A homemade machine for sharpening knives. How to make a machine for sharpening planing knives? We imitate a sharpener model from Lansky

The service life of any knife directly depends on the methods of its operation and the procedure for sharpening the blade. Devices for sharpening knives are so diverse that they allow modern people not to resort to the work of specialists, but to do all the work themselves at home. To sharpen knives you can use: special device industrial production, and any device manufactured with my own hands. It is important to know that simple elements for sharpening knives (for example, a whetstone), which are at hand, can do a bad job and the sharpness of the product will not only not return, but gradually the product will completely become unusable. Moreover, any homemade device for sharpening knives can be based on the use of these simple sharpening devices. Details on how to make your own sharpener can be found below.

A homemade manual machine for sharpening knives, provided that all the requirements for its creation are met, will simplify the sharpening of knives and its performance will be no worse than that of a professional. Correct sharpening includes the following rule: each type of cutting product has a certain edge sharpening angle, which must be constant along the entire length of the blade (see table No. 1). Sharpening device, which will be initially based on this principle, will give the master a sharp knife edge for a long time.

Table No. 1. Sharpening angle in parallel with the type of cutting device

When sharpening the edges should be processed evenly. To fulfill this condition, the following rules must be observed:

  • the blade must be fixed in the vice of the device reliably and efficiently, without exposing the metal of the blade to damage;
  • the movement of the whetstone along the axis of the knife edge must be uniform and strictly at a certain angle;
  • the point of contact of the blade must be strictly perpendicular to the longitudinal axis of the sharpening device;
  • the pressure on the knife blade should change smoothly depending on the change in the area of ​​contact between the blade and the sharpener.

A simple device for sharpening knives

The simplest device for sharpening knives is based on the use of an angular frame and a whetstone. The price of such a primitive factory-made device is quite high, as is the price of replaceable whetstones, but making such a device for sharpening knives at home will not be difficult for a craftsman. You will need the following equipment:

  1. Wooden blocks of the same size - 4 pcs.
  2. Drill (or any other drilling tool).
  3. Bolts and nuts (about 4 pieces each).
  4. Touchstone.
  5. Protractor.

First you need to make a pair of wooden corners, placing the bars to each other strictly at an angle of 90º (Fig. 1). Close the resulting wooden corners together parallel to each other as a single whole and drill holes through the diameter of the bolts. Insert bolts into the holes and tighten the corners slightly with nuts.

The point of this invention is that it is possible to sharpen simply by holding the knife vertically in relation to the sharpening surface located at a given angle.

The most important thing is to properly secure the whetstone between the wooden corners of the device. To do this, using a protractor, you need to set the desired angle of inclination of the touchstone and tighten the bolts tightly to clearly fix the position of the touchstone.

With some modification of the device, you can also fix the position of the knife relative to the sharpening stone. Significant disadvantage With such a machine for manual sharpening, it is impossible to smoothly adjust the angle of inclination of the whetstone.

Device for sharpening from mounting angles

The diagram and drawings of a homemade knife sharpener made from mounting angles, based on a Lansky device, are clearly shown below.

To assemble this device you will need:

  1. Metal corners 90*90 mm with a wall thickness of 6 mm.
  2. Stud with M6 thread and length 160 mm.
  3. Thin rod (electrode, knitting needle, etc.).
  4. Touchstone.
  5. 2 rectangular pieces of metal (sponges for clamping the whetstone).
  6. Pliers.
  7. Hacksaw for metal.
  8. File (or any other tool for processing sharp corners).
  9. Set of hardware (nuts and bolts).

In both metal jaws, intended for fixing the keystone, you need to drill for a connecting bolt. Fix the touchstone. A thin smooth knitting needle, previously bent at an angle of 90º, must be inserted and secured in the hole of one of the jaws. In the future, using this knitting needle-shaped clamp, a certain angle of inclination of the touchstone will be set. Such a device for sharpening knives is characterized by a wide range of sharpening angles, which will undoubtedly be of interest to most craftsmen.

Locking blade machines

Knife sharpening machines with locking blades will attract the attention of those people who want to sharpen a knife not only efficiently, but also quickly. The design, which rigidly fixes the knife blade relative to the sharpening stone moving at a set angle, allows you to accurately set the angle of inclination.

To create such a homemade machine with your own hands you will need:

  1. The base is a rectangular wooden plate with dimensions 440*92 mm and a thickness of 18 mm.
  2. Wooden die 92*45*45 mm (for fixing the vertical threaded rod).
  3. A wooden block 245*92 mm and 18 mm thick (the plate to which the knife will be attached).
  4. Iron plate 200*65 mm and metal thickness 4 mm.
  5. Piano hinge, 92 mm long.
  6. M8 hairpin 325 mm long.
  7. Nuts and bolts with M8 thread.
  8. Drill 6.5 mm.
  9. M8 tap.
  10. Self-tapping screws 50 mm, 4 pcs.

The die intended for fixing the vertical threaded rod must be drilled through with a 6.5 mm drill. The hole should be located at a distance of 15 mm from the edge of the die, approximately in the center.

Next, in the resulting hole you need to cut a thread for an M8 stud. The wooden block prepared in this way must be screwed to the base at a distance of 265 mm from the edge using ordinary self-tapping screws 50 mm long, screwed into the back of the base.

