Scott the Carver: Christmas is over, I'm back

I wrote about carving knifes in a previous posting so I thought I would show you a strop and a diamond stone. Both of these are used to keep your carving knife sharp. A sharp knife is very important, a dull knife is more dangerous then a sharp knife, with a dull knife you naturally use more force to make your cuts. A sharp knife will cut through the wood like a stick of butter.

The picture below is one of my strops if you strop on a regular basis you won't have to sharpen on the diamond stone as much, and if you strop instead of sharpen your knife will last longer. My strop is just a piece of leather glued onto a piece of wood. If you look at my strop I have some of the leather overhanging the wood this is so that you can strop your gouges. When you strop a knife you should keep the knife flat on the leather and lift up without flicking your wrist, when you flick your wrist you round the blade changing the angle of the cut.

Next you have a diamond stone for when your knife is just to dull to strop. You can tell when a knife is dull when looking at the blade if you see a smooth spot like a butter knife your knife is dull. This picture is 2 of my diamond stones I have more it seems like woodcarvers are also collectors, I have diamond stones, water stones, ceramic stones. I have 20-30 knifes, 30-40 gouges, I don't know if I will ever use all the stuff I have but I will try. Anyway I got sidetracked these diamond stones are great the one on the right is an extra fine which is the one I use the most the one to the left is a fine occasionally I use this one but my knife isn't usually that bad. If you put a little water on the stone when you sharpen it will stop the knife from getting clogged with the metal shavings.