Step 1 of the process
Sharpen and strop
Carving tools are pushed by hand, so the edge has to be keener than a pocket knife's. Strop often, keep the bevel flat, and go back to a stone only for a chipped or rounded edge.
- Routine upkeep
- leather strop with compound
- Gouge bevel
- 15 to 25 degrees, lower for softwood
Carving tools are pushed through wood by hand, so they are sharpened at lower angles than everyday knives and polished further. On a carving knife the whole bevel lies flat on the stone or the strop. There is no small secondary bevel as on a pocket knife. The sharpening angle chart gives the published range for each tool.
Day to day the edge is kept on a leather strop loaded with polishing compound. Lay the bevel flat and pull the tool away from its edge, never into the leather. Flexcut's instructions say to strop when the tool begins to drag in the cut, and carvers commonly put that at every 10 to 30 minutes of carving. How to strop a carving knife has the motion and the schedule.
Stones are for an edge that is chipped, rounded over or will not come back on the strop. Curved tools need shaped abrasives: a dowel for a hook knife, slip stones for gouges and V-tools. Kitchen and pocket knives follow different angles and are covered on our sister site, stoneandstrop.com.
Ready to move on when: The tool leaves a smooth, shiny cut across the grain of basswood. A white line in the cut means a nick in the edge.
Common mistakes at this stage
- Lifting the blade on the strop, which rounds the edge over.
- Going to a coarse stone for routine upkeep instead of the strop.
- Grinding the flat inside of a single-bevel hook knife.