After securing the wooden part of the holding device, you can begin to attach the iron plate. In the center of the 200*65 mm plate, you need to drill an oblong groove, 90 mm long and about 1 cm wide. The groove should be located from the edge of the clamping plate at a distance of 60 mm. Additionally, you need to drill a hole at a distance of 20 mm from the opposite edge and cut a thread in it for an M8 bolt. Then you need to attach the clamping plate to the previously prepared wooden base. Using another bolt and a suitable washer, you need to fix the clamping plate in the center of the cut groove. The fixation should be clear, but at the same time neat, so as not to damage the surface of the blade.

The most difficult part of assembling this device is preparing the control device that will set the sharpening angle of the knife. For this you will need:

  • metal square profile 40×40 mm;
  • furniture bracket, 40 mm wide;
  • a pair of rivets;
  • a piece of plywood 42×25 and 18 mm thick;
  • bolt and nut M5;
  • a pair of M8 wing nuts;
  • whetstone;
  • steel bar with a diameter of 0.8 cm and a length of 40 cm.

It is necessary to drill a couple of holes on a piece of plywood: a through hole with a diameter of 8 mm along a cross-section of 42×18 mm (the distance from the edge on the 42 mm side should be set at 15 mm) and a through hole with a diameter of 5 mm along the side with a cross-section of 42×25 mm (the distance from edges 10 mm). Square pipe should be cut in half so that you get a “U”-shaped bracket with a width of 40 * 15 mm and ears of 20 mm. You need to drill 8 mm holes in the ears, into which an M8 pin will later be inserted. Connect the resulting bracket to a furniture hinge using rivets. Using the second part of the furniture bracket, attach a block of plywood to the resulting structure with an M5 bolt.

Connect the touchstone to a guide rod, which is a steel rod with a cross-section of 8 mm. When connecting the keystone and the guide rod, you should strictly ensure that their center lines coincide. If desired, for ease of use of the sharpener, a handle-holder can be attached to the whetstone on the reverse side. All that remains is to secure the whetstone in the guide mechanism, secure it with a thumb and the homemade device for sharpening knives is ready.

Machines with fixed sharpening surfaces

Machines with fixed sharpened surfaces are a simple modification of the device for processing household knives. In such a device there is no possibility of adjusting the sharpening angle; however, several different angles for sharpening can be set in advance different types knives. The work of sharpening blades using such machines is not difficult; you just need to move the blade along the abrasive surfaces in the recess.

The device consists of a pair of planes inclined to each other at a certain angle, one of which is a grindstone.

Electric knife sharpeners

The procedure for creating an electric sharpening machine is simple: it is enough to equip almost any device for sharpening knives and scissors with an electric drive. Such a sharpening machine allows you to quickly and efficiently sharpen the product and at the same time provides a better concave shelf at the edge of the blade.

The mechanism of an electric sharpener for sharpening knives contains a guide, which is located along the axis of rotation of the sharpening stone, and with the help of which the blade is adjusted at a given angle. The sharpening angle is set and set by the guide, and the clamping force is determined by the master.

Particular attention must be paid to the speed of sharpening, because... The electric drive allows you to sharpen the product at high speed, as a result of which the surface of the knife heats up. Such surface heating leads to tempering of the hardened steel, as a result of which the knife can quickly lose its hardness and its service life will be noticeably reduced. To prevent tempering of the steel, sharpening should be done on a high-speed electric sharpener in short periods of time and with sufficient breaks to allow the knife to cool.

Making sharpening stones

It will not be difficult for a modern craftsman to make sharpening stones with his own hands. For this you will need:

  • a wooden die to the size of the future sharpener;
  • epoxy resin;
  • cardboard boxes according to the size of the block;
  • abrasive;
  • protective rubber gloves.

You can use ready-made powder as an abrasive, or you can prepare an abrasive own production, for example, from an old block Green colour still of Soviet production. Such a block can be ground into powder and used in the future as an abrasive.

The wooden die needs to be treated on one side with sandpaper and frequent cuts must be made with a saw. Mix epoxy resin with abrasive chips. Having previously placed the block in a cardboard box glued to the size of the block, cover the prepared surface of the wooden block with the mixture epoxy resin and abrasive. Once the resin has completely cured, the block is ready for use.

Another option for making your own sharpening stones is to create a sharpening stone from small rectangular glass plates about 5 mm thick. Using double-sided adhesive tape, stick to the surface of the glass plate. sandpaper. The sharpening stone is ready for use.

Device for sharpening from wooden blocks

A simple device for sharpening knives is a tool consisting of a pair of wooden slats and a pair of abrasive bars with the same geometric dimensions.

Wooden slats should be thoroughly sanded with abrasive sandpaper. Then, after applying auxiliary markings, depending on the sharpening angle of the knife, make cuts to a depth of 15 mm. Insert sanding blocks into the resulting holes so that each groove matches, then secure them with bolts. To give the sharpening device greater stability, the lower part of the surface can be padded with a piece of rubber.

Types of sharpening devices cutting tool are different and each master will be able to choose the manual machine that will fully satisfy his needs.

