Any housewife dreams of sharp knives. It is difficult to do without such cutting tools in the kitchen. Not everyone succeeds in correct sharpening: they seem to have tried, but the knife still cuts badly or quickly becomes dull. Often the reason for this is incorrectly performed sharpening. You can get out of this situation by using a knife sharpening machine.

Sharpener modification

The stores sell a large number of various devices and machines, ranging from the simplest to automatic machines. However, many of them either do not bring sharpening to the final goal, or are too expensive. All machines can be divided into three categories:

• superhard;
• hard;
• soft.

For sharpening, the tool must be manually driven over the abrasive, achieving the desired effect. Many people use this method, but not everyone succeeds. The reason is that for proper sharpening, you must strictly observe the sharpening angle. It depends on the hardness and volume of the material being cut.

For the tools below The following angles must be maintained in degrees:

• razors - 8-12;
• blades for cutting fillets - 10-15;
• kitchen knives - 15-20;
• hunting tools - 20-25;
• heavy knives (for example, a machete) - 30-50.

The next thing you need to pay attention to when sharpening knives is the grain size of the abrasive material. To sharpen very blunt knives, abrasives with a coarser grain are used. This will help remove excess metal faster. When leveling the surface, medium emery stones are used, and for grinding, very fine grain is needed. Usually on emery wheels and bars, the size of the abrasive is indicated in numbers:

• 300-350 - very large, used for pruning;
• 400-500 - medium, allows for basic sharpening;
• 600-700 - small, you can align the blade on it;
• 1000-1200 - very fine, with its help it is possible to grind the tool.

To sharpen a knife by hand, lay a bar or emery wheel on a table or workbench and fix it. The cutting tool is held on the abrasive with the blade away from you, set it to the desired angle. At first they use a protractor. Subsequently, when a certain experience appears, it will be possible to do without it.

They begin to sharpen the blade, strictly observing the angle. Such work requires attention and experience, so it may not work out right away. It will be much more convenient to perform it if you make a device for sharpening knives with your own hands. Do-it-yourself assembled product will cost much less.

Use of machines

The simplest device that can be made at home is a wooden corner. A bar will be embedded in it. The base is made in the form of a box, the size of which is selected according to the abrasive. The second side of the corner has the same shape and is mounted in a vertical position. To make the device more stable, the base is connected to a wide board.

A bar is inserted vertically into the device. In this position, the angle is 0°. To create the desired slope, the lower edge of the abrasive begins to be removed from the vertical, the angle is measured with a protractor. To prevent the bar from “driving”, an emphasis is made at the bottom (you can simply screw in the screw). For sharpening, the blade is driven along the emery in a strictly vertical plane. With fine processing and grinding, the bars are changed. Since the stone does not grind evenly, they constantly need to be leveled with harder bars. Using sandpaper eliminates this hassle.

To do this, you need to take sandpaper with large, medium and fine grain, as well as a leather belt. A bar is cut out of wood according to the size of the abrasive and processed with sandpaper. One blank is made from a leather belt. Each face of the bar is numbered, and the numbers are placed near the upper and lower edges. A tape with a large grain is glued to the plane at number 1, 2 - with a medium grain, 3 - with a fine one, 4 - leather from a belt.

Ribbons are attached indented from the edge. Thanks to this, the numbers will be visible, and the bar will enter the grooves of the box. The blade begins to sharpen from 1 or 2 and then proceed to the next edges. As the sandpaper wears, it is cut off with a knife and a new one is glued. Compared to bars, paper is much cheaper.

Such a device can be modified. The vertical post is attached to the base through a hinge so that it can lean back, increasing the angle of sharpening. On the side where the rack leans, emphasis is placed, for example, two plates fastened together through longitudinal slots with a wing bolt or nut. In this case, the lower edge of the bar will be fixed.

Convenient designs

Although the designs described above have a number of advantages, they have one significant drawback - you need to constantly monitor the vertical of the blade, and this is tiring. Much easier to work with electric machine for processing kitchen tools.

Emery, the so-called device for sharpening knives, greatly facilitates the task. The blade is brought to the circle in such a way that it is directed against its rotation. But even in this case, it is necessary to monitor the angle of sharpening.

To make it easier to work, you can make a wooden stand. It consists of two parts: the base and the actual corner. The support helps to raise the knife to the desired height, another workpiece with an inclined platform is placed on it, it will give the necessary slope to the blade. You can make several such corners, they will be designed for different sharpening methods. To fix the guide, you can use nails without hats. They are driven into the base, leaving 10-15 mm, covered with paint, a corner is applied on top. Painted places are drilled with a drill of the same diameter as the nails.

The device works well when there is no casing covering the emery stone, but this is not entirely safe. In the case of using protection, you can use another stand for sharpening. On the side of the electric grinder, a wooden block with a vertical cut under the knife is installed. The height is chosen so that the angle of the blade being sharpened meets the required condition. The knife is inserted into the cutout and slides over it.

Such an electric sharpener has a significant drawback - it is difficult to set the sharpening angle. To get rid of it, the design should be complicated. To do this, a three-legged holder with the ability to adjust the angle is installed. It is attached directly to the sandpaper, but can also be used as an independent device. To make such a device, skills and special machines are needed, and this is far from suitable for everyone.

Another disadvantage is that when using an electric machine for sharpening knives, the stone is ground. It will have to be constantly corrected in the process of work in order to make the blade sharp. In addition, with this method, the emery is used irrationally, it has to be changed, throwing away a significant part of the abrasive.

Homemade fixtures

Some owners use a manual knife sharpener with an adjustable sharpening angle. The essence of such a device is that one of the elements (knife or abrasive) is in a stationary state, while the other is reciprocated. Two groups of such machines can be distinguished:

• with fixed abrasive;
• with fixed blade.

The first group includes the machine-cart. An abrasive is installed on a flat plane. As such a surface, you can use processed stone or thick glass. For the manufacture of the holder, a board 2-3 cm thick is cut out, its length should be about 1.5 times the abrasive material, the width does not play a decisive role. For best view and a flat surface it is treated with a planer and sandpaper. Along the long edges, the stops necessary to give strength are nailed and glued.

Then you should make wedges. To do this, the processed board is taken again, and a rectangle is cut out. Its thickness should be equal to the height of the abrasive material, the length should approximately correspond to the width of the holder. To calculate the width of the device, you need to subtract the length of the abrasive and the width of the two stops from the length of the holder.

When assembled, the following picture is obtained: an abrasive and a wedge should fit on the holder between the two stops. After that, the rectangle is cut diagonally, but not from corner to corner, but with a slight indentation to make triangles with cropped vertices.

When the wedge and abrasive are placed in the holder, the bases of the triangles are lightly beaten with a hammer. These parts should crawl on top of each other, their overall width increases, and the abrasive is clamped. To prevent the holder from moving on the glass, its bottom is glued with thin rubber.

The cart will allow the knife to move at a constant angle. The wheels can be anything, you can use bearings, as long as they are even. A guide with a blade holder is attached to the cart. Here too There are two ways to adjust the sharpening angle:

• changing the height of the abrasive;
• by turning the guide with the blade (in this case the trolley must have 4 wheels).

In the second option, you can use a rotary mechanism.

Other models

Machine tools in which the machined tool is stationary have gained great popularity. A kitchen or other knife is attached to the inclined platform. Reliable fastening is obtained by using a magnet, and various clamps (spring or threaded) are also widely used.

A bar is attached to the platform on the opposite side of the knife. It is allowed to use a steel bar with a diameter of 8 mm. The slope of the platform is chosen so that it approximately corresponds to the desired angle of the tool being sharpened. A latch is attached to the bar, which, if necessary, can move, thereby more accurately setting the angle. A guide moves freely in it - the same metal rod as the rod. For better sliding, a plastic or nylon sleeve is inserted into the latch.

At the other end of the guide (near the tool being sharpened), two brackets are installed, which are tightened with a nut or lamb. A bar is inserted into them and secured with a lamb or nut.

The machine works as follows: a blade is placed in the clamps on an inclined platform, a bar is pulled together with brackets on the guide, and the desired angle is set with the latch. The angle is measured with a protractor mounted on the blade. With a bar, they begin to make translational movements, processing the entire surface. During grinding, the abrasive is moved in only one direction - from the heel to the blade.

Another machine uses a trapezoid. The long sides are made of steel rods, interconnected by wooden blocks. One rod through the bearing is mounted in the rotary mechanism, the other is a guide along which the bar moves freely. The knife holder is installed under the carriage on a flat surface. If the first rod of the trapezoid gets in the way when sharpening the tool, the stand can be raised higher.

Thin paper, such as newspaper, will help determine the quality of sharpening. It is necessary to try to cut strips from it with quick and smooth movements. If this succeeds, then the blade is sharpened correctly.

Do-it-yourself knife sharpening is a painstaking procedure due to the hardness of the products being cut, the frequency of use of the tool, and the thickness of the cutting edge.

The need for surgery arises regardless of the quality of the blade. How to do it at home? Let's try to figure it out.

