Sharpening knives with your own hands on a homemade device. How to make a manual knife sharpener with your own hands. About the device of sharpening machines for knives

1. Why do you need a sharpener
2. How do you sharpen a knife?
3. Sharpening profiles
4. Touchstone
5. Knife sharpeners
6. Knife sharpening machine
7. Not only knives ...

Interest in how to make a knife sharpener with your own hands arises for a reason. The consumer qualities of hand cutting tools are increasing due to the use of modern materials and technologies for the manufacture of the blade and precise factory sharpening. At the same time, the price of the product is also growing, but it is becoming easier to spoil a rather expensive thing with a primitive sharpening. Therefore, various household tools for sharpening knives are needed not only for convenience. To understand why a knife sharpener is still needed and how to make it correctly, you will have to start with the ideology and evolution of the knife.

Why do you need a sharpener

A living relic of our days is a Finnish hunting knife. Not a bandit finca, sometimes of a bizarre shape, but a Finnish-type hunting knife, on the left in fig. Traditional hunting knives (center and left) are similar in shape, but the difference between them is very large.

A Finnish knife blade is forged from blast iron, which can be smelted right in your yard from swamp ore in a blast furnace, without resorting to blast-furnace processes, puddling, and other methods of converting cast iron into iron and steel. The viscosity of the blast iron is excellent, it is very difficult to break a blade from it. But the hardness is also low, somewhere HRS55, the knife gets dull pretty quickly. Finnish hunters did not care about this: a blade of such hardness can be directed (sharpened) with a beating on many natural stones, and there were always enough ironed moraine boulders in Fennoscandia.

They sharpen a knife with a chop in about the same way as they beat off a scythe, only the touchstone is motionless, and the blade is moved. First, it is pulled along the donkey with its butt away from itself, then it is turned over and pulled with its butt towards itself. The position of the cutting edge (RC) on the donkey is always dragging; fast movements: shirk-shirk! On each movement, you need to keep the contact patch of the blade with the touchstone (see below), but the requirements for maintaining the angle of inclination are not so strict. Learning to sharpen a knife with a chop is not very difficult, and with some skill, you can direct a smoothly running profile onto the blade, see below. However, the Finnish knife is in general a dead end for the evolution of cutting tools, which survived in special natural conditions.

A good knife was never cheap, and in an extreme situation, the durability of the blade, combined with the toughness of the blade, became vital circumstances. Therefore, even in antiquity, the blades of knives learned to harden from the surface and cement: the core remained viscous, not brittle, and a hard hot crust formed on it outside, see trace. rice.:

It is still possible to direct a knife with a cemented blade with a chop, but a skill is needed that is not given to everyone. And the abrasive is already needed from a special kind of stone - Grünstein lithographic slate. There is little of it in nature; Grunstein is still considered a strategic raw material. There is no artificial grunstein and is not expected. It is as easy as shelling pears to spoil a cemented knife with an inept beating - a little somewhere the cementation crust is pulled off to raw metal (this is not visible to the eye), the knife will only have to be thrown away, the blade will immediately become blunt and crumble.

Note: if you have an old scythe wheel of a slightly greenish color lying around somewhere, do not throw it away, it is a valuable rarity.

Household workers do not need such stamina and toughness as hunting and marching ones, and they should cost a lot less. As a result, special steels and powder metallurgy are widely used in the production of household goods. The blade of the "eternal" kitchen knife is structured like a rodent's chisel: longitudinal layers, the hardness of which falls from the core outward. In any case, the knife has to be sharpened less often, but the beating is unambiguously excluded - the blade from it immediately crumbles.

How do you sharpen a knife?

For these reasons, a push-pull sharpening technology has long been invented:

1. The blade is pushed on the touchstone away from you with a twist, holding the butt towards you, the position of the RK is oncoming (scraping);
2. Then, without removing the blade from the touchstone, pull it with the butt towards you with a turn in the opposite direction, the position of the RK is dragging;
3. The blade is turned over and paragraphs are repeated. 1 and 2;
4. Pp. 1-3 are repeated, in each cycle, reducing the pressure, until the burr formed on the RC comes to naught (does not merge).

Note: when they say or write "the burr will go away", etc., this is incorrect. The metalworkers have the slang word "zausyavka"; for electricians - "off". But in Russian, the burr and the switch are masculine.

Push-pull sharpening protects the blade, but requires high skill from the operator, because a number of conditions must be observed continuously and precisely during the sharpening process, see also fig. below:

• Maintain the angle of inclination of the blade to the touchstone, smoothly changing it in accordance with the curvature of the RK.
• Make sure that the tangent to the generatrix of the blade and the transverse axis of the contact spot between the RK and the donkey coincide.
• Also make sure that the axis of the contact patch is always perpendicular to the longitudinal axis of the stone.
• Smoothly change the pressure on the blade as the area of ​​the contact patch changes.

It is very difficult to comply with all these conditions at the same time, completely symmetrically on the forward and reverse travel of the blade along the touchstone, and a modern knife, as mentioned above, can be damaged by improper sharpening. Any household device for sharpening knives is just intended to save the grinder from continuous control of at least part of the specified conditions.

Note: for successful push-pull sharpening, the length of the donkey (see below) must be at least 2 lengths of the knife blade from the handle to the tip.

Sharpening profiles

The blade profile of a knife is linked to the material properties and structure of the blade, as well as the properties of the materials for which the tool is designed. Sharpening with a simple blunt wedge (pos. 1 in the figure) gives a stable, but coarse blade: the cutting resistance is high, and the knife tears rather viscous materials. A sharp wedge (pos. 2) quickly dulls or crumbles; on viscous and / or fibrous materials, the cutting resistance may be greater than with a blunt wedge due to friction of the cut off blade.

