How to Sharpen a Recurve

This is a tutorial on how to sharpen a recurve knife or also known as a bird's beak knife. They are curved towards the cutting edge and this makes them very difficult to sharpen on a flat whetstones. You need to consider other sharpening methods and a different set of tools. You can buy expensive sharpening tools, but if you get creative, you can make a very effective sharpening tool custom tailored to your needs.

To make your own recurve sharpening tools you only need a few items. You need some sand paper, a 1 to 2 inch rod, pole, or dowel. Smaller knives will require a smaller diameter rod. You will need a way to adhere the sand paper to the rod and you will need to cut up the sand paper to size.

You can choose whatever grits you like, but I would do one coarse, say 400 grit, and one about 1000 grit. These two grit ranges will give you enough range to work with to get any knives fairly sharp. Lastly, you may want to consider a polishing tool to really help clean up the cutting edge. I chose a piece of suede which I was able to up and attached to the bottom half of my rod.

This video will show you the entire process of how I made the perfect tool to sharpen a recurve blade.

[bchin]

I have some culinary friends who ask me to sharpen these types of knives and this DIY will make it so much easier. Thanks 😁

[HereinTexas]

Brother, I have learned so much from your channel. I love your unbiased reviews. Thanks for sharing your knowledge. Keep up the good work. God Bless.

[jonathanallen]

For sharpening concave blades, I have had success using a scythe (or sickle) stone. They work well, at least for the initial stages, but for the fine sharpening, I must agree with the excellent advice of this video.

[Generic_Username_]

Pretty sure 80, 000 grit is softer than my shirts I wear.

[Kmaczzz]

Hi Ryky. Thanks for the helpful information. Did you mean to post the links for the items in the video?

[JohnDoe-ytkw]

THANK YOU!!! I made mine with 220, 600 & a piece of suede scrap with some stropping compound. Brought my bird's beak back from the dead! This is such a great idea!!!

[twall]

Thanks for this video! Still haven't bought a bird's beak paring knife yet, I was waiting for this video. Doesn't look hard at all. Thank you again. :)

[CHRISTDRIVER]

What is the best way to go about polishing the face of a knife? I'd like to get a high polish finish, but mostly experimenting and learning,

[Nemecross]

Thank you! i've been looking for boning knife sharpening tutorials for ages, but they all seem to use straight bladed boning knives, and i could never understand how they sharpened the nook/curve of the knife near the handle!

[henryqi]

Im having trouble finding the tape you are using. You said its a "3M x series transfer tape"? or transpore or transport? can you provide a link to purchase?

[justinwojcik]

Of course I look for a how to sharpen video and there you are sensei dropping knowledge. Awesome help as always. Also they started selling those stones on amazon in a set of 3. Found it recently so might be a new arrival

[angriestbird]

So you think this would be good for a karambit?

[kenslaughter]

Great video. Definitely the way to do it in the cheap.

I use a 10-inch fine grit oval (wide) diamond sharpening steel. It's got the perfect rolled surface. I also have a 10-inch round ceramic rod steel that's also a fine grit. Both of those are just Wusthof steels, except being diamond and ceramic they remove metal instead of merely honing an edge. Works great for curved blades.

I also have 3 or 4 slip stones, which are handheld wedges with a round end, mostly used for woodworking gouges, but that round edge also works great for bird's beak and boning knives. I have a traditional western boning knife and a much smaller trimming knife with an identically shaped blade. Both of those are Wusthof, as well, and for those I use the slip stones.

The DMT Wave is also great for gouges and curved knives, but like the Wusthof steels, it's in the $60 range.

For stropping my concave curved blades (and many of my smaller knives), I just use my jeans. Denim isn't quite as good as leather, buuuut it's pretty close. Easiest way is normally just put the jeans on (you really don't want to be sharpening knives naked anyway) and sit down and strop on your thigh. Alternatively, you can fold them flat on a table, or lay them on a table and roll up one leg for a short curved blade.

[Lykapodium]

I'm not sure that will make it into the bugout bag for my Tops Operator 7... You're great at sharpening!

[Timbo]

Thank you is much. I have alot of knife sharpening tools, but I nothing for sharpening curved knife. Thanks👏🙌👐👏👏

[ThefalleStrat]

Great Video! Is the Sound just on my device off?

[tgchism]

If you have a whetstone set, is there any reason you can't or don't want to use the edge of your stones?

[sobarsmachado]

Nice videos. I have one question: how do you sharpen the grafting / budding knife?

[CrazyDavesKitchen]

Please tell me more about that compound? Where can I get it ...

Amazon link ?

[richardstrouth]

Ricky,   What is the diameter and length of the wood rod you are using?