Makeshift Knife Sharpening Jig

[cpanderson]

I'm new to the forum, so I wanted to show off my new "Home Made" knife sharpening system I put together. Technically, the jig is from my Tormek wet bench grinder that I use for my wood turning gouges, but I adapted it to reach an exact angle with my Shapton glass stones. I use a 17 degree bevel on my chef/paring knives and a 12 degree on my filet knives. Using a progression from 500, 2000, 8000, 16000 grit stones brings the knives to a mirror finish on the the bevel! I have even inspected them with a magnifying glass and there is no burr left to be seen... These babies are dangerously sharp!

 

[GaryHibbert]

Looks like a real nice setup. How do you change the angle??
Gary

 

[cpanderson]

The angle is adjusted as follows:

The metal jig that rests in the work bench has set screws that adjust the height. This is used to adjust the angle on large (macro) scale. The black knob on the end of the jig attached to the knife twists and adjusts the length of the holder to adjust the angle on a small (micro scale). For now, I am using an angle finder to measure the accuracy of the bevel, and a magic marker on the bevel to test the accuracy of matching the existing bevel. Hopefully that makes sense.

 

[cpanderson]

I did a quick sketch in autocad to show how adjusting the knife jigs up/down forward/backwards affects the angle of the bevel... hopefully that makes sense... I'm an engineer, not a wordsmith

 

[mosparky]

That is a pretty slick set up. It takes up a bit of space, but looks a serious up grade to the Lansky system.
You say it's homemade ? What did you repurpose that clamp from. I really might like to build one of these. I have a Lansky, but it has short-comings.

 

[cpanderson]

Ok, to start out, what I called homemade was just using what I already had instead of buying a dedicated sharpening system, but for what it is worth, I could probably reverse engineer in and come up with something that you could make at home with basic drills/taps/threading. If you look in the first picture, the metal railing is from my Tormek bench grinder system... it is basically a 90 degree rod with a threaded piece welded to it, with a nut used as a height adjustment. All I did was drill 2 holes in my work bench to accept the two metal rods, so it actually doesn't take up any space at all. The clamp is part of the tormek grinder system, so again I just used what I had... but I think you could also DIY with a couple pieces of plate and rod and a buddy that can tig weld... I guess what I meant by homemade was taking something I already had, a "wood turning jig" for a bench grinder, and making it work for my knife stones. So hopefully I didn't misrepresent myself. Now that there is interest, I'm thinking I might try to actually make something truly homemade, with what I have in my garage and see if I can replicate.

 

[mosparky]

I see no misrepresentation. Most homemade items are dependent on re-purposing what you have on hand.
Curious , did you make the knife too ?

 

[old sarge]

I like it!

 

[cpanderson]

I see no misrepresentation. Most homemade items are dependent on re-purposing what you have on hand.
Curious , did you make the knife too ?

I see what you did there... I changed the title to "makeshift knife sharpener"... no harm no foul...

 

[kelbro]

Kitchen knives off a Shapton Glass 16K? Wow! I used those for straight razor shaving. Real scary sharp!

 

[Braz]

Clever jig. But, 16k for kitchen knives is insane. I only take my straight razors to 12k.