Ideal in all respects is the ogival (smoothly running off) profile, pos. 3. Experts still argue which generator is better - involute, hyperbole or exponential. But one thing is indisputable - it is difficult and expensive to make an ogival blade in production conditions, and it is impossible to direct it yourself. Therefore, ogival-sharpened knives are used only in special equipment, for example. microtomes - biological devices for obtaining the finest tissue sections.

For disposable blades, e.g. safety razor blades, faceted sharpening is used, pos. 4, i.e. The ogive generator, as mathematicians say, is approximated by line segments. The number of sharpening edges is indicated in the certificate or on the manufacturer's website. For thick coarse bristles, 3-4-sided is better; for delicate hair not on the face - 8-sided. 6-sided is considered universal.

Injection?

The sharpening angle is always given in half the value? many tools, such as bayonet knives, are sharpened to one side. For knives for various purposes, the angle? maintained in the next. limits:

LM

It does not require any special skills and the use of a manual knife sharpener of the Lansky-Metabo type, pos. 1 in fig. A diagram of its device is given in pos. 2, and the procedure for use is in pos. 3. The disadvantage of the Lansky-Metabo sharpener is the instability of the sharpening angle along the length of the blade: a rod with a donkey is driven along it. In this case, the offset of the touch point is continuously changing, because it describes an arc of a circle, and a blade of a different configuration. Corresponding "Floats" and the angle. Therefore, the Lansky-Metabo sharpener is used primarily for sharpening camping and hunting knives with a relatively short blade.

However, this disadvantage can be turned into dignity if the blade is clamped in the terminals with the root part A (at the handle) and with the tip slightly turned away from you, pos. 4. Then, at the root of the blade, the sharpening angle will be the greatest, which is optimal for processing hard materials or using the knife as a cleaver. So, after all, they work for them in such cases, so that the outer arm of the arm-blade lever is shorter.

Towards the middle of blade B, the sharpening angle will smoothly decrease and reach a minimum at the bend of its generatrix B1, which is convenient for fine work. Then, the angle will increase again towards tip B, which will make the tip more resistant when drilling, slotting / impacting and punching (piercing).

Note: Another disadvantage of the Lansky-Metabo sharpener is the difficulty of execution in the tabletop version. But this drawback, as they say, is fake, see pos. 5.

Part drawings of the original Lansky-Metabo sharpener are shown in fig. The numbers at the windows for the bar (guide) correspond to the FULL sharpening angles.

On the trail. rice. an assembly drawing of the clamp is given, and then - drawings and dimensions of Lansky-Metabo terminals made of a 90x90x6 mm angle. The author of the development is hiding under the pseudonym Serjant. This is, of course, a matter of his modesty. But, by the way, in production, technological innovations that allow the use of standard profiles for the manufacture of shaped parts are sometimes valued more expensive than serious inventions.

Note: on the trail. rice. an assembly drawing of the Serjant sharpener is given. About the inconvenience of fastening in a vice - see above.

Knife sharpening machine

The most advanced household manual sharpener today is the Apex type knife sharpener. Its appearance, device diagrams and the order of use are shown in Fig. Apex can be made to a continuously variable sharpening angle (pos. 2) or to fixed angles like Lansky-Metabo (pos. 3). Nominally, they work on Apex like on Lansky-Metabo (pos. 4), but other options are possible for more accurate sharpening, see below.

In 2016, in Runet, it made a noise, perhaps, no less than the bubafony stove once, the desktop modification of Ivan Skomorokhov's Apex, see fig. on right.

Sharpeners Skomorokh are much simpler than a prototype and are in no way inferior to it in functionality.

How to make a Skomorokh knife sharpener, see the video:

• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h3HbX03YYTs - Part 1
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8DKSCZIZIK4 - Part 2

Not only knives ...

The original Apex sharpener is not very suitable for sharpening carpentry tools - chisels, iron planes. The Apex's sharpening angle floats for the same reasons as the Lansky-Metabo. Meanwhile, if the angle of sharpening of the chisel along the width of the blade "walks" by more than 1-1.5 degrees, then the tool strives to go sideways, crawl out or go deep into the solid wood along its fibers. It is very difficult to precisely and accurately select a groove for a tenon / ridge with such a chisel.

For sharpening carpentry tools, there are special devices, about which a special conversation is needed. Homemade products like a roller trolley sharpener, see fig. on the right, rather curiosities: not to mention the complexity, they require a stone or steel table, and, most importantly, they do not guarantee against the distortion of the blade on the donkey, which leads to the same undesirable result.

Meanwhile, 2-3 years ago, in one of the Chinese magazines on technical creativity, there was a glimpse of the Apex's refinement for sharpening, not inferior to that on a factory electric semiautomatic sharpening machine. The alteration is not difficult, see fig: the bar is set horizontally in level and the horizon of the bar is held along it, while sharpening. Within the angle of rotation of the rod in the horizontal plane 10-12 degrees to the right-to the left, the error of the sharpening angle is less than 1 degree. If the extension of the point of contact is from 250 mm, it is possible to sharpen chisels and glands of planers up to 120 mm wide.

In this mode of operation, a (theoretically) zero sharpening angle error can be achieved by keeping the bar stationary and moving the knife held by the magnetic holder, see above. Thus, it is possible to sharpen the glands of shaped planers, if you put a round in cross section, semicircular, elliptical or segmental touchstone in the clamps. The main thing is that the touch spot is always point-like.

... but also scissors

Another refinement of the Apex sharpener for sharpening scissors (also a necessary business in the household) is shown in Fig. on right. Total work - a couple of corner pieces or galvanized scraps and 4 additional holes in the sharpener table. How to make a do-it-yourself attachment for sharpening scissors to a Skomorokh sharpener, see next. video.

