How do you sharpen knives used to process fish and game?

In a recent thread on filleting salmon, several people emphasized the importance of using a sharp knife:

THE MOST IMPORTANT THING IS A SHARP KNIFE. . . . NEEDS TO BE SHARP!! not just kinda sharp .... really sharp! If you are only ok at sharpening knives pay some one to sharpen your knifes. Machine sharpening doesn't count and will destroy your knives.

I agree.  Whether you are filleting fish or processing game, having sharp knives is essential.  So I thought I’d show how I sharpen my kitchen knives, and ask how other people keep their knives sharp when processing fish and game.

I made a jig which allows me to use diamond sharpening stones to establish an accurate and repeatable bevel over the length of a long knife.  The jig is designed to produce a 22 degree angle on the bevel on each side of a knife blade.  A knife sharpened on this jig has a perfectly flat and shiny bevel on each side of the edge of the knife.





If I’m sharpening a knife for the first time, or if somebody with no appreciation for a keen-edged knife has dinged up the edge of one of my knives, it takes me a while to work the bevels down until they meet in a sharp edge.  But once I get a knife sharpened properly with the jig, it only takes me a couple minutes with a medium and fine hone to restore the edge of a knife. 

I lubricate my diamond hones with water.  To check the sharpness of my knives, I run the edge across my thumbnail at an angle.  A sharp knife will cut easily into my thumbnail, and will slide smoothly with no catching or rough spots.

How do other people sharpen their knives?

Pete I'm always impressed with your level of innovation. Fine setup you have there. I also use a diamond steel but I have noticed inconsistencies that limit the accuracy I can achieve on a day to day basis. Your method would take the guessing & minor fluctuations out of the equation & provide a more consistent outcome.
On Another note, I have not had good experiences with Henkel knives holding an edge and I have never recommended them to those who put a lot of wear & tear on their cutlery.
Thanks for sharing.

And once they are sharp, keep them on a magnet or in a sheath and not banging around in the dish strainer. I finally wised up and learned that.

On Another note, I have not had good experiences with Henkel knives holding an edge and I have never recommended them to those who put a lot of wear & tear on their cutlery.

That Henkel knife is not one of the knives I use for processing fish and game, but it's a nice looking knife, so I stuck it in the jig for the picture.

I use the Spyderco sharpener for my fillet knives.
http://www.amazon.com/Spyderco-Tri-Angle-Sharpmaker/dp/B004HIZKHE
Pros: easy on the knife, easy to use, very portable, good edge
Cons: sharpening takes more time than most other sharpeners, ceramic rods can break if dropped, kind of expensive.

I use the Chefs Choice sharpener on my kitchen knives. http://www.amazon.com/Chefs-Choice-110-Professional-Sharpener/dp/B00004S1B9/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1447509615&sr=8-2&keywords=chef%27s+choice+120+sharpener
Pros: easy to use, good edge
Cons: takes a lot of metal off the knife (hard on the knife), not very portable, kind of expensive, won't sharpen the entire blade of some knives

I use only Forscner knives for fillet and butchering. 8" and 6" fillet, 8" breaking, 10" cimeter. I transport them in Blade Tamer sheaths. I use the Syderco on the knives I really care about.

Japanese water stones down to 8000 grit and then a leather strop for straight razors my Grandfather left me.

But I definitely envy your jig.  Hardest part with stones is holding the 22-degree angle for the full length of a blade.  Quite a clever little contraption. 

I use a Lansky, which has a jig that allows various angles depending on which slot you choose.

-Allen

I also use a Lansky jig and stones. Very similar setup to your home made version. 

I throw a folding (think butterfly knife) medium/fine sharpener in my bag when I go on trips for touch ups, but I prefer to only use the Lansky to keep my bevels correct.

I've used coffee cup bottoms and truck window glass to get serviceable edges in a pinch.

Spyderco sharpmaker is great for all knives, I would highly recommend it. It is probably the easiest sharpener to use, because it has preset sharpening angles. I have four other sharpeners and find this is one of the quickest and easiest for most applications.

I'm another who has used the Lansky jig with diamond stones. However, I've recently reverted to diamond bench stones and 2 leather strops, one impregnated with diamond grit. My bevel isn't quite as consistent as with the Lansky jig, but after hand sharpening for 35+ years, and with the combination I use, it only takes a few minutes per knife for a shaving-sharp edge. Of course, you have to be working good steel to get great results.

How often are you guys sharpening your knives?  I do so about once a year, maybe twice.  I do hone at every use.  Yeah, I could probably get incrementally better results sharpening more often, but it doesn't seem to slow down my ability to filet fish.  To that end, I choose the system that I believes gets me the best edge, not the one that is quickest.  The quicker ones usually result in having to sharpen more often.

-Allen

I have always sucked at sharpening with a stone--even when I commercial fished. Now I use this
I know they take metal off a knife but I'd rather have 10 years of a super sharp knife than a life time of my poor efforts at hand sharpening.
T2

How often are you guys sharpening your knives?  I do so about once a year, maybe twice.  I do hone at every use.  Yeah, I could probably get incrementally better results sharpening more often, but it doesn't seem to slow down my ability to filet fish.  To that end, I choose the system that I believes gets me the best edge, not the one that is quickest.  The quicker ones usually result in having to sharpen more often.