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Why do you need to sharpen knives, can you do it yourself

Any hostess knows that knife sharpening is very important: working with a blunt tool is not only difficult, but also dangerous. The process slows down significantly and requires serious effort, as a result of which the muscles of the hand get tired quickly. In addition, the blade is capable of jumping off and causing injury at the most crucial moment.

You can carry the product to the workshop, where you will quickly sharpen it. But where is the guarantee that the work will be done correctly and the blade will not be spoiled? In addition, this service is far from free and requires a significant amount of time. And, sometimes, it is very lacking in preparation for the celebration, for example, in order to cook dinner on time. If the knife sharpening machine is at home, you don’t have to go anywhere. The quality will depend only on your skill, the tools and devices used.

Why knives lose their sharpness

No matter how high-quality the steel of the blade is, sooner or later any knife becomes dull. Why is this happening?

In the process of interaction with the material being cut, the cutting edge loses microscopic fragments of steel. At the same time, its shape changes, and the blade loses its sharpness.

In addition, this process causes deformation of the blade. When cutting products, we apply a force that almost always deviates in one direction or another. Of course, if this were the only reason, then it would not be necessary to sharpen knives so often. Another detail is important, the influence of which on sharpness is much more significant.

Maintaining the direction in accordance with the plane of the blade is almost impossible. As a result, the thin edge is slightly bent, and it becomes much more difficult for the knife to overcome the resistance of the material being cut. This process occurs especially quickly if the blade is made of low-quality steel.

There is a point of view that hot water can dull the blade. To some extent, this is true. In the process of contact with steel, salts dissolved in water react with the metal, causing a change in its properties that is far from for the better. But such an impact is not decisive and has no serious significance.

Prices for knives

Basic principles of knife sharpening

There are several ways to sharpen. The choice depends on the time you have, the purpose of the knife, the tools and fixtures available.

The general principles are:

• initial processing is carried out with a coarse-grained abrasive;
• subsequent grinding is performed with fine-grained material;
• leather or various pastes of varying degrees of abrasiveness are used for final finishing.

To facilitate the work, a purchased or home-made knife sharpening device can be used.

At what angle should knives be sharpened?

The sharpening angle mainly depends on their purpose and, accordingly, the quality of the material from which they are made. What value of the sharpening angle should be for knives designed for various needs is indicated in the table:

In some cases, the angle can be reduced to 15º if the tool is used for a special purpose, such as slicing fresh baked goods.

Applicable materials

Do-it-yourself manual knife sharpeners can be made using bars of varying degrees of abrasiveness. The latter are conditionally divided into the following groups:

• the roughest, which is not applicable in this case (from 200 to 250);
• coarse - to form the profile of the cutting blade of the blade. If there are no visible defects, such stones are not used (from 300 to 350);
• medium - as above, they are used infrequently, mainly for rough adjustment of the blade profile (from 400 to 500);
• small - the main type of stones used for sharpening knives (from 600 to 700);
• very small - used to bring an already sharpened blade to a mirror look.

These stones are made from various materials. A do-it-yourself manual sharpener can be made from natural and artificial bars. Natural - from natural stone (corundum, slate, etc.). Artificial - made of synthetic materials or diamond. Moreover, natural ones wear out more strongly and do not differ in large grain size.

Prices for abrasive stones

abrasive bars

Before use, it is preferable to moisten the bars with water or soapy water.

Note: a bar should be used, having a length significantly exceeding the blade being sharpened.

In addition to abrasive bars, can be used:

• homemade devices that serve as their holder;
• sharpening machines for knives;
• mechanical sharpeners;
• musats - devices for finishing a sharpened blade and representing several metal disks nested one inside the other.

This list may be expanded. We have given only the main tools used.

Manual sharpening rules

In order to sharpen the cutting edge correctly, you must follow the specified sequence of actions:

1. at the initial stage, we perform work with a bar of medium or coarse grain, depending on the state of the blade; it would be more correct to fix the bar from displacement;
2. determine the required sharpening angle; on each side of the blade, its value is half of the total; the main thing is to keep this angle unchanged;
3. movements should not be jerky; no significant effort should be made;
4. the initial move is carried out away from you, the edge must go along the entire length of the bar. Please note: when in contact with the bar, the blade must be directed at a right angle relative to the direction of movement;
5. in the place of rounding of the blade, it should be turned to maintain the desired angle;
6. at the end of the movement, the blade should not come off the bar, because this may cause it to become dull or damage the side surface;
7. then we move in the opposite direction;
8. we continue the sequence of these operations until a bent thin strip appears on the blade; checking for its presence, you can not run your finger along the blade, because you can easily get hurt on sharp edges; if the knife is sharpened correctly, this edge should be the same width on the entire blade;
9. turn the tool over and repeat the operations until a similar result;
10. we take a smaller donkey and sharpen further, but we no longer move on ourselves - only in the forward direction; since the grain of the bar is smaller, the amount of burr along the edge is also reduced;
11. we process the reverse side in the same way;
12. we repeat these operations on both sides on an even smaller stone; if the burr still remains, we remove it with the finest-grained bar; we remind you that the movements are still carried out in one direction - away from you; the pressing force is reduced towards the end of the operation.

Sharpening finished. It is also possible to finish the blade on a leather strip. An old belt will do just fine.

How to make a homemade fixture

It is quite possible to make a machine for sharpening knives at home. Let's consider some of them.

Option number 1: the blade is fixed on a fixed platform

This device helps to sharpen the blade, providing the required edge angle. Below is a do-it-yourself knife sharpener. Drawings and drawings.

A homemade knife sharpener can be made in the same way as shown in the figure.

The principle of operation and design are clear. The manufacturing sequence is as follows:

1. the base can be chipboard or steel plate; it is marked and drilled under the stand and blade holder;
2. on the side of the base opposite to the rack mounting, a hole is drilled for the M8 bolt for attaching the knife clamp;
3. two M10 studs are made: one for the stand, the second for the holder for the abrasive bar;
4. a bracket is made for mounting the holder's stud on the rack (by drilling and bending a steel or aluminum plate;
5. brackets of the whetstone holder itself are made from two corners;
6. a clamp for the blade is made;
7. the structure is assembled in the form shown in the figure.

This device has one drawback: it is not able to provide a right angle between the movement being performed and the blade edge in the place of its rounding.

Option number 2: with a movable platform and a magnetic holder

This problem is solved by the following construction. It is performed in the same way, but a magnetic holder is used to attach the knife. Thus, it is possible to move the magnetic holder with the blade installed in it and turn it to the required angle. This knife sharpener is available with a base plate or can be attached to a table as shown in the photo.

It will greatly facilitate the process of sharpening knives.

How do-it-yourself planer knives are sharpened

Any man who has such equipment in the house has dealt with the sharpening of his knives. To do this, special tools and abrasives are used. Of course, if the machine is often used, it is advisable to have the necessary device at home. Consider how to do it yourself.

How to make a machine for sharpening a planer knife yourself (step by step instructions)

To make a do-it-yourself grinder for straightening this knife, you will need to select the necessary parts:

• plan-washer;
• bed;
• electric motor;
• a vacuum cleaner;
• fencing.

Production is carried out as follows:

1. The electric motor is mounted directly under the bed; be sure to take care of the equipment with its control buttons "stop", "start";
2. A plan washer is installed on the output shaft, which is closed with a square fence with a cut groove;
3. On the lower plane of the table, a hole is made according to the size of the vacuum cleaner sleeve, the latter is designed to remove the dust generated during sharpening.

What you need to know

The electric motor may not necessarily be fixed under the base of the plan-washer. It is possible to use a belt drive, but this will complicate the design.

With this machine, you can also sharpen axes and saws.

Ice screw sharpening

The sharpness of the ice drill allows the fisherman to make no effort to drill holes in the ice during winter fishing. But for this it is necessary to sharpen the knives of this device.

Sharpening methods are quite diverse. One of them is the use of a self-made tool.

How to make an ice drill machine with your own hands

Two steel strips 4 mm thick and 60x200 mm in size are required. Automotive spring steel can be used, but it is difficult to bend. Therefore, it is advisable to choose a different material.

Progress

First, the fixture frame is made. The strips are bent so that the knife chamfers, which are pressed against the edges of the rounding, are at the same level and are parallel to each other.

Then a clamp for sharpened products is made from another strip.

Holes are made in the plate and body. The clamping plate is bolted to the body, with the knives clamped. It is checked how tightly they fit to the surface of the end part of the abrasive wheel.

If the angle of the knives is incorrect, the device should be modified by bending the arc of the body. After making sure of the correct placement, we disassemble the fixture and weld the stiffeners to the body arc.

It is better to place the emery wheel horizontally, this ensures water retention on its surface. Cooling the knives with water will avoid overheating of the steel during sharpening.

Minus the device

The disadvantage of this machine is the impossibility of its use if the chamfers on the knives are located at different angles. Since different manufacturers of ice screws have different designs, a universal attachment can be of great help.

Implementation of a universal device for sharpening an ice drill

It allows you to overcome the above obstacle. Adjustment of knives is carried out by screws, besides, the possibility of reliable fixation in different positions relative to the abrasive wheel is provided.