Video: sharpening scissors, attachment to the Skomorokh sharpener

Finally, more about scissors

Check the hinge for looseness before grabbing poorly cutting scissors and putting them into the sharpener. Spread the scissors apart and look at them from the side. See, the tip is wrapped with a screw towards each other? Therefore, the scissors cut: the point of contact of the blades during cutting shifts from the roots to the ends. And therefore it is difficult to cut with scissors with the left hand: the turning of the ends is designed for the kinematics of the right. And if the hinge of the scissors is loose, the blades will go away from each other and will not even cope with the paper. In this case, you just need to tighten the riveted hinge with a hammer, and with a screw - with a screwdriver.

I wanted to learn how to sharpen knives, I will not say that I did not know how to do it at all. He sharpened, of course, with his hands on the stones, and tried to withstand the angle, it seemed like it turned out - the knives were shredding the paper.

I decided to take this process more seriously. And, as usual in Russia, to do everything yourself from what is at hand, and even for free. We have such amateurs and I am. For such, in fact, the article.

I looked at the sharpening machines on the Internet, stopped at Apex. First of all, I looked for it on Chinese sites, there are, of course, copies and were inexpensive (before the change in the dollar exchange rate), now the Chinese are too expensive for us. I saw how it works, what are the nuances. Yes, it seems you can repeat it.

Making Apex

Looking ahead, I will say that it was not possible to do it for free, I still had to spend money, but quite a bit. About 150 rubles.

Instead of a base, I took a galvanized sheet of 2 mm. I turned it over by eye (for some reason I guessed exactly 20 degrees into the corner). Fixed on a chipboard sheet. Instantly glued magnets from old hard drives, it took 3 magnets. I looked for stops for knives on the Internet, it is convenient, great invented. I found a support for the hinge in the garage, it is threaded 8mm.

At first I thought of changing the angle with nuts, but decided that the angle changes often and it would be inconvenient to drive the nuts back and forth and counter-lock each time so that there was no backlash.

Where can I get a guide for stones? An old bed, or rather a back, caught my eye, remember, probably, these were in the years of the USSR. What is not a bar from the back. A square profile 25x25 mm was fixed to the bar (after grinding). Remember there are curly bushings. With their help (it took three pieces), in one you need to drill a hole up to 11 mm (rod diameter). I added a 10 nut and a hairpin with a ball from the same bed, it turned out to be a comfortable handle.

I decided to sharpen with sandpaper, there is such a method, it seems to be very budgetary and quite good. I bought several sheets of skins of different grain sizes. So that there were no remnants of sandpaper, I made the length of the square profile along the width of the sandpaper sheet 230 mm. I made a cut on the bar and drove an engraving disc of a suitable size into it. Everything fit together perfectly, as it was meant to be.

I was afraid it would be difficult to center the profile, but in this way, the profile itself fell into place. I glue the sandpaper on the stationery glue with a pencil.

Sharpener hinge

I thought about this unit for a long time, how to do it so that there was no backlash. I came up with the idea to do so. I drove into a bearing store, it turned out that there are such AL supports (in my opinion, the sliding ball is deciphered). Available in sizes 10, 12, 15 in bore diameter. But the stock is 11 mm. It's hard without a turner. But there was a way out. In a store across the street, they sold spare parts for KAMAZ trucks, and there I found such a brass sleeve for 10mm brake pipes. I bought a ShS-12 (65 rubles) and a bushing (8 rubles). At home, I drove the sleeve onto the bar, it expanded remarkably with a hammer, rubbed it a little against the bar, as it was. I inserted it into the AL (with glue, just in case, to eliminate backlash) and flared it. Everything has grown together again. There is a small backlash left, in the AL itself, it is of Russian production and a little backlash (I went through a dozen in the store - all of them are like that). I wanted to weld the AL to the nut for fastening, but another idea came to my mind, how to do without welding. Stopped in a plumbing store and bought pipe fittings. 3/8 ”is written on it and costs 27 rubles. I worked it a little on emery so that the working angle of the loop would not decrease. Next, I connected the clamp to the long nut with an 8 mm threaded pin and drilled a 9 mm hole in the right place of the long nut. A lamb made from a purchased lamb for 5 rubles. Nuts and studs are the same for 8 mm.

When assembled, (clamped the loop in the clamp), the backlash disappeared, the clamp bolts squeeze the loop and the backlash goes away, completely. It turned out better than welding. And when working out, it is easy to replace.

Oddly enough, all the details fell into place perfectly. I had to do a minimum of alterations. There is no backlash. Everything turned out to be very simple, I even made a second rod to polish the cutting edge.

On the knurled, I spent half an hour on the second barbell. On the verge I glued:

• skin for Goi paste
• clean skin
• wooden ruler with goi paste
• a clean wooden ruler

I use them in a different sequence.

I want to say that the idea was a success, in two days, I resharpened all the knives I could find. Angles can be measured with a household goniometer, or with a phone with installed angle measuring software

In comparison with the manual method on stones, sharpening is much easier and sharper. The paper is shaved, the hair is shaved. I didn’t try to shave off my hair, I think it’s an excessive sharpness and in life it is useless, although with due diligence you can achieve it.

Spent:

• ShS-12 - 65 rubles;
• brass bushing - 8 p.;
• clamp - 27 rubles;
• lamb - 5 p.;
• long nut - 5 p.;
• sheet of sandpaper 240 - 2 p.;
• sheet of sandpaper 600 - 2 p.;
• a sheet of sandpaper 1000 - 10 p.;
• sheet of sandpaper 2000 - 10 rubles.