Sharpening knives is a process that even the gentlest can handle. female hands. Indeed, in our time there are many devices that make this task easier. Ceramic knives, for example, do not require sharpening, which is very convenient, but steel knives require periodic sharpening because the material becomes dull. To sharpen your knives, you can use abrasive stones or a knife sharpening machine.

  • Grinding whetstone.
  • Files with a special notch.
  • Sharpening devices.
  • Knife sharpening machines.

Note.

Sharpening knives the old fashioned way is, of course, good and effective way, but a precisely tuned machine for household use gives a better result with the desired angle of formation of the blade edge.

Rules for sharpening knives


Experts recommend following a number of rules in order to obtain high-quality knife sharpening at home, which in turn will reduce the number of blade sharpenings.

If you are a supporter of using an abrasive-coated whetstone, start working with the sharpest part of the blade, and end with the duller part, namely the one that is little involved in the process of slicing products. Often the process starts from the middle, moving towards the tip of the blade with a slight turn. The shape of the knife and its thickness affect the sharpening angle of the blade. A sharpening machine for kitchen knives performs sharpening at an angle of 25°, the blade is tilted above the block by 12 - 13°.

The type of sharpening machine for thicknesser knives and the material from which it is made also affects the quality of the work.

On various Internet resources, you can find special videos that clearly show the process of sharpening a knife blade.

Note.

Knives are produced mainly from alloy and carbon steel. Hardened steel needs to be sharpened with an abrasive stone, stainless steel with a triangular file. This is due to the fact that relatively soft metals, during the sharpening process, the surface of the bar with the abrasive is forgotten. The forged blade is quite flexible, so it is advisable to fasten it and sharpen it with a whetstone using casual movements. Frequent use of abrasive stones contributes to the formation of a greasy film on the surface, which must be rubbed off.

Previously, table sharpening machines for knives were made from wedge-shaped bars and oak. The bars were placed on both sides of the wooden blade, so that the cutting edge was free. The structure was tied with rope and, using a whetstone, the blades were sharpened to extreme sharpness, thereby obtaining an excellent sharpening angle.

Sharpening knives used in planes is performed as follows: on thick glass, apply sandpaper with a fine fraction, the beveled part of the cutting edge onto the abrasive and sharpen in a circular motion.

Sharpening knives at home

For this purpose, you will need to take a block of hard wood, the surface of which is formed by sharpening at a certain angle necessary to form the edge of the blade. This makes it possible to maintain the angle of the processed edge. For ease of sharpening the blade, fix the blade in the plane of the block using self-tapping screws.

Make a sharpening machine for jointer knives with your own hands, this will make the process easier and the quality of work much higher. The main thing is to follow the rules and nuances in your work, and there will be no problems.

A DIY knife sharpening machine was created to make working with metal products easier. You can sharpen a home tool with your own hands using available tools, but in production you can’t do without a machine. There are larger volumes and more advanced tools.

Professional knife sharpening machines

The sharpest tool is a boning knife or carving knife.

This is what butchers use to cut up animal carcasses and cut skins. With such intensive work, the blade of the tool becomes dull extremely quickly. If the amount of work is not too large, sharpening can be done on a conventional machine, which is equipped with control over the angle of the blade edge. Knife sharpening machines in the meat processing industry mainly use KNECHT USK 160. Such machines are universal, so absolutely any knives can be sharpened on them.

At enterprises involved in woodworking and carpentry shops, they install equipment that can cope with large volumes of work. Tools used here include jointers with long blades, as well as planers. Metal sharpening occurs on equipment with a mechanical drive, which supplies the tool for sharpening.

When trying to sharpen a tool yourself using a sharpening bowl

...without the use of fixation and guides, then zones with different sharpening angles will form on the blade. When processing wood with a poorly sharpened tool, you will get an uneven cut and a wavy surface. The sharpening machine for flat knives has a simple vertical design. The discs are sharpened on machines with a divider and a rotating table.

Universal knife sharpening machine

This type of equipment is best suited for enterprises that perform large volumes of work per day. No one will tinker with metal by hand, since it is hard work. The VZ-319 desktop machine is equipped with a rigid frame and a precisely adjusted mechanical drive. Therefore, it copes with sharpening any type of tool - planes, cutters, knives, etc.

The Tormek T7 model is suitable for domestic use. The equipment of this unit is large, there are many attachments and additional elements for sharpening kitchen knives, scissors and other tools.

Making a knife sharpening machine with your own hands

Making a knife sharpening machine for household use is quite simple; for this you will need a piece, or, wooden slats, sandpaper, wing bolts. The first step is to make a knife holder; for this purpose, cut a piece of material. To avoid the block clinging to the holder, you need to sand the edge at a certain angle using sandpaper. Make a mark on the vertical stand and cut off the top, this will serve as the basis for. The angle is set to half that required to sharpen the blade.

For household knives, the angle is 10 - 15°. To make it easier to build a knife sharpening machine, make a drawing, it will be much easier for you. Take into account the fact that the height is affected by the transverse base. At the final stage, all elements need to be cut and sanded. Then, you need to make holes for the bolts in the plate that will secure the blade. When making markings, determine the distance of the holes from the edge of the base. This will allow you to sharpen blades of different thicknesses.

