Grafting Knife - Field Sharpening

TorontoJoe

TorontoJoe

Administrator
I'm committed to finally putting my fathers old grafting knife to good use this year. I admit I'm much more skilled butcher and chef knives. The process there is putting a good edge on with a whet stone, then while in use keeping them honed between every few cuts with a steel.

What's the honing process with these? Or do you even use one?

knife.jpg

Then there's the curved corner... is there some trick to keeping that sharp?
 
Your stepping up your game Joe and with a special worked-in grafting knife. Be safe out there grapfting pal be careful with the fingers. Good luck I hope you make a Frankien fig. Do you have any plans on what your grafting and how many?
 
I have a dangerous folding Felco knife. Super sharp and a non-locking blade. It’s a bad combination for the inexperienced like I was.
 
Figology said:
I have a dangerous folding Felco knife. Super sharp and a non-locking blade. It’s a bad combination for the inexperienced like I was.
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This grafting knife has no lock... But I can't imagine getting a new knife when I have this. It's quite stiff to close. As long as I only use it for grafting I should be fine. Currently it's very sharp, but it hasn't seen real use in a very long time.
 
Vitooch1 said:
Your stepping up your game Joe and with a special worked-in grafting knife. Be safe out there grapfting pal be careful with the fingers. Good luck I hope you make a Frankien fig. Do you have any plans on what your grafting and how many?
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No real plans yet. In addition of making FrankenFigs it was suggested in the notching thread as a good way to put branches where I want them...
 
3 figs I wanna add on my Frankienfig is milenzana, pallegrino, i258. I can’t wait I hope get success next season. Just imagine these figs on one tree. This is how it would look like on my picking day from that tree. I have most of them on it. Choose you figs wisely Joe. My mistake was grafting anything in the beginning, now you got me excited lol I wanna graft now.
 

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TorontoJoe said:
This grafting knife has no lock... But I can't imagine getting a new knife when I have this. It's quite stiff to close. As long as I only use it for grafting I should be fine. Currently it's very sharp, but it hasn't seen real use in a very long time.
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I mostly cut myself when the blade got stuck during pull outs and folded.
 
Fig wood is pretty soft. I feel like a properly sharpened knife will hold an edge against dozens of grafts. I've actually only ever done a handful of grafts so I can't speak from experience though.

That said, I would think a strop would do the trick to touch it up if needed.
 
hambones said:
Fig wood is pretty soft. I feel like a properly sharpened knife will hold an edge against dozens of grafts. I've actually only ever done a handful of grafts so I can't speak from experience though.

That said, I would think a strop would do the trick to touch it up if needed.
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I've done a load of meat cutting. Meat is pretty soft as well but even with a really good knife I can really tell the difference, and need to hone fairly frequently. Part of is my love of high carbon steel. It give me a much sharper edge than stainless... but needs much more frequent honing. (not sharpening)
 
Love old knives, that ones got some nice character.
Do you know what the handle is made of?
I keep telling myself to do more grafting, but myself never listens, says I'm too busy. lol
Pretty sure I have a brand new grafting knife here somewhere waiting to be used.
 
TorontoJoe said:
I'm committed to finally putting my fathers old grafting knife to good use this year. I admit I'm much more skilled butcher and chef knives. The process there is putting a good edge on with a whet stone, then while in use keeping them honed between every few cuts with a steel.

What's the honing process with these? Or do you even use one?

View attachment 3105

Then there's the curved corner... is there some trick to keeping that sharp?
Click to expand...
I use a diamond sharpening stone, they are available on many different grits, 2 would be better, a coarse and a fine. With the curved corner, I leave it as it is, and I only use it for gently pulling the bark away.
 
I have a fair amount of experience with wood carving knives. Very rarely will I use a stone on my carving knife. I use a leather Strap. The strap is glued to a wooden board like a large paint paddle. One side has the rough side up and the other the smooth side. The rough side gets sprayed down with oil like wd40 and then aluminum oxide powder sprinkled on. A couple draws on each side of the blade then over to the smooth side with light oil to finish the polish.
Knotts Knives is the company that made my knives and sold the sharpening kit
 
Okay folks - here’s an indication of my geekiness. This guys site is probably the best evidence-based site on sharpening/honing period. https://scienceofsharp.com/about/
Read it and you’ll know all you need to know about sharpening (if interested in different steels - I’ll point you elsewhere). Another hobby of mine - restoring centuries old straight razors, sharpening, honing and shaving with them. Trust me - you want scary sharp for silky smooth shaves. Picture of part of my collection below.

@TorontoJoe sharpen that with stones, then touch up with a strop. My preference is pasted denim (read the link above - search for strop denim) and then smooth leather. Do not sharpen the back edge. It is meant for prying slipping bark for grafting - not cutting. Also you want it dull so you don’t have a knife that will cut you with its backside (and can use it for controlling the blade).
 

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Gladstone1969 said:
Okay folks - here’s an indication of my geekiness. This guys site is probably the best evidence-based site on sharpening/honing period. https://scienceofsharp.com/about/
Read it and you’ll know all you need to know about sharpening (if interested in different steels - I’ll point you elsewhere). Another hobby of mine - restoring centuries old straight razors, sharpening, honing and shaving with them. Trust me - you want scary sharp for silky smooth shaves. Picture of part of my collection below.

@TorontoJoe sharpen that with stones, then touch up with a strop. My preference is pasted denim (read the link above - search for strop denim) and then smooth leather. Do not sharpen the back edge. It is meant for prying slipping bark for grafting - not cutting. Also you want it dull so you don’t have a knife that will cut you with its backside (and can use it for controlling the blade).
Click to expand...
I am so happy you saw this thread! I’m totally heading to that site!
 
Gladstone1969 said:
Okay folks - here’s an indication of my geekiness. This guys site is probably the best evidence-based site on sharpening/honing period. https://scienceofsharp.com/about/
Read it and you’ll know all you need to know about sharpening (if interested in different steels - I’ll point you elsewhere). Another hobby of mine - restoring centuries old straight razors, sharpening, honing and shaving with them. Trust me - you want scary sharp for silky smooth shaves. Picture of part of my collection below.

@TorontoJoe sharpen that with stones, then touch up with a strop. My preference is pasted denim (read the link above - search for strop denim) and then smooth leather. Do not sharpen the back edge. It is meant for prying slipping bark for grafting - not cutting. Also you want it dull so you don’t have a knife that will cut you with its backside (and can use it for controlling the blade).
Click to expand...

This is brilliant! What is your typical succession of stone grits for something like this?
 
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