Author: wrowand
Date: 2013-05-06 13:11
I like Tom Blodgett's (Jende) short book on sharpening. You can get it from the Jende website and many other double-reed businesses sell it. It's very simple. The main thing is to maintain the angle at which you hold the knife as you move it across the stone.
I use the Shapton glass stones in 500, 1000, 3000 and 6000 grit. I only use the 500 occasionally. These are Japanese water stones and it's an expensive system (after buying stones, a lapping plate and the thing that holds the stones while you're sharpening), and kind of messy, but it works very well.
I like Landwell medium double-hollow-ground reed knives because they are very well made and last a long time. The Jende knives are also excellent, but I find them harder to sharpen as they get older, maybe it's because they are thicker at the back of the blade and I suspect the steel is softer than the Landwell medium. The Rigotti knives are good too, but the steel is pretty soft, I think, so they sharpen quickly but they don't last very long. That's fine because they aren't expensive.
I sharpen a knife on sharpening stones and then I touch up the burr with a forshner sharpening steel that's completely smooth (I think it was called No. 8 when I bought it maybe 25 years ago). You can go back to the sharpening steel many times before having to go back to the stones.
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