At the next stage, the plate must be secured using bolts. The vertical posts are fixed with screws. It is important to remember that the pressure on the bottom is small, so thermal glue can be used to fix the elements. The horizontal crossbar is attached in the same way.

To make a bar, you need to cut a strip of a certain length. Sandpaper with a sufficient fraction of abrasive particles is attached to one edge. In order to achieve best result in work, you can make more bars with different abrasives. Good range The grain size is considered to be P600 - P2000.

Note.

In order to protect your hands from injury when sharpening a tool, screw the handle onto the top of the rack. Thus, you will receive a machine for home use with good functional qualities.

In the process of sharpening knives, the device receives support on the table, which in turn makes working with it easier.

Every man in the house would benefit from a convenient sharpening machine. After all, the owner is often 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 block or ready-made devices with an angular gap shape.

To adjust expensive hunters' knives, European manufacturers produce devices in the form of solid bars, the basis of which is a high-strength alloy.

This article will describe how to make 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 is negatively affected by abrasive particles that are present in the material being cut. For example, they are present on vegetables and paper. Speaking in simple language, the blade is subject to gradual wear.

The next reason is the inability to hold the blade in the desired 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 of unified, but at the same time quite labor-intensive 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 peace of mind.

The basic rule when this process— maintaining a precisely specified constant angle. No force required here. The main thing is that the block and blade meet at a certain angle. This is the basic rule of the sharpening technique.

What needs to be done to maintain a constant angle?

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

If the knife you are sharpening is decorative, then you should seal the blade with tape so that only the cutting edge remains open. Even if you misdirect your hand, there will be no scratches on the blade.

An important point is that the direction of the blade along the block is perpendicular to the edge at the points of contact. This is actually 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 stone 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 be of no use during cutting. The worst thing is that the cutting edge may break off altogether.

It is important that the bar is long. It should be one and a half or two lengths of the blade. It is allowed for the diamond block to 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 the blade moving beyond the limits of the device. This may damage its side surface or the blade.

Homemade knife sharpening devices come in different 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 a manual machine for sharpening knives with your own hands is to hold the knife blade in a vertical position and drive it along a block fixed at the desired angle. This is much easier than placing the sharpening stone horizontally and holding the knife at the desired angle.

In order to make a machine for sharpening knives with your own hands, you need a piece of laminate, a wooden strip, sandpaper and a pair of bots with wings. Chipboard or plywood can serve as a replacement for laminate.

To make a knife holder, you need to cut off some of the material. To prevent the block from touching the holder when sharpening, you should sand its edge at an angle using sandpaper.

It is necessary to mark and cut off the top of the vertical post, which will serve as a support for the block. The angle chosen is half that at which the knife will be sharpened. For kitchen knives, it is recommended to take an angle of 10-15 degrees.

A machine for sharpening knives with your own hands, the drawings of which are prepared in advance, requires the correct calculation of the length of the base of the racks. Please note that the height indicator will be affected by the subsequent installation of the transverse support. After this, all parts are trimmed and the edges are cleaned.

Holes are marked and drilled in the base and plate for pressing the bolts that secure 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 device, since all knives have their own width. The pressure plate is secured with bolts.

Vertical posts are secured with screws. It is also taken into account that the load on the bottom is small. In this case, it is better to resort to using thermal glue. The horizontal crossbar is attached in exactly this way. The sharpening device is almost ready. All that remains is to make the block.

To make it, a strip is cut required length. Sandpaper is glued to one edge with the right size abrasive To optimize the result, you can resort to making several bars with different grain sizes. The range P600 - P2000 is considered the best. To protect your hands from cuts, you need to screw the handle on the top side of the rail.

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

There are also other types of machine for sharpening knives with your own hands. In this case, it is based on an M8 threaded rod. Two large washers and nuts are used, which serve to hold a bar 200 mm long.

Covers the thread. A pair of paper clips serve to secure the guide stand at the desired height. This ensures smooth adjustment of the sharpening angle. The base is made of timber, the thickness of which is 40 mm. It is supported by hand.

How to sharpen jointing knives with your own hands

Every owner who has a plane or jointer has probably encountered the problem of sharpening their knives. It is expensive to purchase new ones periodically. Knives can be easily sharpened with your own hands. In this case, specialized machines are used, or if it is used constantly, it would be better to make a machine for sharpening knives with your own hands.

Do-it-yourself machine for sharpening a jointer knife

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

Many people are interested in how to make a knife sharpening machine with their own hands. To make a device you need to find certain parts. Perhaps similar spare parts are lying around in your barn or garage. They can also be purchased via the Internet.

Sharpening machine jointing knives do it yourself consists of:

  • faceplates;
  • table;
  • engine;
  • vacuum cleaner;
  • casing.

The first thing you should do is find the faceplate. This is the most important component of future equipment. She is the one responsible for the sharpening process. The jointer knives are narrow, and the faceplate guarantees complete and safe sharpening. You will have to buy this part new, but the rest can be used even as old ones.

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

The next step is to find a motor whose power should be 1-1.5 kW. There is no need to buy it. Anyone will do, even old ones washing machine. But everyone probably has a table, a casing and a vacuum cleaner.

