Recommendation? Knife sharpening kits for newbie suggestions.

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Feb 21, 2021
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If you would like to learn more about my "conditions" and situation on my knife journey, I just posted an introduction post here, New Member hoping to learn. | BladeForums.com. I am about to receive a Victorinox Fibrox 8 inch chefs knife has my first personal chefs knife and have a "wartech" cheap chinesium edc knife that I carry. I would like to invest in a sharpening system. I would prefer a classic stone based system as that would be what my dad would use even though he is not a knife fanatic. I also know those automated drag through sharpeners are set at a specific angle and do not necessarily give you full control on the results. I have done some interenet research and this is what I have read in summary so hopefully one of you can set me straight. From one long lost forum website and thread "A concrete block used at a good angle and a piece of wood to clean the edge up can sharpen a knife, what you use is not always the important part." but I know how far you take it can mean how long it last. Along with "You have to remember the lower the grit, the more metal you will be taking off at a time." From my reading, and based on the last quote, in terms of wet stones it seems to be and correct me if I am wrong but a 1000 grit is the best go to grit for cleaning up an edge that is used and bring a sharpness back to it. If you have a crap knife that will be abused, you could stop at the 1000 but for edge retention and to have a cleaner edge, most decent knives you want to go up to at least a 3000 grit stone and any higher then that is just to give a mirrored look, minus your strops and honers to clean up the edge and any burrs that have been left.

On to what sharpeners I have looked at, I always see the Lansky shaprening system come up and I see it is oil stone based but I also see the fifty dollar kit starts at a 70 grit and ends at a 1000 grit. Would such a kit be really useful at least the lower grits? Unless you say go beat your knife edge up against a brick wall 20 times or so? The sharpeners I have considered are this one Work Sharp Benchtop Whetstone Knife Sharpener which has a 1000 and a 6000 grit wet stone which is decent size and I feel would be good for maintaining something such as a chefs knife? The downside to this, is the guides are only 15 and 17, and from my reading and asking my dad what angle he uses for the low amount of sharpening he does I am understanding a 17-20 degree angle is good for a chefs knife, with a 20 degree being more common default/factory grind on standard chef knives and a 17-15 degree grind being seen on Japanese and other foreign style knives? I also have read for something like my EDC I would benefit best from something in the 22-25 degree range to hold up to heavier use. The second option I found is Work Sharp Benchtop Benchstone Knife Sharpener which has lower grits but still seems to have a nice follow up in grits but no fine 6000 grit stone (if that is even needed truly) This allows for a 20 or 25 guided angle which I assume would allow me to sharpen my chefs knife to a 20 or my EDC to a 25. I am open to suggestions and some clarity. I know there is a lot of different ways to sharpen a knife these days but know there are some that give a better edge then others and different skill levels.
 
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welcome. saw your other thread but decided to just post here.

lots of choices and setups. I myself prefer diamond benchstones and freehanding. due to high grits and low grits to do any type of work and can sharpen pretty much any steels, and you'll eventually learn how to hold angles anyways one day.

I also like the sharpmaker. its got angles set but can be adjusted since your holding the knife and can adjust for different angles bevels and you'll run into those.

I have lansky, dmt, wicked sharp and other guided systems and they have their place...in the end I tend to stick to diamond benchstones for reprofiling and sharpmaker for touch ups.

then there is the world of stroping to play with also.
 
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welcome. saw your other thread but decided to just post here.

lots of choices and setups. I myself prefer diamond benchstones and feedhanding. due to high grits and low grits to do any type of work and can sharpen pretty much any steels, and you'll eventually learn how to hold angles anyways one day.

I also like the sharpmaker. its got angles set but can be adjusted since your holding the knife and can adjust for different angles bevels and you'll run into those.

I have lansky, dmt, wicked sharp and other guided systems and they have their place...in the end I tend to stick to diamond benchstones for reprofiling and sharpmaker for touch ups.

then there is the world of stroping to play with also.

I am no where near ready to get into stroping. But thanks for the shaorening suggestions
 
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One thing you need to understand about grits. There is no one universal standard for grit rating. It's possible for a 1000 grit stone of one brand to be equal to a 6000 grit stone of another brand. I don't know if that is the case with the stones you were asking about. I'm not familiar with either one. See this sticky thread for more information an grits.

I reprofile and clean up abused edges with a 140 grit CKTG diamond stone. My 1200 grit edge pro water stone starts to give a little bit of mirror shine. I can improve that shine with a strop.

O.B.
 
I would say stropping is almost a must have for burr removal. There are several people here that finish on fine stones to remove the burr and are very successful at it but I have found (especially on softer kitchen knife steel) that getting that burr off with stones is very time consuming and takes a lot of practice. A nice soft leather strop is cheap, and very effective after coming off your final stone to get that edge to where you want it to be. You can make your own for under 20$. Go to a craft store and get a cheap block of wood, some glue, and a piece of craft leather. Some stropping compound or better yet, some diamond paste and you are off to the races.

In terms of stones, Diamond stones really are a "do it all" if there is even a chance in the future that you are going to get into higher vanadium steels but if you want to stick to some less expensive options for now you can look into some SIC stones that will be fairly cheap. The Manitcore and Artic fox from Baryonyx knife works can be had together in the 8inch benchstone version for under 50$. Those two combined with a good leather strop can probably handle 99% of your sharpening needs provided you arent after the super mirror finish.
 
