How good are you at sharpening?

For freehand I have a wusthof combination stone, think it's a 3000/8000. Also got a King in 800 grit. I only use them on our kitchen knives, all my others get the Edge Pro treatment.

I think you will be amazed at how many stones some of the members here have. What stones have you been using VicAlox?

And to answer your thread title, I consider my sharpening adequate. Freehand is a nice skill to have.
 
Adequate for my current needs.

I use a Norton IMI313 tristone for 90%+ of my sharpening.
Also have King 1000 and 6000 whetstones that I use on my kitchen knives.
Have a double strop that should be here next week.
 
91bravo said:
Diamonds and leather.
Click to expand...
...are a girls best friend?

To the OP, I’ve tried many. Naniwa waterstones, DMT diamond plates, Norton SiC, Spyderco ceramics, fallkniven pocket stones. Found a use for all of them, although I could get by with just the DMT diamonds for everything but Japanese kitchen knives, and waterstones for those.
 
I have 3x8 medium, hard and black Arkansas stones which handle most of the work. Go right to black for touch ups, reprofiling or damage might get the diamond stones first. Leather strop to finish. I carry a small 1-1/4x4 2-sided pocket diamond card in the bag for the occasional field use, hence the need for some basic free hand skills. I can get decent edges, your basic shaving sharp, no tree toppers though.
 
I freehand on an old double sided carborumdum style stone, a flat chunk of porcelain, then a strop.
I can get my knives just shaving sharp and that's good enough for me.
I prefer easy sharpen steels of course, but just my needs.
 
I consider myself adequate, and good enough for my purposes. I have a couple medium grit lansky and smith stones, a couple diamond rods, a ceramic rod, and a honing steel. I don't get shaving sharp, but I get them plenty sharp.
 
Between a motorized mini belt grinder, a 4-sided strop, and probably soon a ceramic stone, I can get a dull blade to effortlessly shave hair or improve a factory edge in ~5 minutes.

I’m barely an amateur by comparison to many on this board, but my interests in edge honing stop at a functional level. I’m more into construction quality and materials than polished edges (which I would hesitate to use anyway)

I will say that I’m much happier to touch up a knife having abandoned time-consuming contraptions like the Wicked Edge. 95% of my edge maintenance is now freehand and takes less time (and frustration) than it does to properly set up a guided system.
 
I have a hard Arkansas (white) and a black Arkansas. My dad has a two sided synthetic. Its pretty course. Try not to let it get to bad so i stick with the Arkansas.
 
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I have a number of large DMT two sided "stones". I use the Norton India stone (coarse & fine) a lot for softer steels. Have EZE Laps, arkansas stones (soft, hard, medium), soap stones, ceramic rods, etc; the stones build up if you don't break them. I have been free handing sharpening knives for a long time, but I consider myself just adequate in terms of skill level.
 
Norton 1k/4k combo user here. Currently working a ding out of my chef knife on the 1k side. Shaving sharp is generally not a problem for me. I polish with a Chinese 12k.
 
Mainly I rely on DMTs from ultra-coarse to ultra fine, and a Buck Honemaster which I use occasionally to reset a bevel. A big Black Arkansas bench stone that I inherited from a great uncle puts an amazing finishing edge on high carbon steels.
 
i cant sharpen for nothing , i used spyderco sharpener , and i get it ok , but i suck at it , tells how much i know but how do you sharpen with leather? anyone got a good video to show ?
 
Spyderco Sharpmaker M-UF rods, and Noxon metal polish on jeans for stropping needbe. I usually just finish with a few light passes on the UF stones. I can get my knives in 1095, 1080, O-1, D-2, 80CrV2, S35VN, S30V, VG-10, 440C, 8CrMov13 and Buck's 420HC shaving (but not hair-whittling) sharp easily. I have no experience with the current crop of ultra wear-resistant steels and don't even like thinking about Vanadium carbides. I also can't pull off a 'polished edge.'
 
ericdraven said:
i cant sharpen for nothing , i used spyderco sharpener , and i get it ok , but i suck at it , tells how much i know but how do you sharpen with leather? anyone got a good video to show ?
Click to expand...

I don’t sharpen with leather. I use a leather strop for a final pass to remove any burr. It makes a big difference after you’ve gone through whatever you sharpen with to use a leather strop. It’s better to use a hard surface such as wood to hone/polish edges instead of leather. I’ve learned that using leather can slightly convex an edge and actually dull it if it’s stripped too much.
 
I used stones to learn free hand sharpening young and recently upgraded and probably have far more than I need in the past year ...

they range from Norton Crystalon and India combo oil stones ... Chosera Pro Water Stones ... Shapton Glass ... up to large DMT Polka Dot Pattern Diamond Plates and DMT Diafold Diamond folding stones ... and Leather and Balsa wood strops with various compounds ...

I use them all .. depending on the steel and what type edge I want ...

I am not a pro but I can keep my blades as sharp as I need ... which mostly means they will shave hair and slice cleanly through phone book pages or reciet paper.

That all said I am considering a Wicked Edge to reprofile edges much faster and evenly being as I'm a bit OCD about clean even bevels.
 
I've got a number of Arkansas stones that I've used for years. If the edge is really bad I use a Gatco set that goes from cinder block to bowling alley smooth.
 
How good? maybe semi-advanced novice. Have a average sized collection of stones

imanshi 220 Pink Brick
Masamoto 240
Chosera 400
Chosera 600
Gesshin 1k
King XL 1k
Bester 1200
Jumbo Binsui
suehiro Rika 5k
Naniwa Snow White
Kitayama
missing from pic is a Takashima Awasedo { nice muddy nat around 8k }

EG6AS_Ycssm3IYqyfK8MUDVEcNqAAilJcwMHZBAFio1KrfqYfjo-QaqGlC_y89IE1MXGFGD0iZvPQggHPUVtr52Pda9V4g6F9SS4wcRpOF_VT-n23DtF9lpA4ecW4XJcJJWqlvCemtZzMJHgHpSyY1dToTVyRJ7DIf9cRTOLyDgYttp_vDtd-amE0i6IW5B_ikB6906oaEe7raUrjw6MCImMiZzTihUKFQs0racWtSkawdo7EjXcgX5CjIpuhex7xgUQm0-J4RLiQE9oJFBPKGfH6Mx85fLA1M6gwe2gWQceqUM-QSWbgUW8JRpYwz01vH_bpyEyJkEZDQ24ByeKiVw_VYh5Xlw_HHc9hh6eyfs4yCtNwIo4FC-RlhuOA3MQw0BasxphPaIYZZ_6PUQcgMLfDtTjic1GAUp7qVh85Q7i7rzTRH2yw2hKlluHecpmMygtG68SCHUkBfpPBSPVizj6BUSgLXai5SfaHhNG0ZsGmBYoevuANEDRkJcz-lU4Nyu27fG8Q1ciXdsABUnCU9ctxyttNBM_yJhv6CIicHB5eWmU4RTP_b-twYio1B1LspXMJUSenqTf-wgqlR4b2dWx5yVFYfnYuymHLORQ5OHb32OVUyp4bJrmaWh7AAa2tYw4BE04LhEqNQyhIn9ghRu6=w1024-h683-no


for heavy work there's a 2x48 belt grinder
 
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