Total: 134 rubles. The rest was found in the garage for nothing. And plus work with hands and head.

Who is too lazy to bother, I found an inexpensive sharpener of the same type, the reviews are good, you can take it.

Also handmade.

Sharp knives for you.

Article tags:

• knife sharpening;
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• homemade Apex;
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• sharpening machine.

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• sharpener apex homemade sandpaper
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Sharpening video.

We use a knife to cook food, cut food and do other household tasks. Therefore, it is very important that the knife blade remains sharp at all times. Theoretically, there is nothing difficult in sharpening knives, but in practice it turns out that not everyone is good at sharpening the blade. To have an idea of ​​how to sharpen knives and how to do it correctly, we advise you to read our article.

Before you start sharpening a knife, you need to find out what material it is made of. There are several types of knives:

• • Carbon steel knives are the most affordable, made from an alloy of iron and carbon, are easy to sharpen and stay sharp for a long time. Among the shortcomings, it can be noted - oxidation of the knife blade from interaction with food or an acidic environment, for this reason, rust and stains appear on the knife, and the products acquire a metallic taste. Over time, after the formation of plaque on the blade, oxidation stops.

• • Low carbon stainless steel knives - made from an alloy of iron, chromium, carbon and in some cases nickel or molybdenum. Stainless steel knives are inferior in hardness to carbon steel, so they quickly become dull and require regular sharpening. The advantages include corrosion resistance.

• • High carbon stainless steel knives - a higher grade of knives with a higher carbon content and additions of cobalt or vanadium. Due to the higher quality alloy, this type of knives does not require frequent sharpening and does not corrode.

• • Damascus steel knives are mainly made as edged weapons, but there are also kitchen options. Damascus steel knife is a multi-layer blade made of different high quality alloys. The disadvantages include the high cost of knives.

• Ceramic knives have gained popularity due to their sharpness and ability not to dull for a long time. But in addition to the advantages, ceramic knives have a significant disadvantage, which lies in their fragility when dropped from a height and weak resistance to fracture.

Sharpening tools

Touchstone (whetstone)

Sharpening stones are available with different amounts of abrasive grains per square millimeter. Therefore, for coarse sharpening and finishing sanding, you need to use bars with a minimum and maximum abrasive content. In foreign-made whetstones, information on the amount of abrasive grains is on their marking. Sharpening stones of domestic production have to be chosen "by eye" or ask the seller which touchstone to use for the primary and which for the final sharpening.

Mechanical sharpener

Mechanical sharpeners are mainly used to sharpen kitchen knives. Although the sharpening process is fast, the quality leaves much to be desired. For this reason, other sharpening methods are recommended for hunting and sporting knives.

Electric sharpener

Modern models of electric sharpeners, allow you to achieve high quality sharpening, due to the built-in function, automatic determination of the angle of inclination of the blade. The electric sharpener is great for both domestic use and for sharpening knives in catering organizations. The range of electric sharpeners is presented in a wide range, so the price may vary, but if you want your knives to always remain sharp, then buy more "advanced" and expensive models.

Musat

Musat - designed to maintain the sharpness of the knife edge. In shape, the musat resembles a round file with a handle. Musat are included in knife sets, and many owners often confuse them with a tool for a full sharpening of the blade. Please note that with the help of musat you can maintain the sharpness of a sharpened knife, but if the knife is completely dull, you will not be able to sharpen it with musat.

Sharpener "Lansky"

This sharpener is used for sharpening small and medium sized knives. The design of the sharpener allows you to sharpen the blade at the angle you choose. The Lansky sharpener consists of a rod with a removable whetstone and two corners connected to each other. The corners simultaneously serve as a knife vise and a scale for selecting the sharpening angle. The sharpener also comes with ANSI-graded sharpening stones in various grit sizes.

Sharpening and grinding machines

Grinding machines are used mainly in manufacturing for high-precision sharpening of the blades of rotating shafts. In addition to high-precision machines, there are electrically driven abrasive wheels and rotating grinding discs. Sharpening of knives on such machines should be carried out only by an experienced craftsman, because due to the speed of rotation of the circle or disk and the high heating temperature, with any unsuccessful movement, the knife blade will become unusable.

Self sharpening blades

Sharpening a knife with a whetstone

The sharpening of the blade, produced by a sharpening bar, is considered to be of the highest quality, of course, provided that it was made by an experienced master. To sharpen a knife on a sharpening block, do the following:

1. 1. Place a whetstone with a low abrasive grain content on a stationary surface. If the block is small, you can clamp it in a vice.

1. 1. Keeping the knife at an angle of 20-25 degrees with respect to the surface of the block, begin the movement of the knife along the stone with the cutting edge forward.

1. Move the blade along the bar so that during movement it touches the surface of the donkey along its entire length.
2. Try to keep the same angle of inclination of the blade while driving.
3. After 2-3 strokes, turn the knife over and repeat the sharpening process on the other side of the blade.
4. Thus, alternating sides, sharpen the knife until an edge (burr) appears along the edge of the blade.
5. Swap the coarse whetstone for a grinding block.
6. Sand the knife blade until the edge disappears.
7. Test the sharpness of the knife by cutting the hemp rope folded several times, or try cutting a piece of paper.

How to sharpen a knife with a sharpening bar, see also the video:

Sharpening a hunting knife on a Lansky sharpener

Hunting knives are made of solid steel, so their initial sharpening requires sharpening stones with a low abrasive grain content.