This device will require door hinge with a minimum stroke and an M8 screw with a nut. Holes up to 7 mm in diameter are drilled on the shelves of the canopy to secure the knives.

A clamping plate with a groove for the clamping screw is made from a 3 mm thick metal strip. They are boiled to the slats of the canopy.

Additionally, you can drill a few more holes, for greater versatility of the device, so that you can sharpen non-standard knives.

How to sharpen planer knives

This equipment is also widely used at home. It allows you to bring the raw lumber to the required condition. Naturally, sharpening knives for woodworking machines is periodically required.

To make the necessary devices, you will need different materials: steel, wood, etc.

The latch itself is made of wood. Grooves are made on it at 45º. Editing of knives is carried out by a belt grinder or an abrasive bar.

It is important to maintain the exact angle - this ensures the correct processing.

Sharpening with an electric sharpener

Equipment equipped with an electric drive greatly facilitates the work and reduces the duration of the process. But such devices require precision movements and experience.

Do-it-yourself electric knife sharpener is performed with an installed handpiece to support the product being sharpened, with the ability to adjust the gap between it and the abrasive wheel.

Note: must be equipped protective shield to protect your eyes from dust.

Processing is performed by the front surface of the circle. You can not use its side faces. The knife is installed on the handpiece with the cutting edge up and held along the axis of the product. The movement is carried out evenly, smoothly, without strong pressure.

After sharpening on both sides, the final refinement of the cutting edge should be carried out with fine-grained stones until the bend of the edge of the blade disappears completely.

Of course, a do-it-yourself knife sharpener can be made, but specialized sharpeners are offered for sale, which are absolutely safe and allow you to freely sharpen knives for any purpose.

To do this, after turning on the device, the knife is inserted into the desired slot and evenly drawn along it until the edge is completely sharpened.

These devices provide excellent sharpening quality. Their disadvantage is the inability to adjust the angle of the cutting edge.

Useful video: knife sharpener ideas

Whatever equipment and tools you use, the main thing is to observe safety when performing this operation. Remember that it is much easier to cut yourself with a dull knife than a sharp one. Therefore, let the knives in your house always be sharpened.

1. Why you need a sharpener
2. How do you sharpen a knife?
3. Sharpening profiles
4. Touchstone
5. Knife sharpeners
6. Knife sharpening machine
7. Not only knives...

Interest in how to make a knife sharpener with your own hands arises for a reason. The consumer qualities of a hand cutting tool are enhanced by the use of modern materials and technologies for blade manufacturing and precise factory sharpening. At the same time, the price of the product is also growing, but it is becoming easier to spoil a fairly expensive thing with primitive sharpening. Therefore, various household appliances for sharpening knives are needed not only for convenience. To figure out why a knife sharpener is still needed and how to make it right, you have to start with the ideology and evolution of the knife.

Why you need a sharpener

A living relic of our days is a Finnish hunting knife. Not a bandit finca, sometimes of a bizarre shape, but a Finnish-type hunting knife, on the left in fig. Traditional hunting knives (center and left) are similar in shape to it, but the difference between them is very large.

The blade of a Finnish knife is forged from bloomery iron, which can be smelted right in your yard from swamp ore in a domnitsa furnace, without resorting to the blast furnace process, puddling, and other methods of converting cast iron into iron and steel. The viscosity of bloom iron is excellent, it is very difficult to break a blade from it. But the hardness is also low, somewhere around HRS55, the knife gets dull pretty quickly. Finnish hunters did not care: a blade of such hardness can be directed (sharpened) by beating on many natural stones, and there were always enough smoothed moraine boulders in Fennoscandia.

They sharpen the knife with a beating in much the same way as they beat off a scythe, only the touchstone is motionless, and the blade is moved. First, he is pulled along the donkey with the butt away from himself, then he is turned over and pulled with the butt towards him. The position of the cutting edge (RK) on the touchstone is always dragging; the movements are fast: shirk-shirk! On each movement, you need to keep the contact patch of the blade with the touchstone (see below), but the requirements for maintaining the angle of inclination are not so strict. Learning how to sharpen a knife with a bevel is not very difficult, and with some skill, you can also aim a smoothly running profile at the blade, see below. However, the Finnish knife is, in general, a dead end in the evolution of a cutting tool that has survived in special natural conditions.

A good knife has never been cheap, and in an extreme situation, the durability of the blade, combined with the viscosity of the blade, became vital circumstances. Therefore, even in ancient times, knife blades learned to be hardened from the surface and cemented: the core remained viscous, not brittle, and a hard, hardened crust formed on the outside, see next. rice.:

It is still possible to direct a knife with a cemented blade with a beating, but a skill is needed that is not given to everyone. And the abrasive is already needed from a special breed of stone - lithographic grunstein shale. It is scarce in nature; grunstein is still considered a strategic raw material. There is no artificial grunstein and is not expected. Spoiling a cemented knife with an inept chop is as easy as shelling pears - a little somewhere, the cementation bark will be torn off to raw metal (this is not visible to the eye), the knife will only be thrown away, the blade will immediately become dull and will crumble.

Note: if you have an old slightly greenish scythe touchstone lying around somewhere, do not throw it away, it is a valuable rarity.

Knife blades don't need the toughness and toughness of hunting and camping knives, and they should cost a lot less. As a result, special steels and powder metallurgy are widely used in the production of home knives. The blade of the "eternal" kitchen knife is structured like a rodent cutter: in longitudinal layers, the hardness of which decreases from the core outwards. In any case, you have to sharpen the knife less often, but the beating is definitely excluded - the blade from it immediately crumbles.

How do you sharpen a knife?

For these reasons, the push-pull sharpening technology (push-pull sharpening or push-pull sharpening technique) has long been invented:

1. The blade is pushed along the touchstone away from oneself with a twist, holding the butt towards oneself, the position of the RK is running (scraping);
2. Then, without tearing the blade from the touchstone, pull it with the butt towards you with a twist in the opposite direction, the position of the RK is dragging;
3. The blade is turned over and repeat paragraphs. 1 and 2;
4. Pp. 1-3 are repeated, in each cycle reducing the pressure, until the burr formed on the RC comes to naught (does not stick together).

Note: when they say or write “the burr will go away”, etc., this is not true. Metalheads have a slang word for slang; electricians have a “switch”. But in Russian, a burr and a switch are masculine.

Push-pull sharpening saves the blade, but requires high skill from the operator, because. during the sharpening process, a number of conditions must be continuously and precisely observed, see also fig. below:

• Maintain the angle of inclination of the blade to the touchstone, smoothly changing it in accordance with the curvature of the RK.
• Make sure that the tangent to the generatrix of the blade and transverse axis the contact spots of the RK with the touchstone coincided.
• Also make sure that the axis of the contact patch is always perpendicular to the longitudinal axis of the touchstone.
• Smoothly change the pressure on the blade as the area of ​​the contact patch changes.

It is very difficult to meet all these conditions at the same time, completely symmetrically on the forward and reverse stroke of the blade along the touchstone, and a modern knife, as mentioned above, can be damaged by improper sharpening. Any household knife sharpener is just designed to save the grinder from continuous control of at least part of these conditions.

Note: for successful push-pull sharpening, the length of the whetstone (see below) must be at least 2 lengths of the knife blade from shank to tip.

Sharpening profiles

The profile of a knife blade is linked to the properties of the material and the structure of the blade, as well as to the properties of the materials for which the tool is intended to be processed. Sharpening on a simple blunt wedge (pos. 1 in the figure) gives a stable but rough blade: cutting resistance is high, and the knife tears quite viscous materials. A sharp wedge (pos. 2) quickly becomes dull or chipped; on viscous and / or fibrous materials, the cutting resistance may be greater than with a blunt wedge due to the friction of the cut against the blade.

Ideal in all respects is an animated (smoothly escaping) profile, pos. 3. Experts are still arguing which generator is better - evolvent, hyperbola or exponential. But one thing is indisputable - it is difficult and expensive to make an ogival blade under production conditions, and it is impossible to direct it yourself. Therefore, knives with ogive sharpening are used only in special equipment, for example. microtomes - biological devices for obtaining the thinnest tissue sections.

For disposable blades, e.g. blades of safety razors, faceted sharpening is used, pos. 4, i.e. An ogive generatrix, as mathematicians say, is approximated by line segments. The number of sharpening edges is indicated in the certificate or on the manufacturer's website. For thick coarse bristles, 3-4-faced is better; for delicate hair not on the face - 8-sided. Universal is considered 6-sided.

Corner?

The sharpening angle is always given in half? many tools and, for example, bayonet-knives, are sharpened on one side. For knives for various purposes corner? kept in the wake. limits:

LM

It does not require any special skills and the use of a manual sharpener for knives such as Lansky-Metabo, pos. 1 in fig. The scheme of its device is given in pos. 2, and the order of use - on pos. 3. The disadvantage of the Lansky-Metabo sharpener is the instability of the sharpening angle along the length of the blade: a rod with a whetstone is driven along it. The offset of the touch point is constantly changing, because it describes an arc of a circle, and the blade has a different configuration. Resp. "floats" and the corner. Therefore, the Lansky-Metabo sharpener is mainly used for sharpening hiking and hunting knives with a relatively short blade.

