I'm new to knife sharpening. Like actually new: never done it before in any form.
Anyway, I've been wanting to get into it for a while now as a hobby, and used the pandemic as an excuse.
Research
I researched various sharpening systems and decided to go with the KME sharpener. I chose KME over the edge pro because I liked the idea of all stones being the same thickness and also not having to hold the knife steady with one hand. I chose the KME over lansky because lansky only has a few angle selections and the rod can wiggle/move more than KME. So overall KME felt like the easiest not to get wrong.
The price of a few hundred dollars (with accessories) seems a bit high. But if I'm being honest, I could bring my knives to a local sharpener for $2/inch and be done with it. This is a hobby, and people have far more expensive hobbies than knife sharpening. So that's how I justified the price.
Purchases
I purchased the KME base kit (ironically named given that the actual wooden base is sold separately), and a couple of extras.
The base kit comes with the core sharpening system and 4 diamond stones: 140, 300, 600, and 1500.
I didn't believe that the 140 would be rough enough to actually sharpen anything, as I really am a newbie here and just imagined rubbing the stone against the steel and ending up with sand (from the stone) and a knife as sharp as a butter knife. So I went ahead and bought the 50 grit and 100 grit stones as well.
I also bought a strop with the 4 micron CBN emulsion to get a mirror polish on the edge. I bought an extra stop collar and the base as well. Lastly, I purchased the pen knife jaws in case I needed to sharpen something small.
Aside from the KME products, the other items I needed for sharpening were:
I have a handful of knives I wanted to sharpen:
* a couple of spyderco dragonflies. One in Hap40 and one in H1 steel
* an ontario rat ii in D2 steel
* 6 Henckel kitchen knives in whatever kind of steel they use
I've sharpened all of them by now, and I can say that it is actually easy to do. In all cases I've stared with the 140 grit and moved through 300, 600, and 1500, ending with the strop/emulsion. The knives get sharp enough to easily shave hair off my arm.
I've never cut myself sharpening on the KME, but holy cow have I cut myself afterwards. These knives are sharp as scalpels, and I guess I'm used to dealing with dull knives because I've cut my hands like 10 times. But it's always a clean cut ad heals up nice.
I have used various videos online to teach me:
Lessons
I've learned a few things, which really was the reason I wanted to post this.
140 is plenty good
The 140 grit has absolutely been great for removing steel as the initial stone. I haven't even used the 50 or 100 grits a single time. I guess I'm glad I have them, but I certainly didn't need them and if I would do it over again I wouldn't buy them until I absolutely needed them. In fact, I think going forward now that I have a good sharp base, I might actually start with the 300 grit. 140 took off quit a bit of steel.
Strops aren't straightforward for me
I'm not sure I'm good enough yet to effectively take advantage of the strops. I'm getting things fairly shined up from the 1500 grit, but I don't think I'm leaving a smooth enough surface just yet for the strops to take it to that next level. Plus, I'm damaging the strop (see image below for cuts and scratches) even though I'm only using downward strokes away from the edge. In hindsight I would have gone with a lapping film (possible 9 micron or 6 micron, or maybe just going hog wild and getting them all). Both the lapping film and strop are capable of being damaged by the blade. The thing I like better about the lapping film versus the strop is that the part that gets damaged on the film is the consumable part (the tape itself), so is cheap/easy/expected to be replaced). Whereas for the strop, the part that gets damaged is not the consumable part (the emulsion) and so it's expensive/wasteful to damage the strop. But either way, I'm not sure I even need to go for the mirror edge just yet. I should probably just practice on getting perfect results up through the included 1500 grit.
https://imgur.com/a/2sDMWdE
Use the pen knife jaws
I forgot I had purchased them, and for the smaller knives, I have eaten away a bit at the standard jaws. See the bottom corner here. This is from the stone rubbing against the jaws. I don't thinks it's damaging the stone, and the jaws are fine (for now, but eventually I imagine I'd destroy the jaws if I keep eating away at them.
https://imgur.com/a/r5wZ27z
Don't use a lot of force
There's basically two types of force I'm using. Firmer and lighter. Firmer is when I'm in the scrubbing phase of each stone at the beginning. Lighter is when I'm finishing up a stone and aligning the scratch marks. The firmer force is the weight of the stone and my hand and some of my arm. I'm not pushing down beyond that. The lighter force is the weight of the stone itself.
Functional Results are easy, pretty results take practice
I'm able to get my knives shaving hair, slicing lightweight paper, and just being generally awesome with the KME. I had forgotten I sharpened a kitchen knife the other day and was cutting an onion and the knife basically fell through the onion. For a brief moment I thought the onion was rotten until I remembered I had just sharpened in.