-Allen

Depends on how many fish I catch LOL but usually re-edge and back bevel once or twice a year and hone before each use. I think the diamond sharpeners are harder on the steel.

I too use a Lansky, however I'm starting to dislike the clamp after about 8 years of use.  It seems to pinch and hold my blade a few degrees off one way every time. 

Considering moving up to a Wicked Edge, but they are really really spendy!   

The DMT Aligner ProKit looks pretty nice, and it looks portable enough to take with me and use as needed at camp.

A member of the forum requested some details about how I constructed my knife sharpening jig.  Constructing the jig is pretty easy, but figuring out the dimensions of the jig is the hard part.  So I’ll provide information about the dimensions I chose for my jig.

But some background may be helpful.  A number of companies make knife sharpening jigs, including Lansky and DMT.  But the problem with these jigs is that the stones or hones will only be at a right angle to the edge of the blade when the hone is directly in front of the jaws of the jig.  For example, the following pictures show how the Lansky sharpening jig works.  The DMT jig is similar.  On those jigs, the further the stone is from the jaws of the jig, the smaller the angle of the edge. 





This is a big problem when sharpening a long kitchen knife, where the hone will be at a severe angle to the tip of the knife when the jig is clamped in the middle of the blade.



The reason I made my sharpening jig was to allow me to keep the stones at a right angle to the edge of my knives, even long kitchen knives, over the entire length of the edge.





I prefer diamond hones (a) because they stay flat, and don’t develop a dip over time from wear, which reduces the accuracy of a stone, and (b) because they can be lubricated with water, so you don’t need to worry about getting lubricating oil in your fish or meat.

To what angle should you sharpen the edges of the knives which you use to process fish and meat?  Here is a typical discussion of edge angles, from the Lansky webpage:



Here is another discussion of edge angles, from a sharpening equipment webpage:



The smaller the angle of the edge of your knives the sharper they will be, but the more fragile their edge will be.  When choosing an edge angle, you need to reach a compromise between the sharpness of the edge and the strength of the edge.  If you have a fillet knife which you only use to slice meat, such as when removing ribs from a fillet, you can sharpen it to a smaller angle such 15-20 degrees.  IF you have a knife which you use to cut through fish bones, such as when removing fillets from the backbone, you will probably want to sharpen it to a larger angle, such as 20-25 degrees, so it doesn’t get dulled as quickly.  I sharpen my fish and meat processing knives to a 22 degree angle, which does a good job of slicing meat, but doesn’t get dull too quickly.  You may choose a different angle.

If you want to make a sharpening jig, the first thing you need to do is buy a set of sharpening stones or hones, because the jig needs to be scaled to the dimensions of the stones or hones.  In particular, the jaws of the jig need to be long enough so you can use the full length of the stones you buy.



I use both DMT and Lansky diamond hones, which have similar dimensions.  Once I get the bevel on the edge of a knife established, I only use the medium, fine, and ultra fine stones.  If the company you buy stones from offers different choices, choose the option which has more choices on the fine end of the spectrum.



My jig is based around two pieces of 1.5” aluminum angle stock.  These pictures show how it’s constructed.  I can adjust the edge angle of the jig by changing the number of washers between the two pieces of angle iron.





The edge angle set by the jig is measured by putting a straight edge between the edge of the angle iron and the edge of the knife.  However, the edge of the knife needs to stick out beyond the jaws of the jig far enough so the stones don’t hit the end of the jaws rather than the edge of the knife.  And you need to leave a consistent width of blade sticking out beyond the end of the jaws of the jig, so the sharpening angle will be consistent.  These rulers show the length of the jaws on my jig, which are about 4.25” (115 mm) long.



The outer tightening screw needs to be set back far enough from the end of the jaws of the jig to accommodate your widest anticipated knife.  I set the outer tightening screw about 1.75” (4 cm) back from the end of the jaws of my jig to accommodate chef’s knives.



Knives vary in thickness, and on many knives the sides of the blade are not parallel, but rather the blade gets narrower as it approaches the edge.  So you need to be able to adjust not only the distance between the end of the jaws, but the angle between the jaws.  I need to improve the design of the jaws on my jig by adding an adjustment to the back of the jaws (the end next to the angle iron), so the jaws can do a better job of grasping a variety of different knives.  Another improvement to my jig would be to replace the hole in which jaw nearest the tip of the knife is mounted with a slot, so I can adjust the spacing between the jaws to accommodate a wider range of knife lengths.

The first time you sharpen a knife using this kind of jig, you may have to sharpen for a long time using a course stone before the bevels on each side of the knife finally meet to form a sharp edge.  But once you establish those bevels, when the knife gets dulled by use, it’ll only take a couple of minutes to re-sharpen it.  I like very sharp knives for processing fish and game, so during a day of processing a deer or elk I may touch up the edges of my knives several times a day.  If I use my kitchen knives carefully, I only need to sharpen them a couple times a year.