Main stages of device manufacturing

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 conveniently located.

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

A hole of the same diameter as the vacuum cleaner hose is made on the lower surface of the table in the sharpening area. The presence of a vacuum cleaner is not essential, but it is advisable to install it. It removes unnecessary dirt from blade processing.

What do you need to know?

Mounting the engine under the base of the faceplate is not a requirement. You can make sure that the parts are connected using a belt. In this case, the design will be more 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, any cutting tools become dull and require sharpening.

For fishermen, a high-quality ice auger is a great source of pride. Often, true competitions on the speed of drilling ice holes are held on reservoirs. And victory does not always smile on young and strong fishermen who are armed with imported equipment. There are times when experienced fishermen, equipped with simple Soviet-made tools, emerge as winners in the competition. Cause high speed Drilling a hole lies in good sharpening of the knives and correct settings of the device. Beginner fishermen, having bought new Swedish devices, do not even have time to blink an eye before their knives become dull. Tiny grains of sand and pebbles in the ice contribute to the formation of chips and gouges on the blade.

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

Homemade ice drill machine: what will you need to make it?

To make a device such as a knife sharpening machine, 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 it is very difficult to bend.

Progress

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

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

Holes for M12 or M14 bolts are drilled in the body and pressure plate. Having tightened the body and the pressure plate using a bolt and nut, we clamp the knives between them and check the strength of their adherence to the surface of the end 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 are positioned correctly, then the structure is disassembled, and stiffeners are welded to the body arc on both sides.

Sharpening knives is best done on a knife 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 knives in water frequently. This will help prevent the steel from overheating.

Disadvantage of the device

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

Making a universal device for sharpening an ice drill

The universal design allows you to sharpen knives at any cutting edge angle. By smoothly changing the angle between the arms of the unit, on which the knives are fastened with screws, you can fix the desired position of the knives in relation to the plane of the grindstone.

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

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

It happens that knives are sharpened, the location of the holes does not correspond to the holes in the canopy. In this case, additional holes are drilled in the arms for non-standard knives. In this case, the device has greater versatility.

How are planer knives sharpened?

Tools such as planers and surface thicknessers can often be seen in country houses. Through them, raw lumber is brought to the desired state. The knives of these devices, like any other, become dull. If you use them often, then the best way out will sharpen knives for a planer with your own hands. To make sharpening equipment at home, you will need various materials: metal, aluminum or wood.

A knife holder can be made from a wooden block. By making 45-degree cuts with a circular saw, you can sharpen the knives with a belt sander or a large whetstone. If the latter is not available, then sandpaper is attached to a smooth surface made of metal, wood, chipboard or glass.

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

The process of sharpening a knife or any tool does not require any outstanding skills or knowledge of special movements. In most cases, sharpening a knife, even the most original and expensive one, can be done with ordinary abrasive stones or sharpening devices. But under one condition - you must try to follow the recommendations of specialists involved in sharpening tools in industrial conditions.

How to sharpen a knife

There may be several answers to the question of how to sharpen a knife:

  • You can restore the tool using a sharpening stone or a set of triangular files with a fine notch;
  • Use a knife sharpener. The main difference between this method and the previous version is that the support under the blade allows you to maintain a stable sharpening angle of the edge;
  • Use a knife sharpening machine.

For your information! Despite what hand sharpening enthusiasts may say, a properly configured automatic or miniature machine will cope with the formation of edge angles much better than a hand whetstone.

For ordinary people, sharpening knife edges is everyday business, and if there is a choice between using a knife sharpening machine yourself or sharpening a blade with manual adjustment of the cutting edge for several hours, then, apparently, common sense will choose a sharpening machine.

How to get a sharp edge on a kitchen knife


The movement and tilt of the blade relative to the block is not as obvious as it might seem at first glance. To correctly understand the sharpening technique, you can use the video about sharpening knives:

For your information! Modern knives are made from a wide range of carbon and alloy steels. Hardened forged steel must be sharpened with an abrasive stone, and relatively tough stainless steel only with a triangular file.

Blades made of soft and tough steels with low chromium and carbon content can be sharpened with a file, while at the same time they very quickly clog the surface of the abrasive stone. Flexible forged blades must be fixed with a stop and sharpened with a block using sliding movements. Regular use of a whetstone for sharpening kitchen knives leads to greasy surfaces, which must be restored by grinding.

The old device for sharpening forged knives was made in the form of two wedge-shaped bars made of bog oak. The bars were placed on both sides of the blade so that the cutting edge remained free, the “sandwich” was tied with twine and sharpened with an ordinary whetstone to a razor sharpness. Wedges made of hard wood made it possible to correctly guide the block and obtain the required sharpening angle.

According to the recommendations given, manual sharpening of planer knives is performed. On thick glass fine-grained emery cloth is glued on, but the beveled part of the cutting edge is placed on the surface of the abrasive and sharpened in a circular motion.

Sharpening a ceramic knife is more difficult; you can manually trim the cutting edge with a needle file diamond coating, or use a special grinding paste.

