Karesuando Bushcraft Knife

My wife was struggling with what to buy me for Christmas this year so I asked for a good bush craft knife. I got a 4" Karesuando Boar knife, I asked for this one as it's not too expensive, has a good quality blade and should last me a long time for camping, hunting, whittling, etc.

Karesuando Boar Knife

The only downside to this knife is the fact it's been sharpened with a slight micro bevel . I decided to touch up the edge myself (in a break in the rain) using a water stone, something I've never used before - I'm more of an oil stone man!

New sharpening method to try

 I bought this water stone about 3 years ago and I've never got round to trying it so I though this would be the perfect thing to test it on. I only used the fine side of the stone (1000 grit) as it didn't need reshaping just continuing the main bevel to a point.

Using the whetstone

 The stone worked well and produced a polished edge, double sided tools are always much harden to sharpen than double edged and it took me quite a while, I could probably do with an even finer stone to get a sharper edge.

birch polypore strop 

 I stropped it using a little strop my brother made for me a few years ago out of birch polypore fungus.

A well balanced knife

I'm look forward to using this knife and with a bush craft course coming up it won't be long until I do.
Hope everyone has a good new year!

Sharpen-up Sunday

There's something strangely therapeutic about sharpening up your tools on a Sunday night ready for the week ahead.
These are my hand tools that need sharpening, and they stay with me everyday of the week.

Sharpening A Gouge On A Felt Wheel

Well I've decided to make my first video (don't take the micky too much) on how I use a felt wheel to hone my gouges and other single bevel tools. I think that this is such a great and easy way of sharpening tools that more people should know about it.





I know that sharpening is always a touchy subject as everyone has their own method but I've tried a lot of them (oil stone, water stone, diamond stones) and for speed and ease this wins hands down for me.
On this video I'm using a medium hardness felt wheel which is great for curved edged tools as it will give to the shape that you press into it. A felt wheel "polishes" the edge on your tool removing very little metal (so little that I normally remove the burr on the other side of the tool with the wheel rather than a slip stone).
Please bare in mind that the tool must be ground correctly first for it to have a good cutting angle when honed up.What method does everyone else use for honing their tools - curved edges in particular?

(also please excuse my t-shirt on the video - I've had people ask me if thats the company I work for in the past!)

Stay Sharp

I'm obsessive about keeping tools sharp and I hate to see people using tools that aren't. That's why yesterday I had to take my current work mates chisels home and sharpen them for him.

He'd brought them new and used them straight out of the box, wrongly assuming that they were sharp from new, a mistake I've seen a lot of people make (in fact I'm sure I thought it at some point).

[Sharpening using an oil stone on my trusty saw horse]

Honing is what gives a single edge tool its sharpness

On site I carry an oil stone to hone a quick edge onto my chisels and plane irons (one day I'll get a diamond stone but for now this does a great job), back at the workshop I use my secret weapon - a reverse running grinder with a felt wheel (the green one on the right hand side in the photo below). This sharpens blades in seconds to a razor edge whilst hardly taking any metal off the tool, it's great for curved tools like gouges - something that most people struggle with otherwise.

[My "sharpening staion" in my workshop]

The grinder on the left (the white one where the wheel needs dressing) is used if the tool needs regrinding (if its been honed too many times and started to "nose over" or if I've hit a nail and taken a chunk out of it), fitted with a number of jigs this enables me to sharpen pretty much everything I've got from woodturning chisels to plane irons.

What systems do other people use? I'd love to hear about them.