[Woodcarver] Sharpening Warren Blades

[Bob Campanaro]

  Hi all,

I just wanted to thank all of you for your input on my "Warren Blade
Sharpening" question.  Although I did expect to get both pros and cons 
on them the info has been very enlightening. It would seem that my 
biggest problems with them are twofold:

1) Maintaining a consistent angle while sharpening (I'm going to invest 
a couple a dollars in a knife jig to help out with that)

an

  2) expecting the process to move along faster than it does. (which I 
guess boils down to patience)


I also could spend a bit more time stropping to keep them sharp once I 
get them there.

Any feelings on the 'power strops'?  Is it easy to 'over strop' tools if 
   if I'm not careful?

Overall, in only a very short time I've learned a great deal from you 
folks about knife blades in general.  Thanks much.




Bob Campanaro
re2camp at aol.com
Stowe, VT



herb hall wrote on 9/1/2004, 6:15 AM:

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 >
 > I have many Warren blades that I have used for years. I didn't like
 > changing
 > blades, so I made my own custom handles for them. I use a hard
 > arkensas oil
 > stone, a medium and a very fine ceramic stone, and a hard leather strope
 > with Herb's yellow stone to sharpen them.
 >
 > Since I carve basswood with these knives the very thin factory edge works
 > well for me. When sharpening I lay the factory bevel flat on the stone
 > and
 > work both sides evenly. I work through the grits getting a wire edge
 > at each
 > step before moving on. On the final stone I may raise the back of the
 > blade
 > very slightly to create a micro bevel.
 >
 > I find the blades are very hard and it takes a long time to sharpen them,
 > but with constant stroping on a very hard flat strope they stay sharp
 > for a
 > very long time.
 >
 > Hope this helps,
 >
 > Herb Hall
 >