The results aren't always pretty. I'm not getting a "mirror" finish, though it's pretty shiny and I can see how a mirror could form:
https://imgur.com/a/C2SWPZH
I'm also not getting all the scratches completely aligned, so some of my edges are getting a slight disco ball effect with how the reflect light. It's visually noticeable even though you can't feel the edge being uneven or anything like that. It doesn't impact performance.
Also something I noticed is that the once you get a burr on the first side, getting one on the second side is easier. What this means is that I might spend 10 or 15 minutes on one side, then 5 minutes on the other side. What I've noticed later is that I'm making the sides a bit uneven because of that. I don't know if it matters or not: the knife is sharp and functional. But if you look at the bevel on one side then the other, you can see it's a half millimeter larger on one side. So I have to work on treating each side equally.
Also you can see on the images below of a couple of paring knives that I'm not yet getting completely uniformly thick bevels. You can see the bevel around the belly looks bigger than the rest (this whole edge shaves hair, so I think this is aesthetic and not functional):
https://imgur.com/a/BHpM7Jl
The sharpie is your friend
The sharpie technique for finding your angle is pretty awesome. Just make sure to do it with a really high grit (1500), because there's a trial and error aspect to it, and when you your angle wrong at first, you don't want to find out with a low grit that takes a bit chunk out of the edge at the wrong angle in one slot.
Slow and steady
If you move too quickly when sharpening, you're probably going to mess up. Either you're going to overshoot and hit the edge with the rig (you can use the stop collar to help prevent that), or your hand is going to slip and go into the sharp edge (your hand's slick from mineral oil). I've found the right speed feels a lot like brushing your teeth.
Conclusion
I have found the KME sharpener to be a lot of fun and very functional. Really happy with this purchase. No buyer's remorse. Being able to sharpen your own knives to something that could shave hair or fall through vegetables is pretty awesome.
If I could do it over again, I wouldn't buy the strop or the super low grit (50/100) until I knew I needed it. I miiiight have gone with the lapping film, but even there I don't _need_ the film yet and still have a bunch of practice ahead of me with the core stones to get perfect results with them. I think the base and the pen knife jaws were worthwhile accessories, as were the pair of stop collars.
Anyway, I've been wanting to get into it for a while now as a hobby, and used the pandemic as an excuse.
Research
I researched various sharpening systems and decided to go with the KME sharpener. I chose KME over the edge pro because I liked the idea of all stones being the same thickness and also not having to hold the knife steady with one hand. I chose the KME over lansky because lansky only has a few angle selections and the rod can wiggle/move more than KME. So overall KME felt like the easiest not to get wrong.
The price of a few hundred dollars (with accessories) seems a bit high. But if I'm being honest, I could bring my knives to a local sharpener for $2/inch and be done with it. This is a hobby, and people have far more expensive hobbies than knife sharpening. So that's how I justified the price.
Purchases
I purchased the KME base kit (ironically named given that the actual wooden base is sold separately), and a couple of extras.
The base kit comes with the core sharpening system and 4 diamond stones: 140, 300, 600, and 1500.
I didn't believe that the 140 would be rough enough to actually sharpen anything, as I really am a newbie here and just imagined rubbing the stone against the steel and ending up with sand (from the stone) and a knife as sharp as a butter knife. So I went ahead and bought the 50 grit and 100 grit stones as well.
I also bought a strop with the 4 micron CBN emulsion to get a mirror polish on the edge. I bought an extra stop collar and the base as well. Lastly, I purchased the pen knife jaws in case I needed to sharpen something small.
Aside from the KME products, the other items I needed for sharpening were:
- food safe mineral oil for lubing the stones and cleaning up the stones after
- isopropyl alcohol (rubbing alcohol) for getting stray sharpie marks off the knives
- paper towel for cleaning up
- 1 or 2 paper grocery bags, cut flat, to use as an underlay
I have a handful of knives I wanted to sharpen:
* a couple of spyderco dragonflies. One in Hap40 and one in H1 steel
* an ontario rat ii in D2 steel
* 6 Henckel kitchen knives in whatever kind of steel they use
I've sharpened all of them by now, and I can say that it is actually easy to do. In all cases I've stared with the 140 grit and moved through 300, 600, and 1500, ending with the strop/emulsion. The knives get sharp enough to easily shave hair off my arm.
I've never cut myself sharpening on the KME, but holy cow have I cut myself afterwards. These knives are sharp as scalpels, and I guess I'm used to dealing with dull knives because I've cut my hands like 10 times. But it's always a clean cut ad heals up nice.
I have used various videos online to teach me:
- KME Sharpening System 101- Tips for Starting out Sharpening with the KME
- Sharpening M390 on KME
- KME sharpening quick and easy mirror polished edge
- Mirror edge knives for any budget! KME (Chisel Grind Example)
Lessons
I've learned a few things, which really was the reason I wanted to post this.