However this shortcoming it is possible to turn it into dignity if the blade is clamped in the terminals with the root part A (at the handle) and the tip slightly turned away from you, pos. 4. Then, at the root of the blade, the sharpening angle will be the largest, which is optimal for processing hard materials or using the knife as a cleaver. So after all, they work in such cases, so that the outer arm of the arm-blade lever is shorter.

Towards the middle of the blade B, the sharpening angle will gradually decrease and reach a minimum at the bend of its generatrix B1, which is convenient for fine work. Then, towards the B tip, the angle will increase again, which will make the tip more resistant to drilling, gouging/impact and breakdown (piercing).

Note: Another disadvantage of the Lansky-Metabo sharpener is the difficulty of execution in the desktop version. But this shortcoming, as they say, is fake, see pos. 5.

Detail drawings of the original Lansky-Metabo sharpener are given in fig. The numbers at the windows for the bar (guide) correspond to the FULL sharpening angles.

On the trail. rice. Dan Assembly drawing clamp, and then - the drawings and dimensions of the Lansky-Metabo terminals, made from a corner 90x90x6 mm. The author of the development hides under the pseudonym Serjant. It is certainly a matter of his modesty. But, by the way, in the production of technological innovations that allow for the manufacture shaped parts use standard profiles, sometimes valued more expensive than serious inventions.

Note: on the trail. rice. given the assembly drawing of the sharpener Serjant. As for the inconvenience of fixing in a vice - see above.

Knife sharpening machine

The most advanced household manual sharpener today is the Apex type knife sharpener. His appearance, device diagrams and how to use, see fig. Apex can be made with a continuously variable sharpening angle (pos. 2) or fixed angles like Lansky-Metabo (pos. 3). Normally, they work on Apex as on Lansky-Metabo (pos. 4), but other options are possible for more accurate sharpening, see below.

In 2016, in Runet, it made a noise, perhaps, no less than once the bubafonya stove, the desktop modification of Apex by Ivan Skomorokhov, see fig. on right.

Skomorokh sharpeners are much simpler than the prototype and in no way inferior to it in functionality.

How to make a knife sharpener Skomorokh, see video:

• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h3HbX03YYTs - Part 1
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8DKSCZIZIK4 - Part 2

Not only knives...

The original Apex sharpener is not very suitable for sharpening carpentry tools- chisel, planer iron. Apex's sharpening angle floats for the same reasons as Lansky-Metabo. Meanwhile, if the angle of sharpening the chisel along the width of the blade “walks” by more than 1-1.5 degrees, then the tool strives to go sideways, crawl out or go deep into the solid wood along its fibers. It is very difficult to choose a groove for a spike / comb evenly and accurately with such a chisel.

There are special devices for sharpening carpentry tools, about which a special conversation is needed. Homemade products like a roller cart sharpener, see fig. on the right, rather curiosities: not to mention the complexity, they require a stone or steel table, and, most importantly, they do not guarantee against misalignment of the blade on the whetstone, which leads to the same undesirable result.

Meanwhile, 2-3 years ago, in one of the Chinese magazines on technical creativity, Apex’s refinement flashed for sharpening, not inferior to that on a factory electric grinding semi-automatic. The alteration is not difficult, see Fig.: the bar is set horizontally according to the level and the horizon of the bar is held along it, leading to sharpening. Within the angle of rotation of the rod in the horizontal plane of 10-12 degrees to the right and left, the sharpening angle error is less than 1 degree. If the extension of the point of contact is from 250 mm, it is possible to sharpen chisels and pieces of iron planers up to 120 mm wide.

In this mode of operation, zero (theoretically) sharpening angle error can be achieved by keeping the bar stationary and moving the knife held by the magnetic holder, see above. Thus, it is also possible to sharpen the irons of shaped planes if a round cross-section, semicircular, elliptical or segmental whetstone is placed in the clamps. The main thing is that the touch spot should always be a point.

...but also scissors

Another refinement of the Apex sharpener for sharpening scissors (also a necessary thing in the household) is shown in fig. on right. Total work - a couple of pieces of a corner or scraps of galvanization and 4 additional holes in the sharpener table. How to make a do-it-yourself attachment for sharpening scissors for a Skomorokh sharpener, see next. video.

Video: sharpening scissors, attachment to the sharpener Skomorokh

One last thing about scissors

Before grabbing badly cutting scissors and sticking them in the sharpener, check to see if the hinge is loose. Open the scissors and look at them from the side. See how the tip is wrapped with a screw towards each other? That's why scissors cut: the point of contact of the blades during cutting shifts from the roots to the ends. And therefore it is difficult to cut with scissors with the left hand: the inversion of the ends is designed for the kinematics of the right. And if the hinge of the scissors is loose, the blades will move away from each other and will not even cope with paper. In this case, you just need to tighten the riveted hinge with a hammer, and the screw hinge with a screwdriver.

Almost every person in life is faced with the question of sharpening knives. After all, any knife, regardless of its quality, sooner or later becomes dull. Therefore, the blade must be carefully looked after.

In stores today you can choose any sharpener among a huge variety.

What are sharpening stones?

In general, there are several main types of such devices. Namely:

Oil, on the surface of which there is oil, especially to save material.

Water, similar to the previous one, but water is used here.

Natural, industrially processed.

Artificial, made from non-natural materials.

Rubber, extremely rare. Completely inconvenient to use.

Nuances in the issue of sharpening

There are moments in sharpening every knife.

For example, a Japanese self-sharpening type requires special attention from a rather experienced specialist, since the Japanese type of steel is quite fragile. To sharpen them, manufacturers give a recommendation to use different water stones, endowed with a variety of grain sizes.

Mistresses use sharpeners bought in the store for sharpening. When using several knives, their sharpness lasts longer.

But this is very important, even though it takes a lot of time and effort.

How to sharpen knives properly?

For this, special conditions must be created. Thanks to them, the knife will remain sharp for a very long time.

Therefore, it is important to choose the right angle at which you will sharpen your knives. According to the basic rule in this matter, the smaller the angle at which the knife is sharpened, the stronger the cutting edge will be.

It is important not to forget that the next sharpening depends on the maximum sharpness. The sharper the knife, the faster it will need to be sharpened. At the same time, it will be much more difficult to make it “workable” again.

Why sharpen knives?

The purpose of sharpening is to restore the sharpness of the blade. To do this, take care of the correct sharpening angle. That is, it is necessary to restore the previously set angle that meets the standards from a technological point of view.

To check how well the sharpening is done, cut the material that is cut with the blade of this particular knife. If the material is cut elementarily, you will do everything absolutely right.

Possible problems during the sharpening process

In order to choose the right angle correctly, it is important to have some experience, without which it is quite difficult to cope with this issue. And even more so if there is no special equipment for this.

After all, if you hold the knife with your hands during the sharpening process, it is quite difficult to achieve its ideal “sharpness” as a result.

How do you sharpen knives at home?

Sometimes it happens that the knife needs to be sharpened quickly. A block of wood, a hacksaw, sandpaper, a ceramic plate, a chisel, etc. can come in handy here.

And there are even those who can sharpen on the foundation of cement with sand. But, this method is not recommended at all. After all, there are many other and more proven ones!

The best of all is to make a homemade device. It is not only convenient, but also indistinguishable from the factory.

How to sharpen a planer knife

An experienced professional master who has not only knowledge, but also skills in this matter can handle knives of such a plan. The process is quite complicated actually.

At the same time, in a simple store, equipment for sharpening such a knife is quite difficult to find. You should know what will help here modern instrument, in which you can set low speed with water cooling.

It is necessary to apply a new stone on which a flat surface. The best will be exactly the water type of stone.

In addition, without having certain experience and skills in sharpening planing knives, you can also contact the service station, where you probably have equipment such as a sharpener.

Often, ordinary abrasive bars are used to sharpen knives at home. But their use requires special practice, since with the wrong angle for sharpening, the result will be disastrous. The blade will not have the proper sharpness, which will require additional processing.

Rules for sharpening knives

The layout of the bar relative to the blade

Before starting production homemade device for sharpening knives, you must read the recommendations of specialists. At the first stage, it is necessary to determine the angle between the working part of the blade and the bar. This can be done individually for each model.

The knife should be located strictly perpendicular to the direction of the bar. The angle in this case can be equal to half the sharpening. This is due to the fact that grooves are formed on the surface of the blade during processing. They appear due to the action of abrasive components. With the minimum graininess of the tools, they will be insignificant. But there will also be a small degree of impact on the knife.

In addition to this factor, when sharpening a knife with your own hands, you should consider:

• the average sharpening angle is 20-25 degrees;
• processing is performed from the beginning of the blade;
• to control the sharpening angle, you can paint over part of the blade with a marker. In this way, the actual area of ​​influence can be controlled.

It should be remembered that the deformation along the entire length of the working blade will be non-uniform. Therefore, when doing sharpening with your own hands, the “report point” should be the bluntest part of the knife.

