Sharpening: What Do you Use and How do You Do It?

[POCEH KOCEB]

I’m using the “portable” Wicked edge with their extension for small angles

…and Ken Onion’s Work Sharp “grinder” setup, it’s great for reprofiling or convexing.

 

[Triple_D]

DMT DuoSharp diamond stones, mostly. But also a Spyderco ceramic stone, on occasion. Freehand for knives, and a Veritas standard honing guide for chisels, and plane blades. And a strop.

 

[kobold]

I am sorry to say that most of that means nothing to me . .too much jargon. I just don't know what you are referring to.

Same goes for some other posts. I guess I'll have to look up what these systems are.

In any case, I have had good luck with the Lansky system since they were introduced. I have replaced or up graded the stone set some too. Gave a "saphire" stone to a friend many years ago and he used it to polish things when doing a trigger job on Smiths.

Nice to know there are plenty of other effective options out there.

Now: What do you all use on a larger blade, say 5' to 7" and up?

Let me unpack:

DMT is just a company name,
a plate is a piece of flat metal (AKA embryo) that carries a layer of abrasives (usually diamond or CBN (CBN = Cubic Boron Nitride)).

XXF is for eXtra-eXtra-Fine, XC is for eXtra Coarse and so on.

DiaPaste is for diamond paste, used to 'load' regular pieces of leather or wood, making their surface suitable for stropping harder steels.

HRC is for Rockwell hardness C scale, usually used to quantify steel hardness.

Spyderco is just a company name.
UF is for their Ultra Fine ceramic bench stone.
Double Stuff is what they call a two-sided ceramic pocket stone, one side is medium grit, the other is fine grit.

DC4 is another double sided pocket stone made by Fallkniven, where D = diamond, C = ceramic.

SAK stands for Swiss Army Knife.

Hope this helped a bit.

 

[VorpelSword]

Thanks. I was getting bogged down in acronyms.

I think I can work through these posts now.

 

[Ourorboros]

If freehand on bench stones
What I use depends on the steel. There is no getting around it - if the steel has too much Vanadium I'm using diamonds. Even with tool steels, I'm just not going to put in the time to use anything but diamond stones.
However, for most my knives I use synthetic water stones. Mostly because I like the feel and it's fine for most the steels I sharpen.

 

[killgar]

My Granddad taught me how to freehand sharpen when I was around 8 years old using some synthetic blue hone. And all I have ever done is freehand (52 yrs old now). I've never even seen a sharpening apparatus in person.

All of my current sharpening gear consists of two DMT pocket diamond hones (fine, coarse) and a set of diamond files. This is all I've used for over a decade now, including when I was working (shipping, construction) and using my knives on a daily basis.

I use the hones for sharpening, and the files for the unlikely event that I need to do something more than sharpen.

I used to have three larger DMT diamond plates, fine, coarse, and an extra-extra-coarse plate for thinning edges on thick-edged fixed-blades, but I found I never used the fine and coarse plates (I preferred the pocket hones), and after realizing I was never going to buy another fixed-blade, I gave away all three plates.

 

[Spats McGee]

Some great answers here. I am thinking of investing a few hundred dollars in a guided system just so I can maintain my knives in an idiot-proof way, and get some diamond DMT stones and buy a couple knives to learn to freehand on. It's a bit daunting. Even stropping, I am kind of having trouble wrapping my head around.

Maybe I need better compound. I'm using some random green compound that came with my strop, on the rough side. It kind of worked on my BD1N Spyderco Z-Cut, seemed to cut paper a bit better after stropping, but not on my Case toothpick or Higonokami. Any stropping tips or compound recs?

I'm in the process of re-learning how to sharpen, having learned several decades ago, and then not sharpening anything for a couple of decades. (Just so you know how much weight to give my opinions . . . . they're worth about as much as you've paid for them.) Please allow me to offer this: The Sharpening Rabbit Hole is very, very deep. There are all kinds of things to learn about guided systems, goodies for freehand, knife steels, stones, etc. I also had pretty good luck at garage sales finding kitchen knives to practice on. I figured I'd be better off making my mistakes on a $2 knife than my $100 knife. (And believe me, I made mistakes on my $2 knives!)

As far as guided systems go, the sky is the limit. The 'simple systems' such as the Lansky and Gatco can be had for under $100. The top-end systems run several hundred dollars, and if you move into the 'professional' systems, they head north of $1K. I don't know enough to give you any advice on what to get, but there are several threads in this forum on guided systems that have good information in them.

Good luck!

