Of course, you can buy a finished product in a store by spending a certain amount. For those who don’t have any extra money and want to work with their hands, I suggest making a knife sharpener yourself. For this we use waste materials that cost practically nothing, and the device will work no worse than the factory one.
Any interest? Then let's go.
Necessary materials and equipment
We will need:
- a block of sandstone, whetstone or something like that, I personally recommend sandstone;
- a fairly strong magnet (or better yet, two) of a flat shape. You can disassemble a speaker that has expired, and if you come across an unused neodymium magnet, it’s generally great;
- device for measuring angles. An ordinary school square with the required angle ready (in my case 30°) is suitable here;
- thin metal rod (I used copper);
- several scraps of thin board;
- a rectangular bracket, such as is usually used for attaching shelves to walls;
- cyanoacrylate, commonly known as super glue;
- baking soda;
- and you won’t believe it - a knife)).
The tools you will need are a grinder (grinder), a file and a saw.
Security measures
I assume that a person who occasionally works with his hands has a good understanding of the potential hazards that arise when:
- working with power tools;
- using sharp cutting objects;
- the occurrence of certain chemical reactions.
Let's get started
Attach a magnet (or two magnets like mine) to a block of wood. To do this, pour a thin layer of soda onto the block, moisten it with drops of super glue and glue the magnet.
We make or take out a ready-made block of emery stone. I cut some rectangular blocks (as spare) from sandstone. For this I used a grinder and a special disc for cutting granite. The surface of the block was leveled with a grinding machine. It took literally minutes. I immediately recommend making several bars.
Using a sander, I additionally leveled the reverse, non-working side of the block, to which the rod will be glued. I also sharpened the rod itself to increase the contact area with the block.
Next, using the technology already familiar to you using soda and super glue, I connect the rod to the block. I polished the resulting monolith of soda and glue, giving it a more attractive (as it seemed to me) shape.
Sharpening angle
Now you need to determine the cutting line of the wooden block on which the magnets are glued. This must be done in such a way as to ensure that the sharpening stone is fixed at an angle of 30 degrees to the plane of the knife blade.Why exactly 30 degrees? I can’t explain it, I just decided so, and you can choose your angle.
We place the block with magnets on a flat surface, placing our rectangular bracket under it. We install a template triangle on the magnets with a long leg. We lean an emery stone against the edge of the block and orient it so that the rod coincides with the hypotenuse of the template (or is parallel to it). This will be the required 30 degrees to the plane of the magnets, since the smallest of the angles of our template triangle has exactly this value. Now you need to move the bracket along the bar until the position of the rod matches the hole in the bracket into which it will be inserted. In this position, mark the cutting line of the block with a pencil.
Assembling the base of our device
There's not much to say here. Look at the photo to see what it should look like. Yes, after all, baking soda + super glue is power!
Checking and adjusting the sharpening angle
After a test sharpening of a blade, make sure that the angle suits you. You can drill several holes in the bracket, corresponding to different angles.
Testing
When sharpening, I recommend dipping the whetstone in water more often.
Using the knife is not at all difficult. Magnets securely fix the knife in the required position; you just need to hold it lightly with one hand.
What else can you do?
By forming the sharpening angles on my blade from scratch, I made sure that there was little wear on the whetstone. In any case, I made several sharpening stones in reserve and will change them if necessary.
Overall, I am satisfied with the performance of the device. Another idea came to mind - to make a ceramic sharpening stone for finishing the sharpened edges. I'll try to implement this. Good luck to all!
Original article in English
