New to sharpening

T

Tlizzi1024

Joined
Jun 17, 2017
Messages
3
Hello,
I'm new to knife sharpening and have been research all kinds of sharpeners. Any suggestions would be great.
 
First question is what types of steels will you be sharpening, or what knives do you have?
 
I recommend the WorkSharp. If you are familiar with belt sanders, this is extremely easy and effective to use. It will give you a convex edge if you like that, and is very fast.

Easy to modify to fit larger diameter belts and such as well.

If you prefer non-powered, then sharpmaker is always a good place to start.

High end, Wicked Edge for best consistency and performance.
 
Cutlover said:
I recommend the WorkSharp. If you are familiar with belt sanders, this is extremely easy and effective to use. It will give you a convex edge if you like that, and is very fast.

Easy to modify to fit larger diameter belts and such as well.

If you prefer non-powered, then sharpmaker is always a good place to start.

High end, Wicked Edge for best consistency and performance.
Click to expand...
I'm not familiar with a belt sander and don't want to risk ruining my knife. Seen videos of people that have destroyed knive
 
I suggest a Sharpmaker as well. It's a good place to start that doesn't break the bank. You can upgrade at a later date.

Keep in mind the Sharpmaker is great at keeping knives sharp. It's strength isn't reprofiling knives or bringing a totally dull knife back from the dead.
 
I usually recommend the Spyderco Sharpmaker or the KME system.

The Sharpmaker is a great, cost effective way to maintain the performance of your edges.

The KME, while more expensive than the Sharpmaker, allows you a lot more flexibility in edge maintenance. It even performs almost, if not as well as the ultra high end systems like a Wicked Edge or TSProf K series.

Of course, if budget's not a concern you can swing for the fence and go with one of the two latter mentioned systems. I've used them both with great success, but they are very expensive.
 
Tlizzi1024 said:
I'm not familiar with a belt sander and don't want to risk ruining my knife. Seen videos of people that have destroyed knive
Click to expand...

Fair enough, I wouldn't use it unless you are comfortable. Though I have to question the intelligence of the people who destroyed their knives, that would be pretty hard to do.

In this case, sharpmaket would be an excellent starting point. For a basic guided system, try Lansky. All depends on what kind of edge and precision you want.
 
I bought a guided sharpening system, mine is a workshop, but there are tons of em out there. Spyderco, lansky, dmt, there are plenty of companies making them.

Besides making it easy to keep a proper angle, they come with detailed instructions to take the guess work out of the process.
 
I have a similar issue I don't want to have to find someone to sharpen my knives and I want to work on any variety of knife including pocket knives, kitchen knives, and outdoor knives. I prefer to stick with factory/maker angles so I am hesitant to go with the less precise and more budget friendly systems but I wonder about the learning curve of the other systems as to what the pros and cons are of things like the KME, Wicked Edge, Edge Pro Apex, etc. What options are out there and how equal are they particularly the systems that have the more similar designs. I have tried using stones by hand but it is very difficult for me as I have small mild tremors in my hands and can't do steady hand work with out issue.
 
What I have found very helpful is the DMT diamond stones for quicker steel removal on really neglected blades. I think the Sharp maker is great to maintain an already basically sharp blade.
 
The Baryonyx American mutt bench stone (no personal experience yet) or Norton Crystolon benchstone (lots of personal experience) for reprofiling and/or maintenance of a thin backbevel and the spyderco sharpmaker for the final apex and sharp keeping.
 
There is also Hapstone from Gritomatic.

IMHO, if you want more precise bevel/edge than bench stones and go to field, farm, parent house... and want a portable system and need to reprofile the bevel I would go with Lansky-DMT-Gatco systems. In this case is easer take the sharpener to the knife.

If you want a more wide angle range options, high precise system, not so portable and more expensive and need reprofile the bevel/edge I would go with Hapstone, Edge Pro, KME, TSProf, Wicked Edge. In this case is easer take the knife to the sharpener.

If you want just EDC for emergency sharpening just pocket/bench stones can save your soul.
If you want praticity just touch up your blades I would go with Spyderco one. Even the other ones can touch up your blades but requires more adjust by other way Spyderco system just offer you 2 different angle setting. Of course if you have knowledge about angles you can tilt the blade to another degrees and go ahead, just like bench stones but is easer to go with 15/20 dps slots.

If you want build one just to see if you'll like the system way like me I would recommend Hapstone-Edge Pro... design. It's cheaper and easer to build than Wicked Edge design, at least where I live and get material is difficult.

All of them with diamond stones.
 
I recommend Japanese waterstones. 200, 1000, 4000, 8000 grit and maybe 10000 and 15000 if you are really into it. It takes a lot of practice, but the end result is extremely satisfy since it is done by had. Scary, scary sharp results. I even use the stones refurbish and polish the sides of my knives if they become scratched etc...
 
With the 2 knives the OP mentions, if you want to get into it in an affordable way that lets you maintain the good factory edges that will be there on those knives already, I agree, Sharpmaker is a good place to start without spending an arm and a leg. If you have the same Cold Steel Recon that I have, with the newer CTS-XHP steel, that's a pretty hard "super steel", and if you want to do any serious sharpening over time, it'll go REALLY slow on the Sharpmaker, unless you upgrade to the add-on/extra diamond rods, or the new CBN rods. And even with those, speaking from first-hand experience, don't even think about trying to do any serious re-profiling of your bevel on Sharpmaker, it just takes forever and will drive you nuts. For re-profiling, as somebody said, get a bench stone such as Baryonyx American Mutt, I own that and for $7.50, that thing is fantastic for profiling. However, the good news is that with your Benchmade and Cold Steel Recon, if they're in new or near-new condition, they already have good primary and secondary bevels, so you don't need to profile. Cold Steel for example puts a very high quality shaving sharp edge on the Recon from the factory, so you're starting in a great place and just need to maintain it. Sharpmaker is great for that, should be able to maintain with the included fine ceramics, or later, you can upgrade it to get the ultra-fine ceramics, or the CBN rods if the hard CTS-XHP is making the cutting go too slowly on the ceramic rods.

Over time if you want to get into fancier sharpening and have more control over the angles, more refinement, etc., this is just me personally, but I'd avoid the more expensive guided sharpeners, and get DMT diamond bench stones, 8" or larger. You can get these in just a few grits, and you'll be able to do everything you need to do.
 
Learn basic freehand sharpening on stone. This short Tutorial may help. You will struggle your whole life if you don't learn basics. In sharpening you need to know quite a few things and be able to apply them properly. Sharpening is a little more complicated than it may seem to beginners. But it is enjoyable and rewarding process. Happy sharpening!
blue_6_cm.png
 
Spyderco Sharpmaker is probably best item for the money. But there are much more options with guided systems that will burn a hole in your pocket for sure.
 
In my experience, you don't need a bevel guide when you are using stone but it may provide some confidence if you are a beginner. To set up the correct angle, you can feel with your finger if the bevel is flat on the stone or not. Stop, check, adjust and carry on with your strokes. Practice on your cheap kitchen knives.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top