Carving & Spoon knife sharpener!

[JonnyP]

Thanks for the comments chaps. Some useful tips there. I do strop my carving knife but can you advise on the technique for stropping the curved spoon knife? I have tried in the past without much success!

Hold the knife in your fist with the blade sticking out little finger side. Have your sharpener/strop (I use chrome polish paste on leather for honing and wet n dry glued on some ply board for when a sharpen is needed) on the edge of a bench infront of you.
Then strop the blade, curving your wrist around as you go round the blade. Its easy to work out, harder to get right, but also awkward to explain on a forum.
As you sharpen it will create a burr along the edge which will feel sharp to your finger, but as soon as you use the knife, the burr will snap off and you will have a blunt knife, so thats where you use some fine wet n dry on the inside edge, keeping it flat to the blade.
Edit, cos I was in a rush this mornin.. I also use leather on the inside too, to polish the edge, keeping it flat on the blade.

[Thumbcrusher]

Thanks again for your help folks! JonnyP that was an excellent description mate. i'll give it a try!