Sharpening knives?

[duneslider]

I am sort of new to this linoleum stuff. I am a long time tile/wood contractor who now works for a school district as "the" floor guy. I am in the process of becoming an everything floor guy. I got a quick hour training by one of the Forbo guys, it was very interesting and informative but I have basically been on my own to figure things out. I will be taking the Forbo training in the near future. I have just been doing repairs, and there are lots of them.

In my bag of tools was the Mozart skiving knife. I like it for the first pass but it is terrible on the second pass. I have sharpened up the quarter moon knife and am getting great results with it on the second pass. I am curious if I am putting the right edge on it. It seems I need to run it over the stone quite often, maybe every 10-20 feet. Is this normal? Would a steeper angle on the edge still cut good and last longer?

Thanks for the help, this linoleum stuff is a lot of fun.

[duneslider]

Did I ask the wrong question, or just nobody needs to sharpen their knives?

[Barry Carlton]

No, you should not have to sharpen or hone it as often as you suggest.
A light misting of water on the rod with a spray bottle will help immensly as a lubricator on the second pass.

I feel a little differently about the Mozart knife. I do not like it for the first pass, but love it for the final pass.

[duneslider]

I have been reading a lot of posts by you Barry. You have helped me see a new and exciting side of linoleum, I kind of had an "institutional" view of the product.

I will try the water trick.

When Forbo gave me the little training I used my Mozart and had great results. This was basically a "new" install, we installed the product on sheets of ply in a shop. With my repairs, they aren't picture perfect. I am patching in borders with new product next to 10-12 year old product with who knows how many layers of floor finish. For some reason (I have lots of guesses why), the mozart will not give me a clean pass on the final pass. I am not really thrilled with the first pass with the mozart either, my welding probably isn't the best and my shoulders get a little big sometimes which causes problems with the mozart. I only have one quartermoon knife right now and worry about the blades contact with the spacer plate.

Thanks for the help Barry, Lino is becoming quite fun.

[Barry Carlton]

I have 6 moon knives and 2 cove knives.
You really need more than one.
I take mine in to a local shop once a year for a pro edge. And then maintain them with a set of good stones (water and diamond) and a chisel angle set.

Buy at least one more knife.

If you can, keep one for the first pass only.

Check this company out: http://shop.ebay.com/burke_tools/m.h..._from=&_ipg=25

[duneslider]

I really need to get more knives. Maybe I am being a little picky on the edge I have too. I really like the feel of the razor sharp edge when cutting. thanks for the link, seems like good prices.

What are you referring to when you say "chisel angle set"? I am assuming it is something that holds your angles while you work the stone. What angles do you keep top and bottom?

[Barry Carlton]

Yes that's what I mean to maintain an angle. I'll try to remember to post a pic of the ones I use in the next couple of days. (if I remember)

There is some disagreement as to what angles and what side of the blade.

I use about a 22-25 degree angle on the top of the blade only. I like the bottom to be perfectly flat. I even polish the bottom side to a mirror finish as you would on a fine chisel.

[duneslider]

thanks Barry,

My bottom is close to flat and my top is probably 15 degrees or so. I might try getting my angle up to 20-25 and see how I like it.

[BrianM]

Frequency of sharpening depends on how abrasive and resilient the material you're working with is. I'm laying a lot of floors with aluminum oxide grit or flakes "baked in" to the embossed urethane wear layer. The heavier grits are considered safety floors and they'll tear your quarter moon knife all up. So I have a couple older beat up knives and a couple newer ones with slightly different edges that each have their own purpose. I like the Mozart knife but the blades go fast on the materials I'm laying these days.

What have you got to sharpen the knives with? You need a diamond whetstone. Repairs are never going to be as sweet as a new install. So that's kind of a rough place to be learning your welding techniques. Getting the two sheets on either side of a seem perfectly flat and even is necessary for good, easy welding. But that ain't always going to happen, right?

Patching into old goods will almost always require some contour work with your Exacto knife. I like the large round blades for than and you want to go light as a feather as you pull it toward you to angle and clean up the edges of the shaved weld rod. You will also need to learn to "meld" some of the rougher patches up. These are tricks you might never need on new work in a home but doing repairs in a commercial setting you have to do what you have to do. Heat up the tip of a linoleum knife with your propane torch til it's white hot and then very lightly pass over any part of your weld that aren't coming out so clean.

[Peter Kodner]

BrianM said Heat up the tip of a linoleum knife with your propane torch til it's white hot and then very lightly pass over any part of your weld that aren't coming out so clean.

We always had good success using a soldering gun with a flat foot tip. If you do any vinyls, be careful- it is easy to get the tip too hot.

[BrianM]

Peter Kodner said We always had good success using a soldering gun with a flat foot tip. If you do any vinyls, be careful- it is easy to get the tip too hot.

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I just recently bought the Winkleman soldering tool that works the way you describe. The torch always worked great when a little dab will do ya. If there's many hundreds or thousands of feet of welding then it's worth dragging the soldering tool out. One of the welders in the shop has an old nozzle with the tip pounded flat and that works the same way.

[Peter Kodner]

We had a gun in each of the welding kits we had. We were doing enough that we has about 10 complete kits plus some extra tools kept in the shop in the event one needed repair. As per our Union agreement, we provided all power tools and did not insist our mechanics bought them themselves. We actually got more than a few jobs from leads from our mechanics.

Seeming we kept them busy enough that side jobs were done only as favors for friend or family. Off the record, I had, on occasion, lent tools to our guys for their side work, as rare as that was