 

[DavidABQ]

I like Spyderco ceramics, both the bench stones and the Sharpmaker.

 

[keelaboosa]

Right now I'm using a Tormek T8 with the standard stone smoothed out with the grading stone thingy. Hone on leather loaded with green honing compound (not sure what grit or composition is). Finally getting consistent angles and sharp from tip to heel.

 

[CDHumiston]

I have a TSPROF, but I still do the majority of my sharpening on Paper Wheel attached to a Harbor Freight 8" long shaft bench grinder.

Over the years I've gotten so good with the paper wheels it's hard to use the new TSPROF. I can get a shaving edge in under 5 minutes on the paper wheels...

 

[Boriqua]

For YEARS I was strictly diamond hones and Arkansas. Have a fine and course DMT and a Surgical black, hard, medium and soft arkansas. About 8 months ago I bought a 6 inch cheapo grinder paper wheels based sharpening wheels and a few polishing/buffing muslin type wheels.

No looking back now. I can get a scary edge in no time and if I use the blade a bit I just put a little rouge on the yellow buffing wheel and its like new. Always easier to keep them sharp than to make them sharp.

Best part is if I buy a knife that comes dull as a bone "CONDOR" I can get it up to snuff somewhat quickly which is something that was misery with a big blade on stones.

I bought a cheap Razors edge copy for about 1/2 price .. its worth about half the price so when I buy again I will get the razors edge brand but .. the cheapy, although not perfect, works well enough.

 

[Boattale]

It used to be nothing but freehand on Arkansas Stones. Still get them out now and then just for fun.
Then a Lansky. Which can put a really nice edge on a small to medium sized knife. It comes out of retirement now and then too.
Then a Chef's Choice 1520 which I still use on kitchen knives - works great and much faster than freehand.
And now a Ken Onion Worksharp. Which is even better and faster than the Chef's Choice.

There's a trend here.

Edit: Strop with an old leather belt with Maguire's Scratch X 20 rubbed in on it. Definitely adds that last little bit of keenness.

 

[Papilio]

Listen I don't want to bore people that know what they're doing but I'm getting sick of struggling . I bought a Lansky 5 stone kit and after just a few knives even the 70 grit extra coarse stone seems way too smooth. Is it possible I got burned with dodgy kit and should learn my lesson through my wallet and stick to bench stones and cheap knives until I get better? TIA Red

I don't know the 5 stone kit. Can't say anythink about the quality. I had a Lansky Combination Stone, which was a decent stone. No complaints.
Sounds like your stones are clogged. Did you clean them? Did you use them dry or lubricated? Maybe you burnished them and they need to be reconditioned?

I have tried different sharpening kits over the last years, sold most of them. Not just because it did not work. But I was curious and I have learned a lot. What works. And what works better.
Actually I have some pocket stones: Fällkniven DC4 and CC4, a Coughlan's Sharpening Stone and a DMD diamond / ceramic stone. As well as a Victorinox Dual Knife Sharpener (don't use it anymore) and a diamond file (for SAK tools other than the blade)
Bench stones: Bought a Norton India Coarse / Fine 8'' recently. Fällkniven DC521 (large version of the DC4). And ordered a Spyderco 302 UF.
Spend more money than I have ever wanted to.

 

[Boattale]

Listen I don't want to bore people that know what they're doing but I'm getting sick of struggling . I bought a Lansky 5 stone kit and after just a few knives even the 70 grit extra coarse stone seems way too smooth. Is it possible I got burned with dodgy kit and should learn my lesson through my wallet and stick to bench stones and cheap knives until I get better? TIA Red

Are you keeping the stones clean and using oil on them when sharpening?

 

[cudgee]

This needed some attention. Has not seen a stone for about 2 years, just a strop or ceramic rod. Great American butchers knife, J.Russell & Co. Green River Works- high carbon, 10 inch blade. Sharpened at 20 degrees per side, absolutely razor sharp, 777 Edge finished on a 1200 grit diamond stone, one of the cheap ones from China with plastic backing. For a cheap stone gives a really good work edge. Slices through packing foam pieces like going through butter, slices are wafer thin. This edge will hold up for ages.

 

[777 Edge]

.. finished on a 1200 grit diamond stone, one of the cheap ones from China with plastic backing. For a cheap stone gives a really good work edge. Slices through packing foam pieces like going through butter, slices are wafer thin. This edge will hold up for ages.

Those little Chinese diamond plated stones really are unbeatable value for money. As long as you use them correctly and keep them lubricated while using them, they are great.