How to Sharpen a Head Knife | Make Better Cuts in Leather with your Round Knife

Trevor Alexander shares tips on keeping your head knife sharp using several different grits of polishing stones. He will touch on the angle you will want to keep for a sharp edge that will hold up to cutting leather.
His step by step instruction will help you master his tried and true technique which will allow you to feel confident sharpening your tools.
Demonstration by Trevor Alexander Burns Saddlery
You can watch another video with Trevor Sharpening a Point Knife on the ‪@illumatelier‬ by clicking here:
• Sharpen a point knife ...
You can get more in-depth instruction on sharpening your tools with Trevor and other leather artisans by visiting www.illumatelier.com

[@richard_the_lion_farted]

I just received what I think is an excellent round knife as a gift. I am sharpening it the way this tutorial demonstrates... I realize I am doing nearly all the grinding on one side to establish a burr. I am deviating slightly by working each side for a time and flipping it until I get the burr.

[@james2592OldLeatherSmith]

OLD Leather Smith here, Excellent sir, I have always used Emery boards snd A 2 sided stone. I believe a beginner will find this extremely helpful. GOD'S BLESSINGS ✝️🥎🙃

[@bigbonxie]

Just got a new knife, this is a great tutorial! Thank you!

[@petercastles5978]

I like a slightly convex grind, tapering from well into the blade, say two inches, out to the edge. Coupled with a good proper strop, with aggressive grit, one is good to go. Mostly use 6 to 7 inch knives, with the tapered ferrule on the handle.

[@juannreyyes4319]

Thanks

[@juliangonzales2916]

Excelente👍👍👍

[@smokinblue151]

cool video thank you for sharing ,good one , Haveing learnt from my farther a boot maker and other saddlers from way back I would suggest you use a wet stone water or light oil on the stone , I have found I get a better result ..

[@GnarledSage]

What material are the micron strops you used? (The green and pink in the back side of the 2000 diamond plate). They’re very thin and doesn’t look like leather. Great to avoid rolling the edge. What material is the table you have? You cut with a very sharp blade on it without leaving marks, and apparently it doesn’t blunt the edge of your knife either. Very curious.

[@connectwithillume]

HDPE sheet is used on the table top, there's actually another product that is even better. Our friend Derek at Illum Atelier is working on finding some more details for you and will also get more information on the strop material that Trevor used. He will share what he finds here: www.illumatelier.com/communities/Q29tbXVuaXR5LTI1NzA5 You will need to setup a free account to view but they are building out a great resource for leather makers here. They produce the videos with us for the magazine and offer a monthly membership to leather craft classes with some big names in the community and a growing library of projects, skills, and instruction.

[@GnarledSage]

@@connectwithillume 👍

[@pauljennings1531]

What sort of stone is that last one please

[@GnarledSage]

It’s just a 2000grit diamond plate. You find them in any china store website. All diamond stones are like that. We see them thicker, because the thin plate (like the one you saw in the video) is glued or soldered to a 1cm stainless steel or aluminum. They are very cheap online and work very good. I have the dmt (expensive ones) and this Chinese (very cheap ones) and they are for all that matters the same. If you want them to be more like a stone, just glue them to a wood board or mdf.

[@markmorbos]

would be nice if the grit of stones are also included. Its hard to define " coarse and sharp grit". Mentioning what specific tools are used, are as just as important as teaching the method. Also - are you using diamond hone, or stone?

[@GnarledSage]

Those are clearly diamond plates. (The most common ones in this 2 side systems are usually 400/1000) and the last one he said was a 2000grit. In the stropping he used diamond paste of different micron measurements. And the buffing wheel apparently was clean. But, normally some polishing compound is applied. My guess is he used it clean because he came from a 1 micron paste after stropping. Hope that helps.

[@SeanHellman]

Personally I skip the micron paper films and would just go to the mop with a final finishing paste or polishing compound on the mop. So 1000 or 2000 grit to mop job done without extra honing on these expensive and easily damaged papers.

[@sloth_e]

A good round knife has a 10° edge. Any higher angle and you might aswell use a box cutting knife. They are intended to be like a scalpel. Traditionally they were no less than 15° at most.