• Clamp the knife in the grip of the sharpener.
• Place a whetstone with a low abrasive grain content on the rod.
• Select the angle of inclination of the bar (for hunting knives it is usually between 20 and 30 degrees).
• Insert the rod into the desired hole.
• Lubricate the whetstone with the special oil included in the sharpener kit.
• Start moving the bar along the edge of the knife, from base to tip.
• Turn the sharpener over and repeat the process on the other side of the knife.
• Once the edge has formed, change the block and make the final sanding.
• Since hunting knives are mainly made with a double-sided blade, after finishing sharpening on one side, change the position of the knife in the vice and start the sharpening process on the other side.
• When finished sharpening, polish the knife blade with felt.

How to sharpen knives in the Lansky sharpener, see the video:

Scissors sharpening

Sharpening of scissors must be done on a special sharpening machine. Sharpening the blades with the help of improvised (sandpaper, glass edge, etc.) can temporarily improve the sharpness of the scissors, but not for long. If you do not have the opportunity to sharpen scissors from a professional, then you can try to make your own sharpening with an abrasive stone. When sharpening, you need to follow a few simple rules:

• The sharpening stone must be fine-grained.
• The sharpening of the blade is carried out over the entire surface of the edge at the same time.
• The angle of inclination of the blade should coincide with the factory edge.
• The movement of the blade over the stone should be done from the screw to the tip.
• You need to sharpen scissors disassembled.

When sharpening scissors, do not rush, patience in this matter will be your ally.

How to quickly sharpen scissors can also be seen in the video:

Sharpening planer blades and chisels

Sharpening of the planer blade and chisel practically do not differ from each other. Therefore, the sharpening process described below is applicable to both tools:

• Place the chisel on the whetstone at an angle of 30-40 degrees.
• Holding the chisel with your hand, press the chamfer against the donkey with the fingers of your free hand.
• Start running the chisel over the grindstone until a burr forms on the smooth side of the chisel.
• Change the touchstone to a fine-grained one and make the final grinding of the chisel.
• Check the sharpness of the chisel blade by removing the shavings from the corner of the block.

In addition to manual sharpening, the chisel can be sharpened on a machine with a rotating abrasive disc:

1. Turn on the machine and let the blade reach full speed.
2. Holding the chisel with both hands, place the chamfer against the sharpening disc.
3. Be sure to observe the angle of inclination of the chisel, otherwise you will ruin the tool blade.
4. Do not press down on the chisel with great force and do not hold it for too long on the disc, this will lead to overheating of the metal and destruction of the blade.
5. While sharpening, wet the blade with water.
6. The final grinding of the chisel blade is best done by hand, using a fine-grained bar or sandpaper.

Do not forget that when sharpening products on the machine, a lot of sparks and small particles are formed that can get into the eyes, so be sure to work with protective glasses. And so as not to injure your hands on the spinning disc, wear gloves.

You can also learn how to sharpen tools from the video:

Tips for sharpening your blade quickly with handy tools

Stone

You can quickly add sharpness to the knife on a hike or on a picnic using an ordinary cobblestone. Use any stone lying on the ground instead of a whetstone and run the knife blade over its surface. You will not achieve razor sharpness, but you will return the knife to working condition.

Second knife

It is quite possible to sharpen two knives at once, without sharpening stones and devices. To do this, you need to take a knife in both hands and start sharpening the blade of one knife on the blade of the other. After 5-10 minutes of such work, the knives will become sharper than before.

Glass objects

The knife blade can be sharpened slightly against the rough edge of glass or ceramic objects. For example, about the bottom of a glass or the edge of a tile. The main thing is that the surface is rough.

Leather belt

A leather belt is more suitable for finishing and shaving the blade of a knife than for rough sharpening. But if there is nothing at hand besides the belt, then you can try to sharpen the knife on it. To do this, you need to give the belt a stretch and start driving the blade along it, you may not achieve a strong sharpness, but you will polish the knife to a shine.


Having learned how to sharpen knives and tools on your own, you will acquire a skill that will be useful to you throughout your life!

A do-it-yourself knife sharpener is very useful in the household.

With the help of simple enough, you can sharpen cutting tools accurately and safely, which is simply necessary in the kitchen, fishermen and hunters, in the workshop.

Of course, a wide range of sharpeners are offered in stores, but homemade devices will save you unnecessary costs.

A dull knife is flour for the hostess when she cuts bread, prepares food, but cuts meat. Cutting is not only difficult for them, but also dangerous, because exactly blunt instruments are more likely to cause injuries... There is no point in proving the need for a sharp blade for a fisherman, hunter, shoemaker, etc. It is absolutely clear to everyone that the knife requires periodic sharpening. Another thing is how to provide it.

Many people use for these purposes means such as abrasive bars, emery wheels and sandpaper, files... Most often, for these purposes, abrasive or grinding stones are purchased, and the procedure itself is carried out "by eye". After such sharpening, the knife becomes sharp, but it also dulls quickly enough.

Why is this happening? The knife blade is made of various steels, has different thickness and sharpening parameters. The process of high-quality sharpening must completely restore the shape of the blade, and only in this case its sharpness will correspond to the planned standards.

Providing uniform sharpening without fixing the position and guiding elements is very difficult even for professionals. The task is much easier when using special devices that allow you to stabilize the processing mode (loads, directions, speed).

For mechanization of rather laborious work, it is better to use appropriate sharpening machines. Both fixtures and machines can be made by hand.

Basic principles of sharpening

When carrying out the correct sharpening of the knife, the main condition must be met - forming a sharp edge of the blade while maintaining its shape, which is ensured by removing the metal at a certain angle.

Turning is carried out with abrasive material, which has different grain sizes. Its choice is determined by the strength characteristics of the steel. Correct sharpening implies a certain order of work.

