My post this week is about staying sharp. How do you stay sharp? I'm talking both literally and figuratively. While I often take training courses, watch training videos, and read voraciously to keep my ever curious mind sharp, I also like to keep my physical tools sharp and functioning well.
In my opinion, a good knife is the number one most important tool. I started to qualify that, but I actually believe it is more important than any other tool.
Even back in the caveman days, one of the first tools was some type of knife, maybe knapped out of stone, or bone, or other objects, then later came the iron and steel we are all familiar with.
This knife is one of my all-time favorites. I carry pretty much around the house and everytime I go out. For those that want more info on the knife, it is a Hogue, specially branded with the SIG logo. It has a great edge, but does require maintenance. This one has been used a LOT, but not abused by prying with the tip, or beating like a hammer, lol. My original post on it was way back in Nov. 2020.
So this is 6 years old now with tons of use. You can see scratches, etc. on the top part of the blade, but the edge has held up wonderfully, cutting everything from rope, to boxes, to cans, to wire, to you name it.
My favorite sharpening tool, and I've had plenty over the decades, is this Worksharp Professional kit. It comes with a great storage case, multiple grit sharpening stones from 220 up to 800, then a nice ceramic stick and even a leather strop for those of you that like those. I generally don't use it and stop at the ceramic crock stick style.
You can see it leaves a beautiful even, straight edge. For this one, you clamp it into the holder, then stroke the stones across the blade, flipping after 10 strokes or so and repeating again and again. After some practice, you can actually hear and feel the difference of how the stone moves across the blade.
Certain knives or other bladed instruments like different sharpening angles. For my kitchen knife and this knife, I prefer around a 19 degree edge. This allows it to be very sharp, yet still not give up all the durability. I'd rather have my knives extra sharp and touch them up (hone) them now and again with a few quick strokes, than to have a more durable setting, like for example an axe. This tool allows me to change with ease and more importantly keep all the strokes consistent.
After a few reps with each stone, it's sharp enough to cut hair and still hold up to everyday use. Of course we must to the mandatory hair slice test.
I think that will pass!
Happy Cutting!