140 is plenty good
The 140 grit has absolutely been great for removing steel as the initial stone. I haven't even used the 50 or 100 grits a single time. I guess I'm glad I have them, but I certainly didn't need them and if I would do it over again I wouldn't buy them until I absolutely needed them. In fact, I think going forward now that I have a good sharp base, I might actually start with the 300 grit. 140 took off quit a bit of steel.
Strops aren't straightforward for me
I'm not sure I'm good enough yet to effectively take advantage of the strops. I'm getting things fairly shined up from the 1500 grit, but I don't think I'm leaving a smooth enough surface just yet for the strops to take it to that next level. Plus, I'm damaging the strop (see image below for cuts and scratches) even though I'm only using downward strokes away from the edge. In hindsight I would have gone with a lapping film (possible 9 micron or 6 micron, or maybe just going hog wild and getting them all). Both the lapping film and strop are capable of being damaged by the blade. The thing I like better about the lapping film versus the strop is that the part that gets damaged on the film is the consumable part (the tape itself), so is cheap/easy/expected to be replaced). Whereas for the strop, the part that gets damaged is not the consumable part (the emulsion) and so it's expensive/wasteful to damage the strop. But either way, I'm not sure I even need to go for the mirror edge just yet. I should probably just practice on getting perfect results up through the included 1500 grit.
https://imgur.com/a/2sDMWdE
Use the pen knife jaws
I forgot I had purchased them, and for the smaller knives, I have eaten away a bit at the standard jaws. See the bottom corner here. This is from the stone rubbing against the jaws. I don't thinks it's damaging the stone, and the jaws are fine (for now, but eventually I imagine I'd destroy the jaws if I keep eating away at them.
https://imgur.com/a/r5wZ27z
Don't use a lot of force
There's basically two types of force I'm using. Firmer and lighter. Firmer is when I'm in the scrubbing phase of each stone at the beginning. Lighter is when I'm finishing up a stone and aligning the scratch marks. The firmer force is the weight of the stone and my hand and some of my arm. I'm not pushing down beyond that. The lighter force is the weight of the stone itself.
Functional Results are easy, pretty results take practice
I'm able to get my knives shaving hair, slicing lightweight paper, and just being generally awesome with the KME. I had forgotten I sharpened a kitchen knife the other day and was cutting an onion and the knife basically fell through the onion. For a brief moment I thought the onion was rotten until I remembered I had just sharpened in.
The results aren't always pretty. I'm not getting a "mirror" finish, though it's pretty shiny and I can see how a mirror could form:
https://imgur.com/a/C2SWPZH
I'm also not getting all the scratches completely aligned, so some of my edges are getting a slight disco ball effect with how the reflect light. It's visually noticeable even though you can't feel the edge being uneven or anything like that. It doesn't impact performance.
Also something I noticed is that the once you get a burr on the first side, getting one on the second side is easier. What this means is that I might spend 10 or 15 minutes on one side, then 5 minutes on the other side. What I've noticed later is that I'm making the sides a bit uneven because of that. I don't know if it matters or not: the knife is sharp and functional. But if you look at the bevel on one side then the other, you can see it's a half millimeter larger on one side. So I have to work on treating each side equally.
Also you can see on the images below of a couple of paring knives that I'm not yet getting completely uniformly thick bevels. You can see the bevel around the belly looks bigger than the rest (this whole edge shaves hair, so I think this is aesthetic and not functional):
https://imgur.com/a/BHpM7Jl
The sharpie is your friend
The sharpie technique for finding your angle is pretty awesome. Just make sure to do it with a really high grit (1500), because there's a trial and error aspect to it, and when you your angle wrong at first, you don't want to find out with a low grit that takes a bit chunk out of the edge at the wrong angle in one slot.
Slow and steady
If you move too quickly when sharpening, you're probably going to mess up. Either you're going to overshoot and hit the edge with the rig (you can use the stop collar to help prevent that), or your hand is going to slip and go into the sharp edge (your hand's slick from mineral oil). I've found the right speed feels a lot like brushing your teeth.
Conclusion
I have found the KME sharpener to be a lot of fun and very functional. Really happy with this purchase. No buyer's remorse. Being able to sharpen your own knives to something that could shave hair or fall through vegetables is pretty awesome.
If I could do it over again, I wouldn't buy the strop or the super low grit (50/100) until I knew I needed it. I miiiight have gone with the lapping film, but even there I don't _need_ the film yet and still have a bunch of practice ahead of me with the core stones to get perfect results with them. I think the base and the pen knife jaws were worthwhile accessories, as were the pair of stop collars.
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