Sharpening angle

The effectiveness and quality of the measure under consideration is limited by the fundamental parameter - the sharpening angle. Depending on the purpose, the knives have the following meanings:

• the smallest angle has a straight razor - (7-11) °;
• fillet knives - (11-14) °;
• kitchen knives for most products, incl. bread, vegetables, meat, etc. - (16-21) °;
• hunting tools and knives for general technical purposes - (21-26) °;
• universal hunting knives - (21-40) °;
• a special tool that is used for cutting and chopping (for example, a machete) - (29-50) °.

The sharpening angle largely determines the thickness of the blade. At the smallest angles, it should resemble a razor, and at large angles, it becomes possible to make extra strong, massive knives.

Important. Holding the abrasive element and the knife itself in your hands, it is very difficult to provide a given angle along the entire length of the blade, which leads to uneven hand sharpening.

The main task of the adaptation is rigid fixation one of the elements and a clear direction of movement of the second element.

Types and selection of abrasives

For sharpening knives you need abrasive stone, which will provide the necessary metal cutting. Abrasive ability is provided by a certain amount of surface grain size, i.e. the number of abrasive grains per unit area. According to this parameter, the following stones stand out:

• very coarse abrasives (international classification - extra coarse) - have a grain size of less than 260;
• coarse (coarse) abrasives - 310-360;
• medium (medium) abrasives - 390-510;
• fine (fine) abrasives - 590-720. This is the main category of sharpening stones used for cutting knives;
• very fine (ultra, extra fine) or grinding abrasives. They are used for turning razors and fine surface finishing of knives' blades.

By the nature of origin, abrasive stones are divided into natural or natural(corundum, shale) and artificial (ceramics, artificial diamond). In addition, rubber elements are sometimes used for fine finishing. When using abrasives, their surface moistened with water or soap-water solution(water tool) and oil(oil stones).

The shape of the abrasives can be round (discs) or rectangular (bars)... Bars are most often used, and they are selected so that the length significantly exceeded the length of the knife blade.

For complete sharpening of the tool, it is recommended to have 2 bars of medium and fine grain. It is better to complete the kit with a very small stone. The best option is the use of double-sided bars, in which one side has a medium, and the opposite has a fine grain.

Manual sharpening procedure

Any devices are designed to facilitate work and improve its quality, and the general procedure for manual sharpening remains the same:

1. The process begins with a coarse or medium-grained bar, which is laid on a plane. It is desirable to ensure its fixation.
2. The knife blade is brought to the abrasive surface at an angle equal to half the sharpening angle. The main task is to ensure the consistency of the angle throughout the event.
3. With a smooth movement with light pressure, the blade moves from the beginning to the end of the bar in the direction "away from you". The edge of the bar must always be perpendicular to the direction of movement of the blade. Do not allow the blade to break off at the end of the stone.
4. After reaching the edge of the bar, the movement is carried out in the opposite direction, while the sharp edge must constantly be on the surface of the abrasive. Direction change is provided by turning the handle.
5. The process is repeated until a burr appears along the entire length on the back of the blade edge. It should move to the opposite side when changing direction.
6. Next, a bar of medium grain size is taken, but with smaller grains. Sharpening continues, but the movements are carried out at first only "from oneself" until the appearance of a shine of metal on one side, and then the second side is also processed.
7. A block of fine grain is taken and the blade is processed until a mirror surface appears.
8. If a small burr remains, the sharpening is completed by using a very fine sanding stone. Some experienced people prefer to use instead of such a bar. leather belt... It perfectly polishes the knife blade.

Homemade devices

DIYers make sharpening devices of various designs, but they all include 2 main elements - abrasive block and knife attachment mechanism... A ready-made abrasive block is best suited for the fixture, but you can also make it yourself.

To do this, sandpaper of different grain sizes is glued onto glass with a thickness of at least 4 mm. The connection can be secured with double-sided tape.

Fixed device

One of the simplest jigs is done from 2 wooden blocks of a triangular shape... They are fastened together with thumbscrews. An abrasive block is clamped between the wooden elements at the desired angle. This angle is set strictly along the protractor.

When turning a knife on such a device, the blade must be constantly held strictly vertical... Naturally, providing such a direction is much easier than constantly guiding the knife at an angle.

Movable structure

To improve the quality of sharpening, it is necessary to fix not only the abrasive, but also the knife. Such a device can also be made by hand. It is collected on a flat, horizontal, massive surface. The device consists of 2 parts - rigidly fixed abrasive bar at the desired angle(similar to a fixed structure) and trolleys on wheels(rollers) with a horizontally fixed knife.

The cart moves manually along the guide rail. The hand is provided and light pressure on the blade to the abrasive surface. This ensures the correct sharpening angle and eliminates the need for manual guidance.

Changing direction can be done in different ways. The easiest is to make a trolley with wheels at the top and bottom. At the end of the bar, the trolley simply turns over.

Point machine

Sharpening machines have a more complex design, which allows you to change the sharpening angle. There are several options for a constructive solution:

1. A knife is fixed on the platform with the possibility of adjustment. It is set at the required angle and fixed permanently. The abrasive bar is mounted on a movable bar mounted on a vertical support. He moves strictly horizontally. Sharpening is provided by moving the abrasive relative to the knife blade.
2. It is fixed on a fixed frame, but the bar can be displaced along the guide to set the desired sharpening angle. The knife is installed in a movable table, and is fixed with a magnetic holder, which makes it possible to turn it over.

DIY example

As an example, we can cite the technology of self-production of a sharpening device - an analogue Lansky sharpeners... It has a standard design.

The knife is fixed on the horizontal base, and its fastening provides magnet... The emery element is located on a rod along which it can move perpendicular to the knife. The guide rod is installed in the holes of the vertical post.

