Buck Sharpening Methods

David, I was't interested in that steel, just curious if anyone on the forum used one. The 4 inch fine norton stone I have will take the burrs off. Also I have an older ceramic stone I use if I want a smoother edge. You mentioned stroping on a piece of wood, I have used that also at times. Thanks🙂
 
Here's my IM-313, Tri-hone. It's a commercial sharpener you'll see in meat markets. It can handle any size knife. Generous size stones and additional stones can be had. DM
20201104_202848.jpg
 
3 stones, a coarse 120 grit, medium 180 grit and a fine 280 grit. Norton has changed the stone holder they come with.
Another good option is the JUM-3 stone. A same size 2grit stone, coarse & fine SiC. Then get that stone holder. You won't wear it out in you lifetime. DM
 
Veltic, I use a Spyderco ceramic, at times, one side fine the other, ultra fine for scissors and tuning my double edge razor blade. For me to use it on a knife it would have to be at the owners request. DM
 
Last edited:
So you like a coarse to semi coarse edge on your knives, if I am ready your posts right, which have been very interesting and instructive. Thanks David Got to go fix a fishing pole now. Thanks again.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
Veltic, at 280, 320 - 400 grit the edge is plenty refined. For my knives I stop at 180 grit. Good luck fishing. DM
 
David, one more question if you don't mind. I carry most of the time a buck 303 cadet. What kind of a grind would you put on it? Would you try to keep the same as buck did? I thought I would keep the clip blade a little on the course side and the little spey or pen a smoother edge. Thanks again, appreciate it.
 
Bert. My first guess is he will ask us what we are using are cadet for. Sounds like David has done a lot of sharpening which I have alot of respect for. I can always learn from someone like him.
 
Yes, what I plan on doing with it dictates to sharpening. If it's for lunch apple, sharpening a pencil and cutting a rope? Then 16-17* and 300 grit. The other blades are not quite long enough for slicing up a apple. So, splinters, opening Mail and cleaning finger nails. So, 17* at 4-500 grit maybe even 600 grit. This is a guess on the duty. Thank you, DM
 
Saw a friends old buck honing kit the other day. Has a larger washita stone, smaller clear stone and a can of honing oil. Number on the plastic container was No. 133.
Any ideal when theses were sold. Friend thought is was bought in the 70's. Thanks
 
According to my USB-microscope about 200 X, but i don't know how accurate these things really are,
Hi! Great pics and ideal sharpening. According to my practice, x50-100 magnification is more than enough to recognize the quality of sharpening.
As I understood right, he uses smth like Microflip microscope. It's great then you got your own "diagnostic laboratory" in your pocket
 
These cheap modern microscopes are just awesome for a sharpening!

Great theme, I like. I will share my little experience. These are my EDC knives, Buck 501 always with me (he is the main), and 1-2 of the rest periodically with him. At home I have a two-layer stone for sharpening Craftsman, it looks a lot like 2 ply Norton Crystalon. Here, these stones are also pre-impregnated with something oily. For final sharpening, if necessary, there is a piece of washita and a piece of black arkansas. The best lubricant I have found, oddly enough, is Dove soap, which has a cream additive. Forms a good suspension and after it the stones are clean, that is, metal particles do not clog the surface.





I carry these 3 stones with me, they are small, but they are enough to restore sharpness if necessary. In my opinion, hiking with a knife without a sharpening stone is like carrying a flashlight without taking spare batteries or a gun without additional cartridges. A knife will be useless if it cannot be sharpened. I used to wear only 1 fine india stone, but then I realized that it does not remove metal quickly enough, then I added a medium diamond stone and then a coarse diamond stone.

The most difficult thing in sharpening, in my opinion these are 2 things. 1 - remove burr, unfortunately this is not so easy, sometimes you seem to sharpen the knife very sharply, but you make a couple of cuts and it is dull again, sometimes it is bad hardening of steel, but more often it is due to a burr that creates the appearance of sharpness, but falls off / wraps at the first load. Each copy has its own approach, I had several 103, a 2 of old ones from 440C (pre 67) and 425M (1989 stamp), and a couple of fresh. On the old ones, the burr was almost not formed, it was very small after a fine carborundum and left completely on washita / arkansas. On newer ones, the burr is more persistent and I have to do all sorts of strange things to remove it. On 501 S30V, burrs are almost not formed, they are very small, but very durable. And from here came the second thing - you need to know when to stop))) I can spend hours trying to get rid of burrs and sharpen so that the knife can easily cut through hair, it looks like OCD. And in reality it is not necessary, many knives in real work will dull equally quickly, it does not matter if they are finished at 400 grit fine india or higher 4000 grit arkansas or water stone, so I end my 103's with fine carborundum (~320 grit). But this applies to hunting and EDC knives, which deal with dirty animal skins (sand / clay) and various construction / packaging materials, which are also often contaminated with abrasive particles. For tools working with wood and clean materials (cutting leather for example) - chisels, cutters, scandinavian and leather knives, planers, etc. it makes sense to use finishing stones with a very high grit, but this is already a topic for another section on sharpening.
 