I would say stropping is almost a must have for burr removal. There are several people here that finish on fine stones to remove the burr and are very successful at it but I have found (especially on softer kitchen knife steel) that getting that burr off with stones is very time consuming and takes a lot of practice. A nice soft leather strop is cheap, and very effective after coming off your final stone to get that edge to where you want it to be. You can make your own for under 20$. Go to a craft store and get a cheap block of wood, some glue, and a piece of craft leather. Some stropping compound or better yet, some diamond paste and you are off to the races.

In terms of stones, Diamond stones really are a "do it all" if there is even a chance in the future that you are going to get into higher vanadium steels but if you want to stick to some less expensive options for now you can look into some SIC stones that will be fairly cheap. The Manitcore and Artic fox from Baryonyx knife works can be had together in the 8inch benchstone version for under 50$. Those two combined with a good leather strop can probably handle 99% of your sharpening needs provided you arent after the super mirror finish.
Thanks!
 
I would say stropping is almost a must have for burr removal. There are several people here that finish on fine stones to remove the burr and are very successful at it but I have found (especially on softer kitchen knife steel) that getting that burr off with stones is very time consuming and takes a lot of practice. A nice soft leather strop is cheap, and very effective after coming off your final stone to get that edge to where you want it to be. You can make your own for under 20$. Go to a craft store and get a cheap block of wood, some glue, and a piece of craft leather. Some stropping compound or better yet, some diamond paste and you are off to the races.

In terms of stones, Diamond stones really are a "do it all" if there is even a chance in the future that you are going to get into higher vanadium steels but if you want to stick to some less expensive options for now you can look into some SIC stones that will be fairly cheap. The Manitcore and Artic fox from Baryonyx knife works can be had together in the 8inch benchstone version for under 50$. Those two combined with a good leather strop can probably handle 99% of your sharpening needs provided you arent after the super mirror finish.
Just was able to look at them, look like great stones. I am always confused, on the stone terminology. Some are based on grits. Some are based on “fine” “course” etc and I do not want to buy a bad option
 
I've had the sharper and the gauntlet by Spyderco. I prefer the gauntlet, but wish they'd come out with a medium grit ceramic rod for it . Either on is extremely easy to use ,and I'd recommend to someone without much experience. When you're ready for freehand sharpening, I'd recommend the DMT hard coat diamond stone.
 
Stropping is the easiest thing in the world, don't ket THAT intimidate you! Just go with basically a completely flat angle (as in lay your blade down flat against the leather) and then start raising it up as little as possible each time until you are hitting your edge. You can get fancy diamond pastes but any stropping compound is fine to start. Don't push down, let the weight of the knife do it for you.

After screwing around with a dozen systems nothing comes close to the TSPROF and now they are totally affordable.

The mini belt systems I loathe.

Do yourself a favor and get a TSPROF and an angle cube. Get the reinforced clamps. It's the cheapest and best of that style of sharpener.
 
Stropping is the easiest thing in the world, don't ket THAT intimidate you! Just go with basically a completely flat angle (as in lay your blade down flat against the leather) and then start raising it up as little as possible each time until you are hitting your edge. You can get fancy diamond pastes but any stropping compound is fine to start. Don't push down, let the weight of the knife do it for you.

After screwing around with a dozen systems nothing comes close to the TSPROF and now they are totally affordable.

The mini belt systems I loathe.

Do yourself a favor and get a TSPROF and an angle cube. Get the reinforced clamps. It's the cheapest and best of that style of sharpener.
I love your suggestion but still unsure what to do, I am a college student and am unsure how fast I will grow my collection so, I would like to not throw 200+ at my first sharpening system. I apologize for being reserved but.
 
Stropping is the easiest thing in the world, don't ket THAT intimidate you! Just go with basically a completely flat angle (as in lay your blade down flat against the leather) and then start raising it up as little as possible each time until you are hitting your edge. You can get fancy diamond pastes but any stropping compound is fine to start. Don't push down, let the weight of the knife do it for you.

After screwing around with a dozen systems nothing comes close to the TSPROF and now they are totally affordable.

The mini belt systems I loathe.

Do yourself a favor and get a TSPROF and an angle cube. Get the reinforced clamps. It's the cheapest and best of that style of sharpener.
I have never used any compound or strop, I have the compounds of the DMT brand, I want to make my own strop, what material do you think works best?
 
For years I just used jewelers Rouge.
Anything harder than steel works, and any jewelers compound is made to cut harder than steel.
Even an open car window glass works, followed by swipes on denim jeans, don't overthink it.
 
For years I just used jewelers Rouge.
Anything harder than steel works, and any jewelers compound is made to cut harder than steel.
Even an open car window glass works, followed by swipes on denim jeans, don't overthink it.
I completely agree with you, diamonds are very hard, I have two dmt stones and they eat a lot, one must be careful, my question is basically on what material will be better to receive the compound to use it on knives, some say on wood, leather etc? I do not know which is a better material, I think that leather, I would stick it on wood and there I would apply the compound to use it. I live in Mexico, here there are not many strop to choose from, that's why I want to make it for myself
 
I recently bought a Spyderco Sharpmaker for my nephew so he can sharpen his Griptillan from Benchmade. He is not a knife guy and is new to sharpening knives. I went with the Sharpmaker due to its ease of use. It will provide a good edge for a beginner, easy to use and easy to clean up. No water or oil is required so there is no mess made during sharpening. I am a big fan of the Spyderco benchstones myself but there is a learning curve with freehand sharpening so I think a beginner is better served with a guided sharpening system of some type.
 
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