These holes are drilled at an angle to the surface of the post and thus define a certain angle to the bar. Several holes are drilled vertically in the rack, and by rearranging the guide, you can still change the sharpening angle.

Manufacturing devices are carried out in the following order:

1. On the base plate (, board, sheet metal) with the edge slats are installed limiting the displacement of the knife in the transverse direction. One of them is fastened in the slots on screws with a "thumb" for fixing knives with different blade widths. In the center of the area where the knife is located, the magnet.
2. The emery bar is fixed on two pieces of the corner, which are held together with pins. Holes are drilled on both sides of this part for installation on the rod.
3. Steel rod with a diameter of 10-15 mm is passed through the indicated holes, and at the end is installed limiter to avoid the fall of the bar. The other end is sliced thread.
4. On an aluminum U-shaped profile with a width of 30-50 mm, 5-6 holes are drilled with a diameter 1-2 mm larger than the diameter of the rod. The holes are drilled at an angle corresponding to the sharpening angles, taking into account the height of the position on the rack.
5. The rod is installed in the desired hole and fixed bolts.

Such a device works in the following way:

• the knife is fixed on the base and attracted by a magnet;
• a bar of the desired grain size is installed on the sharpening element;
• the rod is fixed in the desired hole on the rack;
• by hand, the bar moves along the rod, processing the blade, and the movement is carried out "from oneself" and "toward oneself";
• with the other hand, the knife gradually moves in the longitudinal direction.

Watch the detailed drawings, description and illustrations of the knife sharpening device with and without a magnetic holder in the video below:

Scissor sharpener

With the help of accessories for knives, you can also sharpen scissors, but such an event has its own specifics... The sharpening angle is within (60-74) °. Tailoring scissors usually have an angle of (72-74) °. The cutting part at the point of contact of both parts is flat, and the bevel is performed on one side. Main sharpening carried out from the outside, beveled side... The inner surface is only sanded with a fine stone.

The process is carried out in the following order:

1. Disassembly of scissors... To do this, unscrew the screw that holds the halves together and carefully disconnect them. A minus screwdriver is used.
2. With the help of a coarse abrasive, sharpening at the right angle... Movements are made only in one direction - "towards yourself". Half of the scissors are held by the ring and turning begins at the tip of the blade.
3. Using small block, carried out fine-tuning.

Some scissors cannot be disassembled. They can also be sharpened, for which they open up as much as possible. The halves are sharpened alternately.

How to check the sharpness?

There are several popular ways to check the quality of sharpening knives:

1. Paper... Take a sheet of paper (for example, for a printer) and cut a strip at the edge. If the knife is soaked well, then the strip is easily cut and has smooth edges. A dull knife crushes the edge and cuts unevenly, with rags.
2. A tomato... A sharp knife cuts a tomato in half exactly, and a blunt knife crushes it.
3. Arm hair... A sharp blade works like a razor and cuts off hairs, and a blunt tool only crushes them.
4. The sharpness can be checked finger keeping caution. Burrs indicate poor workmanship. Absolutely flat edges indicate quality work.

Knives have a tendency to dull, which interferes with their use. Sharpening devices and machines will help solve the problem by ensuring the correct sharpening of the blade, restoring the specified angle. There are many designs of simple little scissors, and the owner himself must decide which one to choose.

The myth of supposedly self-sharpening knives quickly broke up…. About everyday life. This is not surprising, the laws of physics, there are laws of physics, against them, so to speak, even marketers are powerless. If knives are not sharpened in the house, if you remember the famous bard, there is nothing good. Today, the editors of the site will help solve the problem of dull blades and tell you how and how you can properly sharpen a knife at home. We will introduce our readers to different types of knife sharpening devices, talk about their effectiveness, and also teach how to make a simple sharpener at home.

Read in the article

Types of devices for sharpening knives

The sharpening stone for sharpening knives is probably the very first device of this type. A simple, and, most importantly, affordable tool has been successfully coping with its task for many millennia.

Until now, the classification of machine tools depends on this once uncontested grindstone. By the type of abrasive material, there can be:

• bars;
• sharpening stones.

By drive type:

• manual;
• electrically driven.

At the place of use:

• homemade;
• professional.

However, in the modern world, only a simple hunting knife can be sharpened with a grindstone. In other cases, the quality will be poor. In addition, only soft metals are sharpened with a stone, if the cutting part of the blade has a hardness higher than 55 HRC, you cannot sharpen it with improvised means.

Important! Each blade type has its own edge angle. And during sharpening, it must be held along the entire length of the processed surface of the product.

Several types of modern whetstones are still in use today. An example of this is natural stones - Japanese water stone (we showed it in the photo above) or American "Arkansas". Master grinders even conduct special master classes on sharpening knives using natural stone. Interestingly, before the processing process, it is soaked in water, sometimes with soapy water, and dried after work. The whole process resembles a sacrament for initiates. So it shouldn't come as a surprise that these rocks are too expensive, and most grinding machines use artificial abrasive surfaces.

Knife sharpening bars

These are artificially turned abrasive coated bars suitable for manual sharpening of both carpentry and locksmith tools, as well as for kitchen knives.

Bars, depending on the material from which they are made, can be of different degrees of wear resistance and grain size. Consider the main types of materials that are used in the manufacture of whetstones:

1. Natural stones, such as novaculite or Japanese water stone. It is not very easy to work with such a tool. They require certain skills and skill.
2. Diamond(diamond-coated) - can be of different shapes and grain sizes. Wear resistant. Affordable price.
3. Ceramic... Refers to a more modern type of sharpening bars. Combines the hardness of a diamond coating with the hardness of a natural stone.
4. Artificial: fused alumina or carbide. Fast grinding abrasive, of low quality and the same price.