Here's my IM-313, Tri-hone. It's a commercial sharpener you'll see in meat markets. It can handle any size knife. Generous size stones and additional stones can be had. DM
View attachment 1569557

I have one of the Norton oilstone IM313's. I love it. I also made a step up version of it myself. It's an IM313 with 1000, 3000 & 6000 waterstones. I love it as well. Both are fast & simple. My knives have never been sharper.
 
Good thread for sure. Sounds like a science. Guess I got homework to do when it comes to this topic. Newb here and only got a Lansky pull through. Doubt it will do much on D-2 steel!
 
If you really are just getting started, let me make a few comments.

(1) Use a magnifier (I usually use a 10x loop) to look at what you are doing. It really helps.
(2) If you color the bevel with a black marker, you can see where you are really sharpening.

Those two tips right there, always seem to help, especially when just starting out.

Free hand sharpening is possible, but it takes more to learn and is especially difficult if the angle really matters. In other words, it is difficult to hold at 17 degrees while sharpening. Something like the Wedgek Angle guides are cheap and they cover from 10 to 39 degrees.

Although it is difficult to hold your blade at 15 degrees (and to know you are at 15 degrees), It is much easier to hold the blade perpendicular. Because of this, one of the fastest paths to success is something that places the sharpening media at a specific angle and then you draw the blade down against the media. My favorite for this is the Spyderco triangle sharpmaker. This is my favorite system, but, you are limited to 15 and 20 degrees. I purchased the CBN, Diamond, and the Ultra-Fine rods. The Lansky 4-rod turn box is much cheaper, but the rods are shorter and I prefer the Spyderco for other reasons. Note that there are at least two versions of the Lansky 4-Rod Turn Box, and one of them has a diamond rod, I prefer this model. The Worksharp Angle Set Knife Sharpener supports more angles than the Lansky or the Spyderco (I still prefer the Spyderco).

Some blade shapes do NOT sharpen well on a flat surface; for example, a Hawksbill or Kukri or any blade that has a concave shape to the sharp edge. So, the Arkansas Sticks from Dan's Whetstone are not ideal for this blade shape (ignoring the question on "can an Arkansas stone sharpen my blade?"). Note that the Lansky has round rods and the Spyderco has both a flat surface as well as the pointed / rounded surface that handles these just fine.

Note, however, that it can be an arduous process to do a serious sharpening with V type sharpeners, but they work really well to keep your knife sharp; assuming that the abrasive can cut your steel.

I have had a lot of experience with the Work Sharp types of belt sharpeners (I own two versions) and I am very effective and fast with them. The problem with fast is that it is easy to mess up. When I really need to do some serious work, I usually jump to one of these or, if working free hand, I use my Norton IM-313, which I LOVE. But that takes us back to free handing your blade.

If you just want to practice free handing your blade, buy a Norton IB8, some Norton Sharpening Stone oil (highly refined mineral oil, do not use scented baby oil, I sometimes use food grade mineral oil), and a silicone matt (Amazon sells a 3 pack of A3 large silicone mats for under $10) so that the stone will not slide around and scratch your table and the mat will also catch the oil. Take some cheap knife you do not care about, maybe a cheap chef knife you purchased at the store just for testing, mark the edge with that black marker and have a go at it. I own a couple of Norton IB8 stones, but since I own the Norton IM-313, I do not use the individual stones much.

Side note: Assume that you free hand that blade and you do NOT get it exactly at that 17 degrees that you wanted, it just does not matter. As long as it is less then 20 degrees, you can put the final edge at 20 degrees with something like the Spyderco if needed.

Also, if you do have that Worksharp belt sharpener, take one of those old worn-out polishing belts and apply honing compound (you know, that green polish stick, I usually use Formax, because if it is branded, then I know what it is and it is more likely to be consistent). You can easily polish the blade beyond the polishing belt if you want; well, assuming you need / want that fine of an edge. I can easily cut newsprint off a pretty coarse stone. I mean I can cut news print with the grain (did you know that paper has a grain?). So, if your blade will not easily cut paper in one direction, try it at 90 degrees to your first cut. The news paper I use it is pretty easy to cut news print up and down (as you read it) but not across the page.

And I feel like I am rambling and going off on tangents. Best of luck sharpening.
 
Back
Top