Homemade knife sharpening options

The simplest device for sharpening knives is shown in the diagram. To make it, you will need a block of hard wood, the upper plane of which is sharpened at an angle to form the cutting edge. This solution helps to maintain the correct edge processing angle. To make sharpening the blade more convenient, you can screw a pair of self-tapping screws to fix the blade into the plane of the block.

To sharpen planing knives, you can make the sharpener attachment shown in the photo with your own hands. This solution simplifies the process and allows you to sharpen the blade as sharply as possible, but the lack of mechanization requires a certain skill and dexterity from the master.

Devices and machines for straightening and sharpening knives

Sharpening knives is certainly a creative activity that requires a lot of patience and skill. But is it worth spending time and energy on solving a task that can be successfully handled by a specially designed machine or device for sharpening knives? If for knives, household tools, for example, planing devices, kitchen or cutting blades, you can try to restore the cutting edge of the blade with your own hands, then for industrial volumes even sharpening devices will not help. You will need a powerful and productive machine.

Machines for sharpening the blades of cutting knives

The highest form of a sharp knife blade are non-rare models with chrome-plated blades and handles made of rare wood. These are more like museum exhibits or cheap imitation of them. An example of the sharpness of a blade is considered to be a carving or boning knife, which is used to cut raw meat and skins for 12 hours a day. It is under such conditions that the edge of a forged knife made of high-quality steel becomes dull unusually quickly.

For small volumes of cutting work, knife blades can be sharpened on simple machines with automatic control of the cutting edge angle.

For cutting areas of meat processing plants, they are most often used professional equipment KNECHT USK 160. The machine has a high degree of versatility, which allows you to sharpen the entire range of cutting tools, from fillet blades to cutting scissors.

Machines for sharpening cutting elements of carpentry tools

Sharpening knives for woodworking machines requires the mandatory use of specialized machine equipment. If you sharpen a relatively short blade of a household knife or hand plane can be done manually using a simple device, then the long and sharp blades of jointers and planers must be sharpened using a mechanical feed drive for the sharpening tool.

If you try to sharpen a tool with your own hands on a sharpening cup without support and guide slides, areas with different sharpening angles will form on the cutting edge. When processing wood, this leads to the formation of an uneven wavy surface of the board or solid wood.

Small flat knife blades can be sharpened to a simple machine vertical type.

Circular saws are usually sharpened on machines equipped with a divider and a rotary table.

Universal sharpening machines

In the work of small carpentry workshops, woodworking areas, and repair offices, universal sharpening machines, capable of sharpening a very wide range of cutting tools, including sharpening guillotine knives.

As an example, we can cite the desktop model of the VZ-319 machine. Thanks to the rigid bed and correctly selected gear ratios of the mechanical drive, the unit can sharpen almost any tool, from plane blades to cylindrical cutters.

Conclusion

Sharpening knives has long gone beyond the scope of craftsmanship into the category of an ordinary mechanical operation. A large number of All kinds of machines and devices, tabletop machines and automatic machines are capable of performing difficult work within a few minutes. A high-quality sharpener purchased once in your life can last for several decades, eliminating the hassle of sharpening knife blades.

Interest in making knife sharpeners with your own hands arises for a reason. The consumer qualities of hand-held cutting tools are enhanced through the use of modern materials and technologies for blade manufacturing and precision factory sharpening. At the same time, the price of the product increases, but it is becoming increasingly easier to ruin a fairly expensive item with primitive sharpening. Therefore, various household devices for sharpening knives are no longer needed only for convenience. To understand why a knife sharpener is still needed and how to make it correctly, you will have to start with the ideology and evolution of the knife.

Why do you need a sharpener?

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

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

They sharpen a knife by beating it in much the same way as beating a scythe, only the whetstone is motionless and the blade is moved. First, they pull it along the whetstone with the butt away from you, then they turn it over and pull it with the butt towards you. The position of the cutting edge (CR) on the whetstone is always dragging; quick movements: shirk-shirk! During 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 to sharpen a knife by beating is not very difficult, and with some skill you can create a smoothly running profile on the blade, see below. However, the Finnish knife is, in general, a dead end in the evolution of a cutting tool, surviving in special natural conditions.

A good knife has never been cheap, and in extreme situations, the durability of the blade, combined with the toughness of the blade, became vital factors. Therefore, even in ancient times, they learned to harden knife blades from the surface and cement them: the core remained viscous, not brittle, and a hard, red-hot crust formed on the outside, see next. rice.:

It is still possible to sharpen a knife with a cemented blade, but you need a skill that is not given to everyone. And the abrasive is already needed from a special type of stone - lithographic grunstein slate. There is little of it in nature; Grünstein is still considered a strategic raw material. There is no artificial grenstein and it is not expected. It’s as easy as shelling pears to ruin a cemented knife with inept beating - a little somewhere the cementation bark will be stripped down to raw metal (this is not visible to the eye), the knife will only have to be thrown away, the blade will immediately become dull and begin to crumble.

Note: If you have an old scythe whetstone of a slightly greenish color lying around somewhere, don’t throw it away, it’s a valuable rarity.

