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Re: Reed Knives

Author: huboboe
Date: 2012-05-22 23:12

I would advise against small, hand-held power tools for a couple of reasons. First, because they are hand held, even if your blade is secured in a vise, the tendency of the tool to 'walk' as it contacts the work makes it very difficult to control. You also won't find abrasives that are nearly fine enough to produce the kind of edge you need on a reed knife.

Custom knife makers work with sanding belts and buffing wheels to make their (sometimes) very beautiful knives, but these seldom have straight-line edges, so they can't be quickly sharpened on a stone the way our reed knives are.

Larger bench grinders have the same abrasive problem: the wheels are so coarse you can't get a fine edge. And both the smaller and larger tools can heat up the blade and ruin your temper.

The only power tool I've seen that has promise is the WorkSharp woodworking tool sharpener. (see it at http://www.worksharptools.com/) I've got the 2000 model, and it allows you to step through abrasive grits from very coarse to 1500 grit on a flat plate that turns slowly enough that it doesn't overheat. I use it in the preliminary stages of sharpening my production knives, but still finish by hand with a fixture to hold a constant angle.

The disadvantage is the same as a stone - without a fixture to hold a constant angle, it is almost impossible to avoid rounding the edge, but you can get almost as good an edge as with a stone and get it much faster.

Robert Hubbard
WestwindDoubleReed.com
1-888-579-6020
bob@westwinddoublereed.com

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