How Small a Knife Can You Sharpen? – Examples

[cbwx34]

This question comes up occasionally, so how about a “How small a knife can you sharpen?” with examples thread.

Post the knife, a brief description, a photo if you can showing it mounted, the angle sharpened at, the dimensions, and any notes.

Here’s an example:

Small “Swiss Army” knife (generic)
Sharpened at 22 deg.
Blade Length 1.3″ Height .230″
Clamped as high as possible

Attachments:

• SmallKnife01.jpg

[Geocyclist]

Thanks for posting. Is 22 degrees your choice or the acutest angle possible with this knife? I have several like this.

[cbwx34]

22 comfortable… 21 maybe 20 if I had messed with using a shorter screw, making sure I was as high as I could, etc. But easily cleared everything at 22.

Edit: p.s. On these style knives, you usually don’t need to go much lower anyway. 🙂

[Geocyclist]

Most of these are FFG. Did you use anything to (moleskin, puffy tape) to keep centering even? Looking at the photo of the vice I don’t see where there would be room. Does it clamp up evenly?

[cbwx34]

It clamped no problem… I don’t think there’s enough taper in this small a blade to be an issue. I didn’t use anything (tape etc.) to hold it.

[Bill Sutherland]

I have some carving knives that most carvers sharpen at 12/13 degrees. I’m encouraged to see these small knives, about the size of my carvers.

[cbwx34]

Tormek came out with a Small Knife Holder, that I thought, “Hey, this might work on the WE”. So I snagged one to try. Here it is setup with the knife I posted earlier in this thread…

It worked! I was able to hit about 14 deg. per side without any fuss (on a PP2 setup). It’s designed primarily for single blade carving knives, so it might require some fiddling if, for example, you wanted to sharpen a small blade that wasn’t centered with the handle.

Has potential, so thought I’d mention it… if you do a lot of knives of this type, might be worth it! 🙂

Attachments:

• SVM-00a.jpg

[Mark76]

Wow! That’s a great device! Can you tell us how well it works? Particularly, is it stable enough in conjunction with the WEPS vise (no wiggling)?

Would it be possible to post some more pictures of it, particularly of the “inside” of the knife holder? I am curious how it can hold any (?) type of knife handle in such a way that it the knife is stable and that the blade is completely centered.

And now I think of it, wouldn’t it be possible to devise vise insert that holds knife handles rather than knife blades? That would be the ultimate solution for ppl wanting to sharpen their blades at angles much lower than 13 degrees.

Molecule Polishing: my blog about sharpening with the Wicked Edge

[wickededge]

Definitely possible Mark. I’ve been devising such a device for a couple of years, just haven’t gotten it completed. Curtis has seen some of the drawings. If a lot of people think they’d like to see it developed, I’ll push ahead with it, assuming I don’t run foul of any intellectual property of Tormec’s.

-Clay

[cbwx34]

Wow! That’s a great device! Can you tell us how well it works? Particularly, is it stable enough in conjunction with the WEPS vise (no wiggling)?

It’s stable… no wiggling at least on small knives. I did stick a bigger knife in it, and it didn’t wiggle, although you start having interference, for exmaple the stones will now hit the handle at lower angles.

Would it be possible to post some more pictures of it, particularly of the “inside” of the knife holder? I am curious how it can hold any (?) type of knife handle in such a way that it the knife is stable and that the blade is completely centered.

Basically, it’s shaped like a ‘V’, then when you tighten it, a strap pulls the knife into the V. Works better than I thought it would when I first looked at it. It has a mark to try and line the blade up vertically (see the instructions), but it’s pretty easy to just eyeball it

And now I think of it, wouldn’t it be possible to devise vise insert that holds knife handles rather than knife blades? That would be the ultimate solution for ppl wanting to sharpen their blades at angles much lower than 13 degrees.

I’ve thought of this too, and actually tried it. On a very small knife you can get away with it, but you start coming across other issues… the interference I mentioned above, plus the fact you lose the ability to adjust the knife horizontally… which then brings up “bevel width” issues as you approach the tip, etc. Probably could be designed around though.

Attachments:

• SVM-00b.jpg

[Bill Sutherland]

Where can you purchase these?

[cbwx34]

Where can you purchase these?

Amazon had them, I called around, all about the same price. They’re selling like hotcakes, I called and talked to the company, so you might have to wait for the next shipment.

Edit: It looks like Steve at Sharpening Made Easy might have them too… I’ve dealt with Steve before, he’s a good guy.

[TrlSeeker]

This is a really exciting device for those troublesome little guys! How repeatable is the setup? Can you get the knife set in there exactly the same spot each time, or is there some guessimation?

[cbwx34]

This is a really exciting device for those troublesome little guys! How repeatable is the setup? Can you get the knife set in there exactly the same spot each time, or is there some guessimation?

Good questions. Haven’t gotten that far, but it doesn’t seem like it would be too difficult to come up with a way of documenting how you set it to repeat the results.

[Eamon Mc Gowan]

Curtis,
You seem to like it so I thought oh what the heck? So mine is on the way. Takes 6-9 days just to ship? But I figure it will be a fun new tool to add in? Now those pesky little blades will be Wicked Sharp!

[Author]

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