The resulting grooves due to the impact of the bar must be strictly perpendicular to the line of the knife. This is the main condition for proper sharpening.

The choice of whetstones for sharpening knives

Blades for sharpening knives

The main component of a homemade sharpening machine will be a bar. This is an abrasive material that, when exposed to the blade, thins it, increasing its sharpness. Therefore, before choosing a design, you should choose the right bars.

The main indicator of the bar is the grain size, but the dimensions should also be taken into account. Ideally, the length of the tool should be no less than the length of the knife. This will ensure uniform processing, reduce the likelihood of defects.

To sharpen knives with your own hands, you will need the following types of bars:

• high graininess. With their help, primary processing takes place, the shape of the blade is corrected;
• medium grit. They are designed to remove the grooves formed during the first operation;
• whetstone or leather belt rubbed with GOM paste. This stage is called polishing or finishing the blade.

The main task of drawing up a design scheme is correct location bars. Therefore, we will consider several options for fixing them relative to the knife blade.

For sharpening ordinary kitchen knives, two types of whetstones will suffice - with high and medium grit. Additionally, they will need a donkey.

Simple version of the machine

Simple knife sharpening machine

The simplest version of the machine design is two pairs wooden slats interconnected with adjustable screws. A bar is attached between these components.

The main condition in the manufacture of this design is stability. During operation, it should not change its location on the desktop. For better fixation of the bar, it is recommended to provide support strips located between the wooden components.

Despite the ease of manufacture with your own hands, this machine has several disadvantages:

• the blade is set manually relative to the stone. During prolonged work, it is not always possible to control the sharpening angle;
• an additional fixing unit is required. Since the design must be stable, it is researched to fix it rigidly on the desktop;
• during operation, the screeds can loosen, thereby changing the location of the bar.

The main advantage of this scheme is the ease of fabrication. The design is suitable for sharpening kitchen knives at home. As additional components, you will need a touchstone.

The thickness of the wooden slats can be different. Actually for self-manufacturing such a design, you can use any improvised materials.

Manual sharpening machine with bar adjustment

Sharpening machine with the ability to adjust the position of the bar

To achieve the best result, it is recommended to take the drawings of factory tool models as a basis. Their difference from the above instructions lies in the rigid fixation of the knife, but this will require great effort for the manufacture of.

The design consists of a support table on which the knife blade is attached. A screw rack is installed in a vertical position. A strap with a slot is attached to it. The sharpening stone is mounted on a guide rod. The sharpening angle is changed by moving the slotted bar along the screw post.

Features of the operation of a machine of this type:

• sharpening angle is set with high precision. Its change depends on the thread pitch of the rack;
• instead of a bar, you can use sandpaper. For this, the base is made of plexiglass. A hole is made along it for installation on a guide rod. Sandpaper is glued to the surface of the plexiglass;
• the support base is best made wide. This will make it possible to fix it with clamps on any countertop.

The main problem with this design is the long adjustment of the sharpening angle. This can affect the speed of work if several types of knives are being processed. Each of them requires a long setup of the machine.

To increase the quality, you can use water or oil. They are applied to the abrasive surface, thereby reducing the impact of the chipped particles of the bar on the blade.

Sharpening machine with knife position adjustment

Alternative knife sharpening machine

An alternative manufacturing option for the machine is to change the position of the knife relative to the stone. In general, the design is in many ways similar to the one described above, but much easier to manufacture.

A movable fastening block for a pin with a stone is installed on the base. Two clamps are mounted on the same plane. One of them will be persistent, and the second - adjustable. By changing the distance between the clamps, you can adjust the angle of sharpening.

The main disadvantage of this design is the wear of the bar in one place. To solve this problem, it is recommended to make a long pin to adjust the position of the edge relative to the blade.

In addition to the above schemes, there are a lot of grinding machines that you can do yourself. When choosing the optimal model, one should proceed from the actual availability of improvised materials. It is also recommended to analyze factory machines. Often they are the basis for the manufacture of a unique design.

To get acquainted with the manufacturing features, it is recommended to watch thematic video material, which describes in detail the machine for sharpening knives with your own hands:

Do-it-yourself knife sharpener drawings. Knife sharpener Lansky drawing. How to make a Lansky knife sharpener. I needed a knife sharpener. Mostly out of curiosity, what kind of animal it is and what it is with. I can sharpen any knife with my hands, but the convenience, and the need for which device in the household should be clarified. Searching the Internet, I found several suitable designs. The simplest and most famous of all was the LANSKY knife sharpener. Any person can sharpen a knife on such a device without special knowledge and skills. It is enough to understand the principle, but it is elementary and any knife will be razor sharp.

As it turned out, Lansky's sharpener is quite expensive. 1400 rubles minimum for a basic set of a clamp, three stones and a jar of oil. The photo is shown below.

Cursed greed: They ask for a lot of money for a sharpener, and there are three pieces of iron bent at the knees, two screws, and a few pebbles. The hucksters are real.  Additional sharpening stones can be purchased separately, but not up to them yet.

A sharpener seems to be needed, but I don’t want to pay money for it at all. Therefore, it must be done by yourself. I carefully examined the design of the Lansky sharpener, and came to the conclusion that there are no problems to make such a piece of iron at home from improvised materials.

The principle of operation of the sharpener is very simple and can be seen in the picture. translational movements grinding stone we form a smooth cutting edge on the blade of a knife fixed in the jaws of a special clamp. By successively changing the grinding stones with coarse grain to fine and very fine, we bring the knife to razor sharpness. stone movement

By rearranging the guide from the grinding stone in the holes in the terminals, you can get several sharp sharpening angles on the cutting edge. But since the cutting edge of the knife can be fixed at different distances from the jaws of the clamp, the sharpening angles float. And they are, in fact, close to necessary. This in turn affects the cut of the knife, but only slightly that the user does not notice the difference, so you can close your eyes to the floating of the angle.

After rummaging through the bins of the Internet, I found drawings of clamping jaws. I redrawn it in a more readable form and converted all dimensions to millimeters, since the Lansky sharpener is made in the USA, and there, as you know, they use the inch system, not the metric system. Everything is pretty simple.

I drew in detail my own design of a clamp for a grindstone on a computer. And did the detailing. This design has a number of advantages. Grinding stones can be of different lengths, a pebble can work alternately with four sides, and not one like Lansky's branded stones, which affects the sharpening time. The greasy side of the whetstone can be quickly changed to a clean one, and the Lansky stones will have to be cleaned.

I bought a hairpin with an M6 thread in a store, it cost 20 rubles per meter rod, sawed off a 160 mm long hairpin with a hacksaw and processed the ends with a file, removing burrs.

The guide was made from an electrode for manual electric welding, I asked for it in the welding shop, they gave me several pieces without any problems. Also, electrodes can be bought on the construction market, they are sold by the piece, they cost mere pennies, they give 3-5 rubles apiece. The brand of the electrode is not important, the main thing is a straight, elastic, smooth and thin cylinder. He beat the flux with a hammer and lightly cleaned it with sandpaper, removing burrs and flux residues. I bent the letter G with the help of pliers and sawed off the excess with a hacksaw, according to the drawing.

Taking advantage of his official position, he ran to the machine shop, rummaged in a box with scraps of metal, since there are a lot of scraps, found pieces of iron that were suitable in size, made of some kind of raw carbon steel, type steel 3. Sawed off to size with a hacksaw for metal, processed the burrs with a file, and marked the centers of the holes. Using a drilling machine, I drilled holes in the clamps and then cut the threads with a hand tap, remembering to add a drop of machine oil to the hole to reduce friction. I sawed the steps on the clamps with a hacksaw and adjusted them with a file, after which I polished the surfaces of the clamps on sandpaper.

I washed the pieces of iron in soapy water, thereby getting rid of the remnants of oil and chips on the thread, dried it and, glowing over the flame of a gas stove, dipped it in liquid machine oil. Used for this event a "fishing rod" made from an electrode for manual welding and a piece of steel wire found in wire stocks. Clamps were used as "bait". Each detail was burnished separately. I cleaned the threads from oil residues with a long bolt and thoroughly washed the finished parts in soapy water.

I twisted together, according to the drawing, the clips and the hairpin, not forgetting to drop a drop of nail polish (I stole the vial from my wife), into the connection of the left clip and the hairpin. So that the hairpin does not spontaneously unwind, and eliminate play. After the varnish had dried, I inserted the donkey between the clamps, carefully tightened the nut and aligned the guide pin along the bottom plane of the stone.

At the nearest construction site, I found a piece of an ordinary metal corner with a shelf width of 90 mm and a thickness of 6 mm. However, such iron can be bought on the construction market or found at the nearest construction site. If you politely ask, they will saw off blanks to size for a small fee or "liquid" currency. Such goodness is also in bulk in landfills construction debris, at scrap metal collection points, you can be asked to give way for a small amount of money, that is, finding suitable blanks is not a problem.

I redrawn the original dimensions of the Lansky sharpener for the corner 90x90x6 mm. Since I already had an M6 tap at my disposal, I replaced the thread in the original Lansky clamp with an M6 thread for my sharpener. The uniformity of the dimensions of fasteners reduces the cost of manufacturing the structure. In addition, there were small stocks of M6 screws for an Allen socket of a suitable size.

