Teach Your Customer How To Maintain Their New Helle Knife
Your customer has bought a Helle knife, now what? Teaching your customer how to look after their tools is paramount for safety in the outdoors.
Helle knives are tools that can last a lifetime if maintained and treated correctly.
Regular Maintenance:
- Keep the knife clean and dry after each use, using a soft cloth to wipe it.
- Rinse the knife with warm and fresh water after using for food prep.
- Treat the handle with oil or wax occasionally. Use a natural product such as linseed oil or beeswax. If the handle contains leather, use wax not oil.
- Treat the blade regularly with oil.
- Treat the sheath with a wax to keep the leather supple and retain its glow.
- Dry the sheath carefully at room temperature if it becomes wet. NEVER dry leather close to an open fire or heater to speed up the process.
Sharpening a Helle Knife:
Helle knives are known for their sharpness out of the box, but maintaining that razor-sharpness is important for high performance. Use a traditional flat sharpening stone. The level of wear on the edge determines the grain size to be used to get the knife back to its original sharpness.
Touch Ups:
If only a touch up for a razor-sharp edge is needed, use a fine grit sharpening stone. Place the knife’s scandi bevel flat on the sharpening stone. Slightly lift the knife’s angle so that you only sharpen the very edge.
Re-establishing a Fine Edge:
If you wish to re-establish an edge that has been lost or damaged, use a course grit to start. Place the knife’s Scandi bevel flat on the sharpening stone and work the entire blade one stroke at a time, pushing the blade in the direction of the edge.
Work one side only until you can feel a slight burr on the opposite side. Switch sides and repeat the procedure until you feel the burr on the first side. You have now re-established an edge.
Move to a finer stone to establish a razor-sharp edge. Finish by stroking the blade gently over a fine sharpening stone.
HELLE Sharpening Products:
The Helle Sharpening Stone SMALL is a portable field stone that features two grits: a 320 coarse and 500 fine and is well suited to touch ups on blade edges when out in the field.
The Helle Sharpening Stone LARGE is a bench stone that features two grits: a 360 coarse and 1000 fine and is great for sharpening your knives thoroughly before heading out.