Service knives do not require the same durability and toughness as hunting and hiking knives, and they should cost much less. As a result, special steels and powder metallurgy are widely used in the production of utility knives. The blade of an “eternal” kitchen knife is structured like a rodent’s incisor: in longitudinal layers, the hardness of which decreases from the core outward. In any case, you have to sharpen the knife less often, but chipping is definitely ruled out - the blade immediately becomes discolored.

How to sharpen a knife?

For these reasons, push-pull sharpening technology (push-pull sharpening or push-pull sharpening technique) was invented long ago:

  1. The blade is pushed along the touchstone away from you with a twist, holding the butt towards you, the position of the RK is advancing (scraping);
  2. Then, without lifting the blade from the whetstone, they pull it with the butt towards you with a turn in the opposite direction, the position of the RK is dragging;
  3. The blade is turned over and repeat steps. 1 and 2;
  4. pp. 1-3 are repeated, reducing the pressure in each cycle, until the burr formed on the RA disappears (does not stick together).

Note: when they say or write “the hangnail will go away,” etc., this is incorrect. Metalheads have a slang word for it: "zausavka"; for electricians - “switch off”. But in Russian, a burr and a switch are masculine.

Push-pull sharpening protects 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 whetstone, smoothly changing it in accordance with the curvature of the wheel.
  • Make sure that the tangent to the generatrix of the blade and the transverse axis of the contact spot of the wheel with the touchstone coincide.
  • Also ensure 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 device for sharpening knives is designed to relieve the sharpener from continuous monitoring 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 times the length of the knife blade from the handle to the 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 process. Sharpening with a simple blunt wedge (item 1 in the figure) gives a stable but rough blade: the cutting resistance is high, and the knife tears quite viscous materials. A sharp wedge (item 2) quickly dulls or chips; on viscous and/or fibrous materials, the cutting resistance may be greater than with a blunt wedge due to the friction of what is being cut against the blade.

Ideal in all respects is the ogival (smoothly sloping) profile, pos. 3. Experts are still arguing which generator is better - an involute, a hyperbola or an exponential. But one thing is certain - making an ogival blade in production conditions is difficult and expensive, and it is impossible to direct it yourself. Therefore, ogival sharpened knives are used only in special equipment, e.g. microtomes - biological devices for obtaining the thinnest tissue sections.

For disposable blades, e.g. safety razor blades, faceted sharpening is used, pos. 4, i.e. The ogive generatrix, as mathematicians say, is approximated by straight segments. The number of sharpening edges is indicated in the certificate or on the manufacturer’s website. For thick, rough stubble would be better suited 3-4-sided; for delicate hair not on the face - 8-sided. The 6-sided one is considered universal.

Angle α

The sharpening angle is always given in half the value α, because Many tools and, for example, bayonet knives are sharpened on one side. For knives for various purposes, the angle α is maintained as follows. within:

  • 10-15 degrees – medical scalpels, straight razors, knives for artistic carving.
  • 15-20 degrees – pastry knives (for cakes) and vegetable knives.
  • 20-25 degrees – bread and fillet knives.
  • 25-30 degrees – hunting, hiking, survival knives.
  • 30-35 degrees – general purpose household knives.
  • 35-40 degrees – carpentry tools, shoe knives, axes.

One and a half

Sharpening knives, except for special ones, is done almost exclusively with a one-and-a-half profile, on the left in Fig. One-and-a-half sharpening is so named because the flat edge of the blade (descent) is formed during the manufacturing process of the blade and cannot be sharpened. In fact, sharpening a knife with one and a half sharpening is no more difficult than sharpening it with a simple wedge. One-and-a-half sharpening is optimal for a knife that works with a variety of materials, and making a knife sharpener with one-and-a-half sharpening is much easier than using a faceted sharpening.

In the center and on the right in Fig. The stages of blade sharpening and the numbers of abrasives used on them are shown. The abrasive number corresponds to the number of its grains per 1 square meter. mm surface. The finishing stage has some features:

  1. Hunting and camping knives are not supplied. This makes it easier for them to cut hard things (for example, bones) with broaching (with filing). In addition, if you accidentally cut yourself, the slightly lacerated wound stops bleeding faster, heals more easily, and there is less danger of infection getting into it.
  2. After abrading, the blades of straight razors, shoemaker's knives and for artistic carving are brought to mirror smoothness on a leather whetstone with GOI paste.
  3. Guiding and finishing the blades of kitchen knives can be reduced to one operation with abrasive No. 800-1100.

Touchstone

A homemade knife sharpener will be much more convenient and accurate if you do not buy a whetstone for it, but make it from a piece of square corrugated pipe 200-300 mm long (on the left in the figure below) or a wooden block.

The edges of the base are covered with sandpaper, respectively. numbers. Glue – stationery adhesive stick. The advantages of a skin-based donkey are obvious:

  • Much cheaper than an emery block.
  • Can be made with 4 numbers of abrasive, while sanding blocks have a maximum of 2 sides.
  • Wear (depletion) of the abrasive is possible no more than the thickness of the abrasive layer of the sandpaper; the waviness of the RK due to the rotation of the whetstone on the sharpener rod (see below) is also no more than this amount.
  • As a result, the sharpening angle error due to the development and rotation of the whetstone does not exceed fractions of a degree.
  • The chip from the pipe can be put on a threaded rod (in the center in the figure), which makes changing the abrasive faster and easier.
  • A touchstone made from a pipe or a wooden block is held in any clamps under an emery block no worse than the last one, on the right in Fig.