And I drew the entire assembly and drew a 3D model of the sharpener in detail on a computer. Here's what happened

Having filed the corners with a grinder, processed the cuts with a file from burrs and cleaned the surfaces of paint with a metal brush and sandpaper. I leveled the planes from irregularities with a file and put sandpaper on a piece of chipboard and brought out the ideal plane. I marked and drilled holes in the horizontal shelves, according to the drawing. With the help of a grinder and a file, I grinded off the bevels on the sponges so as not to interfere with the movement of the grindstone. Carefully sanded the marks with sandpaper. I removed the radii in the corners with a file. I found a long bolt and an M10 wing nut in stocks of fasteners.

I marked and drilled holes in the vertical shelves. On the outer side of the corner, using a large-diameter drill, he removed large chamfers, and bored the holes with needle files to an elongated groove.

I scrolled the holes in the sponges and cut the M10 thread under the rack. The stand will serve as a large bolt with a nut. For this bolt, the entire system will be mounted in a desktop vise. A tightened nut on the strut will prevent the structure from turning and play.

Gathered everything together, fixed the knife, everything, you can use it.

After a few days of operation, I made minor adjustments to the design of the terminals. I drilled a couple of holes in the side planes and cut the M6 ​​thread. Inserted spare screws into these holes. Knives come in different thicknesses, and the sharpener guide catches the screws. Having selected short screws from the stock of fasteners, he screwed them into place in the terminals. The stock pocket does not pull and is always at hand.

On occasion, I got hold of a wing nut with an M6 thread. With such a nut, it is more convenient and faster to tighten the grinding stones on the stud.

For a complete set, I will buy whetstones of various grain sizes. They are not expensive, from 20 to 50 rubles apiece, they are sold on any construction market or collapse. Again, you can use Lansky's branded stones.

It remains to find a suitable box for storing the sharpener. Gift tin and plastic boxes made of sweets or cookies, which are quite widely represented in pastry shops, are suitable for this role. Finding the right one isn't hard. Goodies to gobble up for the end of creating a sharpener, and the jar is in business. In order for the sharpener not to hit the walls in the jar, the stones do not deteriorate, it is useful to glue pieces of dense fabric or thin foam rubber onto the walls and bottom. Or cut grooves in a piece of plywood and pack all the iron and pebbles into them.

The sharpener is on my desk, and I spent minimal money, mostly on whetstones. We can say that I paid only for the donkeys, but for the M6 ​​threaded stud.

I don’t see any point in paying our huckster-sellers. The sharpener is done for several hours, half a day maximum, and then only because the paint dries for a long time.

In online stores, which is much cheaper than in regular stores, the Lansky sharpener costs at least 1,400 rubles. And here is almost a useful device.

Of course, the Lansky sharpener has a number of drawbacks, such as a limited number of sharpening angles, which are slightly offset by the position of the cutting blade relative to the clamp, and the high cost of a branded product. These shortcomings are relatively easy to eliminate at home with an elementary plumbing tool, ingenuity and a little free time.

During the production of the clip, when the terminals were almost ready, I was presented with a real Lansky sharpener. So, in a homemade device, the need has disappeared. Thanks KonstP. Terrible revenge, for this irresponsible element, was in the form of a delicious dark beer.

During the production of terminals, I came up with a simpler and functional design knife clip, but more on that in the next chapter of the Notes.

The surface finish of the terminals is far from perfect, since there was no task to set up a marafet. The product can be painted, since there is paint in the can.

Do-it-yourself knife sharpeners: types and drawings

Every housewife sooner or later begins to dull the knives with which she cuts bread, vegetables or butchers meat. Using a dull knife is not only inconvenient, but also unsafe. At any time, it can break off the cut product and cause injury. Therefore, periodically the tool should be sharpened, using a special device for sharpening knives.

Such sharpeners in a wide range are available in stores. But for one reason or another, they do not always suit the consumer. In this case, you can make a device for sharpening knives with your own hands, having previously studied the types of stones for sharpening, the features of the tool and the proposed drawings.

Sharpening knives - prerequisites

For effective and long-term operation of the knife, the most important factor when sharpening it is blade angle. In the process of sharpening, it is necessary to restore the previously set angle, which will fully comply with technological standards and quickly, freely and efficiently cut the material.

For each blade, its optimal angle is selected:

• for a razor and a scalpel, the sharpening angle should be 10-15 degrees;
• knives for cutting bread, fruits and vegetables are sharpened at an angle of 15-20 degrees;
• multifunctional knives for various products are processed at an angle of 20–25 degrees;
• hunting and hiking knives - at an angle of 25-30 degrees;
• knives for cutting hard materials - at 30-40 degrees.

Without a special device, it is difficult to sharpen the blade at the right angle. Holding the knife with your hands, it is quite difficult to provide required angle of inclination cutting tool. To facilitate this process, there are special devices that you can make with your own hands. Their designs are quite simple, and the production itself will take not so much time.

DIY knife sharpeners

There are many types of sharpeners for knives, among which you can choose the one that best suits your needs.

All devices consist of two parts:

• a bar of abrasive material;
• stop for attaching a knife.

As a bar, you can use ready-made special stones or make it yourself.

Sharpening stones - types and manufacture

On sale you can find several types of stones:

Aquatic tools. When working with them, water is used, which saves the surface of the stone.

Oil the stone resembles water in structure and shape, but its surface is the most oily.

Natural tools are made from natural stones that undergo industrial processing.

artificial stones are made from non-natural components.

Rubber tools can also be found on sale, but working on them is not very convenient.

For self-production of an abrasive bar, you can use small rectangular glass plates and a thickness of 4-5 millimeters. On the surface of the plates with the help of double-sided tape, you need to stick sandpaper of different grain sizes. The cost of such bars will turn out to be quite small, and sandpaper can be replaced at any time.

However, when using a glass bar, you should be very carefully tighten the nuts. otherwise the glass may crack. In addition, no water is used in its application, so the abrasive wears out quickly. For the same reason, when sharpening knives, fast movements should be avoided, which can lead to overheating of the material, and, therefore, to loss of blade properties.

Tool for sharpening wood blocks

It is enough just to make a sharpening tool from two wooden and two abrasive bars, which should be the same size.

For greater stability of the sharpener to its lower surface, it is recommended attach a piece of rubber .

Do-it-yourself sharpener from mounting brackets

The Lansky sharpener is taken as the basis for such a device, the drawings of which can be easily found on the Internet.

• metal plates measuring 4x11 centimeters;
• standard aluminum corners;
• metal rods about 15 centimeters long;
• a set of nuts and bolts;
• grinder with a vise or file;
• file.

Instead of a grinder, you can use a file, since this tool is only needed for grinding sharp corners from the corners and cleaning the places where the metal is cut.

Steps for making a sharpener:

1. According to the drawing, markings are made for future holes in the plates.
2. Holes are drilled and threaded into them.
3. With the help of a file, all sharp corners and edges are rounded. This will allow you to comfortably use the made knife.
4. Holes are made in the corner in accordance with the drawing.
5. The hole for the spoke support is expanded with a needle file.
6. The holes for the studs are threaded.
7. The rods are inserted into the extreme holes and fixed with nuts of the appropriate diameter (M6).
8. An M8 bolt is screwed into a wider hole, the length of which should be about 14 centimeters. A wing nut must first be screwed onto it, on top of which two ordinary nuts are screwed. The bolt in the structure will be used as a support post.
9. Bolts are attached to the remaining holes, with which the knife will be clamped.
10. Nuts are screwed onto the ends of the rods, a corner is strung, which is fixed with nuts. By lowering or raising the rods, it will be possible to adjust the sharpening angle.
11. From a thin metal rod in the shape of the letter G, a rod with an M6 thread, two holders and a wing nut, a device is assembled that will hold the stone for sharpening. The end holder should be with a through hole for the knitting needle.

Such a device for sharpening knives has a fairly wide range of degrees of pressure angle and is most convenient to use.

Massive sharpener with stand

With your own hands, you can simulate a knife sharpener from Apex, the drawings of which are easy to find on the Internet. Such a knife sharpener is presented in the form of a stand, on which a platform is installed at an angle, and a support for the end of the nozzle in the form of a rod is placed on the side. This is a very convenient device with which you can sharpen any cutting tools with high quality.

Required materials and tools:

The angle of sharpening on such a device adjustable with bar and lamb. which fixes the part at the desired height.

Each of the described devices has its own advantages and disadvantages. When choosing a suitable option, you need to proceed from your needs and skills in such work that you will need to do with your own hands.

Knife sharpener - essential tool on the farm

There are always cutting, sawing and planing tools in the household. In the course of work, the sharpness is lost, and the blades have to be restored. You can give knives - planes to the workshop, but money is spent on this, and it leaves extra time. Therefore, home craftsmen prefer to sharpen the tool with their own hands.

Important! Only blades with a certain degree of hardening can be sharpened. If the cutting part has a hardness higher than 55 HRC, it cannot be sharpened with improvised tools.

