How to Keep Your Zero Tolerance Pocket Knife Shaving Sharp
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Transcript of How to Keep Your Zero Tolerance Pocket Knife Shaving Sharp
How to Keep Your Zero
Tolerance Pocket Knife
Shaving Sharp
Whether you’ve gotten a good six months of breaking down boxes or just a
few days or a week of processing wood, you’re going to need to send that
edge to the stone sooner or later.
There are fancy machines and “systems” that you can use to restore a worn
and weathered edge, and some of these really are extremely convenient and
effective. There’s a simple truth underlying this, however. You can get any
knife as sharp as you want with just a few skills and a stone with the
proper grit. You don’t need angle guides or fancy, multi-directional, micro-
serrated rods or whatever they call them.
No, if your Zero Tolerance pocket knife is showing signs of wear
and you want to bring it back to hair-popping glory, you just need
the right stones, and to know what you’re doing.
In ascending order of fineness, you’ll want 400 and 600 grit stones, as well
as a stone with a grit rating between 1,000 and 1,200. For finishing the
edge, you’ll want a stone that’s rated between 3,000 to 5,000 grit. If you’re
using natural stones, a soft Arkansas stone is approximately 1,000 grit
and a hard black Arkansas stone is approximately 2,000 to 4,000 grit.
If your knife is very dull, start with 400 or 600 grit stones; if it just needs
to be touched up, start with the 1,000 grit stone. Use either water or an oil
to treat the surface of the stone, but remember, if you start with oil, you’ll
only ever be able to use oil again. These liquids will help to suspend the
particles of steel stock removed from the edge so the stone remains
efficient.
First, carefully inspect the edge of your knife. If it is still sharp, but not
sharp enough to glide through paper, you’ll probably only need two stones
for the job. If it’s approaching butter knife levels of dullness, you’ll need
three or even four.
Lay the blade flat on the stone. Depending on the model of Zero
Tolerance pocket knife that you own, this next part will vary, but for
most models, lift the spine up about a centimeter off of the stone,
keeping the edge in contact with it. That should produce an angle of
around 20 degrees of contact between the edge and the stone.
Now, sweep the knife away from you, slowly, maintaining that angle
of contact, as though you are trying to cut through the stone. You
should feel a satisfying, slick sensation through the blade. This
indicates that the stone has engaged the steel and is removing small
amounts of the edge to restore it.
Continue this process until you can feel a burr along the edge. Turn the
knife over and repeat the process until you have removed the burr on the
other side. Then, progress to a finer stone, until you have repeated these
processes with all three or four stones. By the end of it, you will have a
razor sharp knife.
There you have it; now you can enjoy another few weeks or months
with a brand new edge that will glide through obstacles like butter.
If you found these tips helpful, check White Mountain Knives’ blog
out, where you’ll find more of them, or get in touch with them for
more help at [email protected].