Knife sharpening devices

The simplest manual knife sharpener is an angular frame in which a whetstone is clamped, pos. 1 on next rice. The same type of “company” is on sale, and this is marketing: they want up to $50 or more for a plastic board with inclined nests for whetstones. Touchstones – non-standard sizes; regular ones won't fit into the holes. If you are used up, you need to buy more original ones. Price - you understand. And all the convenience - holding the blade strictly vertically when sharpening is still easier than maintaining its angle of inclination.

Use a simple sharpener for knives can be further simplified until there is no need for skills at all, if you supplement it with a sliding shoe with a magnetic knife holder, pos. 2. The sharpening order in this case is as follows:

  1. The knife is held by the handle with the right hand, turning as it moves according to the curvature of the blade;
  2. With the fingers of the left hand, except the thumb, press the shoe to the whetstone;
  3. With the thumb of the left hand, they press on the butt of the blade, pressing the RK to the abrasive.

The function of maintaining the angle of inclination is removed from the operator, and the rest are distributed between 2 hands. In this case, the skill of sharpening with your own hands is developed immediately, but you need a holder that firmly holds the knife and at the same time allows it to slide over its surface. You can make one from the magnets of the write-read head carriage drive from an unusable HDD drive (hard drive). The “screw” carriage drive magnets are niobium, thin, flat, smooth and very strong (shown by red arrows in position 3). They are glued with DIFFERENT poles onto a steel strip, the force of attraction of the blade will then double. And to ensure sliding, the holder is covered with a fluoroplastic film 0.05-0.07 mm thick. PET from bottles will also work, but it is thicker and the attraction will be weaker. Polyethylene is not suitable, it will wear out immediately.

Note: remember this holder, we will need it later.

L.M.

The use of a manual knife sharpener such as Lansky-Metabo, pos. 1 in Fig. The diagram of its device is given in pos. 2, and the procedure for use is in 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 touchstone 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. The angle also “floats”. Therefore, the Lansky-Metabo sharpener is used primarily for sharpening camp and hunting knives with a relatively short blade.

However, this disadvantage can be turned into an advantage 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 the sharpening angle at the root of the blade will be greatest, which is optimal for processing hard materials or using the knife as a cleaver. This is how they work in such cases, so that the outer arm of the arm-blade lever is shorter.

Towards the middle of 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 tip the B angle will increase again, making the tip more resistant to drilling, chiselling/impacting and punching (piercing).

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

Drawings of parts of the original Lansky-Metabo sharpener are given in Fig. The numbers at the windows under the rod (guide) correspond FULL corners sharpening.

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

Note: on the trail. rice. An assembly drawing of the Serjant sharpener is given. Regarding the inconvenience of fastening in a vice, see above.

Knife sharpening machine

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

Homemade option Apex sharpeners– knife sharpener Skomorokh

In 2016, the desktop modification of Apex by Ivan Skomorokhov made a splash in the RuNet, perhaps no less than the bubafon stove once did, see fig. on right.

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

How to make a knife sharpener Skomorokh, see video:

Not just knives...

The original Apex sharpener is not very suitable for sharpening carpentry tools- chisel, plane iron. The sharpening angle of the Apex floats for the same reasons as that of the Lansky-Metabo. Meanwhile, if the sharpening angle of the chisel along the width of the blade “walks” by more than 1-1.5 degrees, then the tool strives to move to the side, crawl out, or go deep into the solid wood along its fibers. It is very difficult to evenly and accurately select a groove for a tenon/ridge using such a chisel.

There are special devices for sharpening carpentry tools, which require a special discussion. Homemade products like a roller sharpener-trolley, see fig. on the right, they are more of a curiosity: not to mention the complexity, they require a stone or steel table, and, most importantly, they do not guarantee against distortion 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, a modification of the Apex for sharpening was flashed, not inferior to that of a factory electric semi-automatic sharpening machine. The alteration is not difficult, see figure: the rod is set horizontally according to the level and the rod level is held along the same level while 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 offset of the contact point is from 250 mm, it is possible to sharpen chisels and planer pieces up to 120 mm wide.

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

...but also scissors

Another modification of the Apex sharpener for sharpening scissors (also a necessary thing in the household) is shown in Fig. on right. The total work required is a couple of pieces of angle or galvanized scraps and 4 additional holes in the sharpener table. For the process of making your own attachment for sharpening scissors for the Skomorokh sharpener, see next. video:

Video: sharpening scissors, attachment to the sharpener Skomorokh

Finally, about scissors

Before you grab bad cutting scissors and put them into the sharpener, check to see if the hinge is loose. Open the scissors and look at them from the side. Do you see how the tip is turned with a screw towards each other? That’s why scissors cut: the point of contact of the blades when cutting moves from the roots to the ends. And therefore it is difficult to cut with scissors with your left hand: turning the ends is designed for the kinematics of your right hand. And if the hinge of the scissors is loose, the blades will move away from each other and will not even be able to cope with paper. In this case, you just need to tighten the riveted joint with a hammer and the screw joint with a screwdriver.