances But it isnt just the inexpensive jigs that arent quite right for me Every single one has at least a bit of geometric inaccuracy built into it which changes the angle of the edge as the distance between the edge and the pivot center of the arm holding the stone changes Yep even Wicked Sharp. And wicked sharp makes you buy two of each stone that you use. Which bugs me.And Edge pro points the knife skyward so the knife edge is describing an elipsis pointing upward into the cone described by the sharpening stone instead of a circle like everybody else, making sure that Edge Pros edge angle geometric errors are still there but harder to plot than everyone else's Which bugs me. I could go on but does that really matter as long as the blades get sharp enough and the edge stays centered in the blade? Probably not, at lest not in a measurable way. At some point the induced errors are smaller than steel can physically demonstrate in its shape and structure. but it bugs me a little bit. Some other things bug me too about the various available jigs.. But despite what it might sound like Im not here to bad mouth knife sharpening systems nor the people that make them nor the people who use them and love them They work well and are a godsend to many who would otherwise never have the joy of using a sharp blade Im just explaining how I have ended up deciding to build one
So once I figured out that the thing that the sharpening jig which I think I want doesnt exist I made a list of things that I want to fix or at least improve somewhat on a jig .I came up with a bunch of wishes. andwants. Things like a jig should not have any built in geometric problems that force the sharpening angle to change.
In fact it should be able to hold the knife well enough and the jig should be built sturdy and stable enough to keep he edge angle you set from the first stroke on the coarsest stone until the last stroke on the finest stone you take at that sharpening. And you shouldnt have to remove and re-clamp the blade to change sides or for burrs. But if you so want to change angle, say add half a degree or two for some stropping...well you should be able to do that without too much trouble. Also you should be able to use any stone or strop you own (or find or borrow) to sharpen your knives with. Not just expensive and tiny ones that came with it. All stones And whether your abrasives are tall or small, leather or diamond or a hardened arkansawyer with glasstones and 3M wet or dry in his pockets you should be able to change grit and continue sharpening in under a minute(not including soak time for whetstones or dressing strops etc) and that minute should includse any shenanigans needed to keep the edge angle the same despite the different height media I that to much to ask from a sharpening jig?
Yes it is, or it was for me.I have since decided that I can let it have 1/10000 of an inch of built in error across an eighth inch wide ground edge. Maybe as much as half a thousandth way up by the tip on a long curved blade.But i guarantee his bugs me
But i also decided it needed two more things. It needs to be safe-ish as knife sharpening jigs go. I dont think any will ever get OSHA approval much less receive their safety machine of the year award. They are still playing with knives at the end of he dayBut at least it shouldn't fling knives across the room or drop them from its clamp or look like something children should climb on lso it should be somewhat natural and not too awkward for the operator. That's where I think Ill need to do the most changes, bearing in mind that initially most of them feel like you are trying to learn juggling while learning to ride a unicycle on top of a souped up paint shaker.
But I did choose a path only a couple of the commercial jigs have chosen. The knife in mine will be what Is moved around by hand and the stones will stay in one spot. There are some really sensible and logical reasons to do it that way and some other good and logical sensible reasons to never do it that way. Im going to find out though. Or I will if I ever quit writing this and finish collecting the hardware I still need to get, Anyhow I thought Id warn yall that soon there will be a new kind of sharpener that will no doubt look like it is in the R&D stages. Hopefully we can all point and laugh mu crazy machine next to my ambitious goal then learn something as it gets into testing and failure stages