Artificial abrasives are created by mixing diamond powders of different fractions, as well as electrocorundum and carbide.

Important! In this case, the material used for bonding the rock, as well as the percentage of all elements, is of great importance. The stronger and better the composition (this also applies to the particles themselves), the more resistant the grinding abrasive will be.

Moreover, there are two types of bundles of elements - galvanic and soft bundles. In the first case, the crystals are glued strictly to the surface of their base, made of a nickel alloy. In fact, the crystals are located in a very thin layer on the bar. A soft bond is a chaotic arrangement of bonding and abrasive elements. The second type is less wear-resistant.

Sharpening stones for knives

If we talk in more detail about sharpening stones, you need to talk about the main varieties used in such tools, this will help you understand the process in detail and understand how to sharpen the knife correctly. But before talking about them, one cannot fail to mention the stages of sharpening, which in this context will play a decisive role in the description of different materials and machines.

Stage	Description	Illustration
Sharpening	Restoring a blunt edge without adjusting the sharpening angle.
Debugging	Edge grinding with fine grain abrasives.
Edit	Polishing bevels and cutting edges with a ceramic pencil, GOI paste or on a leather belt.
Resharpening (deep sharpening)	Full restoration of the desired sharpening angle, geometry of the blade profile and elimination of chips on the edge. Most often, this work is carried out on special machines.

Let's move on to describing the main options for sharpening stones.

Japanese water stones

They are used equally effectively at all stages of sharpening. There are artificial analogs (on a ceramic basis), but professionals use original, natural materials. The stones require special care, because the most important rule of the master is the perfectly flat surface of the whetstone.

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"To check the level of the stone, use a simple method. Wet the block and place it on a piece of paper on a flat surface. The print will allow you to assess the level of evenness of the stone.

"

Novaculites, or "Arkansas", "Turkish", "Belgian" stones - natural shale and chalcedony interspersed with the smallest particles of garnet and quartz. Today, both natural stones and their artificial substitutes are used.

Important! The stones only work in combination with a special oil lubricant. The extraordinary and unique structure of the stones allows them to be used at different stages of processing.

Musat for sharpening knives

Musat is a kind of file, most often installed vertically. The peculiarity of the work of this tool is that its surface is magnetized, which means that metal flour will not fall on you.

Musats come in different shapes: round, faceted, flat with beveled edges.

Each variation has its merits. So, for example, a round musat weighs a little, but an oval one sharpens better, since its edges provide more complete contact with the surface to be treated. Quadrangular - more versatile, here you can better refine the required sharpening angle.

Household manual knife sharpening machines

You can talk for hours about the options and varieties of hand-held lathes used in everyday life. These are the usual household mini-sharpeners, known to almost everyone, and more specific devices with a polishing wheel.

The easiest way to work with mini-sharpeners that control the progress of the instrument. In this case, the degree of sharpening depends on the effort that the person makes.

Household Electric Knife Sharpeners

Electric grinders are more convenient. Working with them saves time. Most often, such driven machines have different modes of operation, which are controlled by switches.

Typically, these machines are compact, safe, simple and reliable, since all the grinding wheels are hidden inside the body. In this case, the sharpening angle is regulated by a special spring, which completely eliminates sharpening errors.

Professional manual knife sharpeners

Professional hand tools are a bit like a carpentry vise. The object of sharpening, in fact, a knife, is clamped with special clamps.

The grinder itself is installed on the stop. It is very important to fix the machine correctly and to avoid slipping of the tool during sharpening.

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Tool selection specialist "VseInstrumenty.ru"

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"If you do not have the skills to work with this tool, it is better to use automatic sharpeners. In addition, such a machine cannot be assembled without certain knowledge.

"

Professional electric knife sharpening machines

Professional machines are distinguished by their versatility. Usually this is an apparatus with a massive abrasive disc. Such tools allow you to sharpen not only knives, but also locksmith tools, for example, planers and chisels.

The combination of low speed and constant cooling results in high-quality processing of products already at the stage of forming the incisal edge. And at the final stages of work, they provide the blade with a razor sharpness. The professional tool has a large number of attachments and replaceable discs. Moreover, the clamp, where the blade is fixed, can freely move along the support in the horizontal direction. Moreover, you can adjust the sharpening angle.

How to sharpen a knife correctly

For high-quality sharpening of the machine you need experience and certain knowledge. Let's start with the basics.

Optimal sharpening angles and sharpness for kitchen knives

It's no secret that there are a lot of knives for different materials. A good housewife has her own knife for vegetables and meat. Let's take a look at the correct sharpening angles for different tools.

Tool type	Sharpening angle
Razor and medical scalpel	10-50 °
Professional for chefs	20-25 °
Universal	25-30 °
For complex jobs	25-30 °
Cutlery kitchen utensils	55-60 °
For fillet	15-20 °
Home universal	30-35 °
Boning and butchering	25-30 °
Professional for fish	25 °
Professional for vegetables	35 °
Hunting and "Swiss" (sharp)	30-35 °
Hunting and "Swiss", blunt-resistant	40-45 °

For your information! Blades with a sharpening angle of 50 ° are considered the sharpest knives; such versions, with a certain steel grade, can cut nails. When sharpening knives, you can vary the angle at your discretion within the named range.

In general, the sharpness of the blade depends on the shape of the blade. And she, in turn, must correlate with certain clear correspondences of the relationship between blade and blade.

How to sharpen a knife at home with a bar

The process is simple, but rather painstaking. It is pointless to try this process without sharpening experience. Usually, craftsmen use two whetstones with different abrasive densities - coarse and fine.