You can buy a tool for sharpening knives or other household utensils in the store. Save time, but spend a lot of money - good sharpening is expensive.


By the way, there are different opinions about the name of the device for sharpening knives. Emery, touchstone, whetstone, whetstone, musat ...

Can these definitions refer to the same object, or different products? About this, and how to make such a device yourself, we will tell in the article.

Since the advent of cutting objects (weapons, knives, axes), people have been looking for a way to restore the sharpness of the edge. In the Bronze and Copper Ages, it was easy.

Homemade knife sharpener made by hand. The knife cuts paper like a razor! A simple design is available for making at home.

Soft metals were ruled by any stone. With the advent of steel blades, special rocks were used for sharpening, usually of volcanic origin.

Some of them are still used today: the American "Arkansas" and the Japanese "water stone". These are expensive devices, so most craftsmen use artificial emery.

A simple whetstone can sharpen both the knife and the cutting edge of the planer. However, the quality leaves much to be desired.

The golden rule of sharpening: Each blade has its own edge angle, and it should not change along the entire length.

This principle lies in the design of all grinding devices. By following this rule, you can independently manufacture such a device.

Do-it-yourself knife sharpening device - drawings, varieties

In order for the edge of the blade to be processed evenly, several conditions are necessary:

1. Blade fixation, at the same time reliable, and without undue stress. Metal must not be damaged in a vice
2. Setting a specific angle for the bar. When moving along the edge of the knife, the angle should not change
3. Possibility to set different sharpening angles. You can process a variety of tools, and some types of knives have a stepped structure.

Device for linear sharpening with a bar

For manufacturing you will need:

• Plywood or laminated chipboard
• Full length threaded steel stud, diameter 6-8 mm
• A bar of textolite or ebonite. Can be replaced with solid wood - beech, oak
• Aluminum plate 3-5mm thick
• Fasteners - bolts, nuts (wing nuts are better)
• Neodymium magnet from an old computer HDD.

We assemble a frame from plywood, resting on the legs at an angle of 15 ° -20 °. In the part below, we twist a hairpin 30-40 cm long. For strength, you can fix the thread with glue or sealant.


We fix an aluminum plate in the middle of the working surface. First, we make a groove in it, according to the diameter of the fixing bolt. Why aluminum? In order not to damage the steel blade of the knife.

We make a lever for fixing emery. It is assembled from the rest of the hairpin. We cut out bar holders from two textolite bars. On one side, the stop is fixed with a nut.


From the side of the handle it is more convenient to make a spring-loaded block - for a quick change of emery.

We use home-made bars as the main element - we glue sandpaper with different grain sizes on an aluminum plate. Such devices are easily fixed in the lever.


The design feature is a hinge with two degrees of freedom. It is assembled from two identical textolite bars. One is screwed onto a vertical stud, and serves both as a horizontal rotary axis and as a lever support height regulator (this is how the sharpening angle is set).

The second bar, with a horizontal hole for the lever, is screwed to the first. This ensures free movement of the lever vertically.


The knife can be clamped with a plate, or mounted on a neodymium magnet. When removing the first layer with coarse emery, the blade should be firmly fixed.

For finishing, you can install the blade on a magnet and sharpen with little effort. The horseshoe of the magnet should be sunk flush with the table top, and glued with epoxy glue.


Homemade fixture ready to sharpen knives. We set the required angle of attack, and sharpen the edge with smooth movements along the blade.

The same principle is used in the device for sharpening knives on an electric grinder.

Electric emery not only speeds up work, but also allows you to get a high-quality concave blade edge profile. This is the so-called fuller sharpening. It will not work to get such a shape on a linear bar, therefore these two devices do not replace, but complement each other.

Important! If, when working with a manual sharpening device, you completely control the intensity of the process, then the high speed of rotation of the emery wheel can ruin the knife.

From friction, the metal on the tip heats up, hardening occurs. Steel loses its hardness and grinds with torn edges. Another problem is that a “released” knife quickly loses its sharpness. Therefore, the electric sharpener should be handled with care. Bring the blade for a short time, and take breaks to cool.

Do-it-yourself knife sharpener - video with explanations and an example of manufacturing

In this mode, it is difficult to maintain a constant angle, so fixing the knife is mandatory.


The design is quite simple - along the axis of rotation of the emery there is a guide along which the carriage with the knife moves. The angle is maintained mechanically, and the force is determined by the operator.

The device is easy to do with your own hands - and it is not necessary to perform precise processing work metal parts. The guide is made literally from the foot material.


On the workbench, next to the sharpener, guides are attached, with which you can change the distance from the knife stop to the rotating circle. This distance determines the angle of sharpening. The vertical rod must have a free movement up and down with a strong fixation of the position.


The knife is held horizontally, pressing against the stop. The force of contact with the emery is regulated directly during sharpening. The processing is symmetrical, you just change the side of the knife and sharpen at the same angle.


This method is only suitable for processing classic knives. Kitchen, hunting, tourist. Cutting planes of other tools require a different approach.

Design for sharpening knives, say jointer:


A specialized emery is used, with an end working surface. The guide for the carriage is placed at the bottom, away from the axis of rotation.

It is in this part of the disk that the abrasive is most effective. The guide with the cutting element is moved manually, the clamp is provided by the own weight of the knife.

Drawings of all structural elements are shown in the illustration.

This machine was used almost 100 years ago, and since then the technology has not changed. Ease of execution allows you to repeat the device in the home workshop. Any materials - metal, plastic, wood.


Instead of jointer cutting elements, you can sharpen ice ax knives for winter fishing. Only the angle is more gentle. The scissor tool works the same way. The design (like the emery wheel) is significantly smaller in size.

To sharpen chisels and planer knives, you can also use electric emery and a fixing carriage. However, these tools are compact and can be handled by a mechanical fixture.

There are two equivalent ways - along the edge, and across. The processing quality is about the same, so you can not give preference to a particular device.
The factory product involves transverse straightening of the blade.


By analogy, we make a carriage from thick plywood. We use any rollers as guides, preferably in an amount of more than two. By moving the machine along the emery, you can give the tip of the chisel an ideal shape.


If you do not need serious sharpening, a simpler device is also suitable for small editing. Fasten a bar to the chisel with the required angle of inclination. Put emery and a piece of glass next to it. Apply soapy water to the glass.


The effectiveness of the device will pleasantly surprise you.

And for transverse sharpening - you can make an equally simple fixture. The guide is also a support. The blade is vertically mounted on the moving part. The only drawback is that the angle is fixed and is determined during manufacture.


True, unlike a knife, the deviation from the ideal is not so critical.

The same device is suitable for sharpening planer knives. Only because of the width of the blade, the process is quite laborious. Therefore, you can use an electric emery with an end working surface.

The emphasis is made of a wooden bar. It is only necessary to provide a change in angle. The clamp is provided by the operator, and it is possible to perform semicircular sharpening– carpenters will appreciate this option.


Of course, with the same apparatus it is convenient to tidy up the edge of the chisel. Given the high performance, you will restore the tool even after serious chipping.

Homemade tool for sharpening knives and tools from a grinder

When you again manually rub a knife on an old donkey, remember this article and create a home-made sharpener for your home workshop.

Homemade machine for sharpening knives with your own hands: diagram, instructions, manufacturing features

Every man in the house will benefit from a convenient do-it-yourself knife sharpening machine. Indeed, often the owner is judged by how sharp this kitchen tool is.

There are many techniques for sharpening knife blades. For example, for a process carried out at home, only a turning bar or ready-made fixtures with an angular gap shape will be sufficient.

To adjust expensive hunting knives, European manufacturers produce devices in the form of solid bars, which are based on a high-strength alloy.

This article will describe the manufacture of a machine for sharpening knives with your own hands.

Why do knives get dull?

What is the reason why a knife becomes dull when cutting? This can be explained by the fact that the cutting edge negative impact render abrasive particles that are present in the cut material. For example, they are present on vegetables, paper. talking plain language, the blade is subject to gradual wear.

The next reason is the inability to keep the blade in the right position all the time. Any trembling of the hand causes the knife to tilt, which entails a lateral load.

sharpening technique

The sharpening technique consists in unified, but at the same time quite laborious methods. The main task is to eliminate damage to the blade. It should be noted that for many, such a procedure as sharpening knives provides a good mood and calm.

The basic rule in this process is to maintain a precisely set constant angle. Strength is not required here. The main thing is that the bar and the blade meet at a certain angle. This is the basic rule of sharpening technique.

What needs to be done to maintain a constant angle?

In order for the angle to have a constant index, there are two ways. The first is to acquire the skill of sharpening. The angle indicator can be controlled using a conventional marker. They should paint over the carts and after several sharpening cycles, see how much the paint has survived. If it is worn unevenly, then the blade is not well processed.

If the knife being sharpened is decorative, then the blade should be sealed with adhesive tape so that only the edge for cutting remains open. Even if you unsuccessfully direct your hand, there will be no scratches on the blade.

