How to sharpen a marking knife

[Luke Dupont]

If you use a box cutter for marking, you angle the knife. That's how Paul Sellers taught us. I still use a box cutter. I have marking knives, but prefer the box cutter.

You can really use a knife wall to work to.

Yeah - that's what I was saying. I've actually been using a home-made marking knife which is double-bevel, made from a length of leftover bandsaw blade material. It's in the profile of a box cutter, and works wonders. I made it after watching Paul Sellers working with his knife

I think the bandsaw blade actually makes a wonderful marking knife, because it's exceedingly thin and hard. It meets *very* little resistance because its thickness. Granted, I had to sharpen it on diamond stones, as it would be far too hard for a file or, heaven forbid, a waterstone.

I think my next project, when I have some thicker saw blade material left-over to work with, will be to make a combination marking knife/awl that I saw on the Woodwright's shop (awl on one end, knife on the other. Just a flat piece of metal).