Puukko – Knife Sharping & Testing

After several blade making phases, it is time to make final sharping and testing to the blade. It does not help if blade is carefully finished, if it´s not filling its quality requirements. That´s why every blade must be tested properly before it´s ready to meet its new master.

  1. I usually use King´s #6000 grit wet stone for sharping after final machine grinding is done. I keep the blade at angle of 45 degrees moving it up and down at the same time. There are about 10 mm distance between blade´s spine and stone depending what kind of micro bevel is intended to be achieved. Usually it takes a couple of minutes and micro bevel is ready.  
  2. After wet sharping I continue process with piece of tightened leather. In this operation blade gets its final sharpness
  3. After previous operations I state the sharpness cutting some thin paper with blade or if I want extremely sharp knife I continue sharping as long as it´s cutting my hairs easily
  4. Finally it is a moment of truth. To be real ”puukko” blade it must pass the durability test with birch block and bone without any damage.