It is also important that the direction of the blade along the bar is perpendicular to the edge at the points of contact. In fact, this is quite difficult to do. It is acceptable for the angle between the edge and the blade to be less than 90 degrees. But when directed along the cutting edge, this indicator is not suitable.

The abrasive particles of the bar can leave grooves on the blade that will never be sharpened, but will play a positive role when cutting. If the grooves are oriented along the cutting edge, then they will not be useful when cutting. The worst thing is that the cutting edge can break off altogether.

It is important that the bar is long. It should be one and a half or two blade lengths. It is acceptable that the diamond bar be somewhat shorter, as it grinds faster and better. Its width does not play a significant role. If it is wider, then it is more convenient to work on it and there is less chance of leading the blade beyond the device. This can damage its side surface or the blade.

Making a machine for sharpening knives with your own hands

Homemade knife sharpeners come in a variety of designs. All that is required from the manufacturer is the availability of the necessary material and skills in working with tools.

The principle of operation of such a device as manual machine for sharpening knives with your own hands, is to hold the knife blade in a vertical position and drive it along a bar fixed at the right angle. This is much easier than placing the sharpener horizontally and holding the knife at just the right angle.

In order to make a do-it-yourself knife sharpening machine, you need a piece of laminate, a wooden rail, sandpaper and a pair of lamb bots. Chipboard or plywood can serve as a replacement for laminate

To make a knife holder, you need to cut off part of the material. So that the bar does not touch the holder when sharpening, it is necessary to clean its edge at an angle with emery.

It is necessary to mark and cut off the top of the vertical rack, which will serve as a support for the bar. The angle is chosen two times less than the one with which the knife will be sharpened. For kitchen knives, it is recommended to take an angle of 10-15 degrees.

A do-it-yourself knife sharpening machine, the drawings of which are obviously drawn up, involves the correct calculation of the length of the base of the racks. Please note that the subsequent installation of the transverse support will affect the height indicator. After that, all the details are cut off, and the edges are cleaned.

Holes are marked and drilled in the base and plate for pressing the bolts that fix the blade. When marking, the distance of the holes from the edge of the base is maintained. This is necessary for the versatility of the fixture, since all knives have their own width. The pressure plate is fixed with bolts.

Vertical posts are attached with screws. The moment that the load on the bottom is small is also taken into account. In this case, it is better to resort to using thermal glue. The horizontal bar is attached in exactly the same way. The grinder is almost ready. It remains to make a bar.

For its manufacture, a rail of the desired length is cut. Sandpaper with the desired size of abrasive is glued to one edge. To optimize the result, you can resort to the manufacture of several bars with different grain sizes. The range P600 - P2000 is considered the best. In order to protect your hands from cuts, you need to screw the handle on the top side of the rail.

As a result, it turns out homemade machine for sharpening knives with your own hands, characterized by high functionality and practicality. During operation, the device rests against the edge of the table, which is quite comfortable when using it.

A do-it-yourself knife sharpening machine can also be of a different type. In this case, it is based on the M8 threaded rod. Two large washers and nuts were used, which serve to hold a bar 200 mm long.

Heat shrink tubing covers the thread. A pair of paper clips hold the rail stand at the correct height. This ensures smooth adjustment of the sharpening angle. The base is a beam, the thickness of which is 40 mm. It is supported by hand.

How to sharpen planer knives with your own hands

Every owner who has a planer or planer, probably faced the problem of sharpening their knives. Buying new ones from time to time is expensive. Knives can be easily sharpened by hand. In this case, specialized machines or grinding stones are used. If the planer is used constantly, then it would be better to make a machine for sharpening knives with your own hands.

Do-it-yourself planer knife sharpening machine

To sharpen the planer knife, special sharpening equipment is used. The machine for sharpening knives with your own hands has a compact size. It can be installed in the garage or on the plot.

Many are interested in how to make a machine for sharpening knives with their own hands. To make a device, you need to find certain parts. Perhaps these parts are lying around in your shed or garage. They can also be purchased online.

The machine for sharpening planer knives with your own hands consists of:

First of all, you should find a faceplate. This is the most important component of future equipment. It is she who is responsible for the sharpening process. Jointer knives are narrow, and the faceplate serves as a guarantor of complete and safe sharpening. This part will have to be bought new, but the rest can be used old.

It is better to purchase faceplates of German or American production. average cost parts is 25,000 rubles.

The next step is to find the engine, the power of which should be 1-1.5 kW. It is not necessary to buy it. Any will do, even old ones washing machine. But everyone will surely have a table, a casing and a vacuum cleaner.

The main steps in the manufacture of the device

When the table is selected, the engine is fixed directly below it. A faceplate is attached to the moving part. The engine must initially be equipped with a button that turns the unit on and off. It should be comfortable.

For reliable protection, the faceplate is covered with a square-shaped casing with one cut corner. It is this area that needs to be sharpened.

On the bottom surface of the table in the area of ​​sharpening, a hole is made of the same diameter as that of a vacuum cleaner hose. The presence of a vacuum cleaner is not essential, but it is desirable to install it. It removes unnecessary dirt from blade processing.

What do you need to know?

Mounting the motor under the faceplate base is optional. You can make sure that the parts are connected by means of a belt. In this case, the design will be complex.

A do-it-yourself jointer knife sharpening machine is also suitable for saws and axes.

Ice screw sharpening

The sharp knives of the ice drill enable the fisherman to quickly make holes in the ice of reservoirs. However, over time, all cutting tools become dull and require sharpening.

For fishermen, a quality ice drill is a great pride. Often, true competitions are held on water bodies in terms of the speed of drilling ice holes. And victory does not always smile at young and strong fishermen who are armed with imported devices. There are cases when seasoned fishermen equipped with simple Soviet-made tools are the winners in the competition. The reason for the high hole drilling speed lies in the good sharpening of the knives and the correct setting of the device. Beginner anglers, having bought new Swedish devices, do not even have time to blink an eye as their knives become blunt. The smallest grains of sand and pebbles in the ice contribute to the formation of chips and gouges on the blade.

Sharpening devices is carried out in a variety of ways. Many of our ancestors did not even know what a professional grinding machine was. In most cases, sharpening was carried out using hand-made devices.

Homemade ice drill machine: what is needed to make it?

For the manufacture of such a device as a machine for sharpening ice drill knives with your own hands, you will need two strips of steel, the thickness of which is 4 mm, the width is 60 mm, and the length is 200 mm. A spring from a car is often used as a strip. But she is very hard to bend.

Progress

First you need to make the body of the device. The steel strips are bent in such a way that the chamfers of the knives pressed against the ends of the arc are not only parallel, but also in the same plane.

After making the arc from the same steel strip, the pressure plate is bent, which serves as a lock for the sharpened knives.

Holes for M12 or M14 bolts are drilled in the body and pressure plate. Having pulled the body and pressure plate together with a bolt and nut, we clamp the knives between them and check the strength of their fit to the surface of the end face of the emery circle.

If the knives are not located at the required angle (the chamfers do not fit exactly to the circle), then the device is modified by bending the body arc to the appropriate level. If the knives stand correctly, then the structure is disassembled, and stiffeners are welded to the arc of the body on both sides.

Sharpening knives is best done on an emery stone that rotates horizontally. In this case, when wetting the knives with water, the latter remains on the blade and stone longer, ensuring their safety. Dip your knives in the water more often. This will help prevent overheating of the steel.

Minus the device

The disadvantages of the device include the impossibility of sharpening knives with different angles of the cutting chamfer. But each manufacturer of ice drills offers its own models. In this case, a universal device will do.

Making a universal fixture for sharpening an ice drill

The universal design allows sharpening knives at any angle of the cutting edge. By smoothly changing the angle between the shoulders of the unit, on which the knives are fastened with screws, it is possible to fix the desired position of the knives in relation to the plane of the grindstone.

To manufacture this device, you need to find a door canopy with minimal play, as well as an M8 or M10 screw with its own nut. Holes are drilled in the shoulders of the canopy. Their diameter is 6-7 mm (for attaching knives to them with screws).

From a steel strip, the thickness of which is 3 mm, a fixing plate with a slot for the fixing screw is made. The plate and screw are welded to the shoulders of the canopy.

It happens that sharpening of knives is carried out, the location of the holes of which does not correspond to the holes in the canopy. In this case, additional holes are drilled in the shoulders for non-standard knives. In this case, the device has more versatility.

How are planer knives sharpened?

Attachments such as planers and thicknessers can often be seen in country houses. By means of them, raw lumber is brought to the desired state. Knives of these devices, like any others, become dull. If you use them often, then the best way out is to sharpen the knives for the planer with your own hands. For the manufacture of grinding equipment at home, various materials will be required: metal, aluminum or wood.

The knife holder can be made from a wooden block. Having done through circular saw cuts at 45 degrees, you can sharpen knives with a belt grinder or a large bar. If the latter is not present, then sandpaper is attached to a smooth surface made of metal, wood, chipboard or glass.

Knife holders can be made from improvised materials. The best solution would be to use metal corners, which have an indicator of 90 degrees. When placing two knives on the sides, the sharpening angle of each will be equal to 45 degrees. Using screws, you can fix the knives with a second corner.

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