Hello, I am rather new to the whole carrying a knife thing, and I was wondering how some of you maintain your knives. I have never really had any instruction in sharpening and I'd like hear any tips and unique methods that you may have. Also, I don't have much in the way of sharpening devices right now, so any suggestions would be most welcome.
When I was younger (Boy Scouts) I was decent enough with a set of flat bench stones that I could freehand a respectable edge onto a simple blade shape. I just caved in last week, actually, and bought myself a spyderco sharpmaker. Less than 10 minutes out of the box and my new to me manix2 was shaving hair off my arm. Pretty easy to figure out, and it even comes with a DVD to show you how to use it. Sent from my Retina iPad Mini using Tapatalk
+1 for the Spyderco Sharpmaker. I can put a razor edge on most knives in 15 mins or less. Very easy to use and does a very nice job.
I usually use king water stones but I just don't have the time to dedicate anymore ( having 3 you younger kids). I got a sharpmaker a month ago and couldn't be happier. In the time it takes me to run a knife through it to completion I would still be preping my stones in a water bath.
I have a Sharpmaker, a few pull thru ceramic sharpeners, a combo carbide/ceramic sharpener for the cheap knives, a set of sharpening rods (sharpening steel, ceramic rod & a diamond rod) and a Dremel for those real bad blades. I only use carbide pull thru rods to find burrs on blades, I drag the carbide across the blade very lightly until it catches, if it doesn't I know the blade doesn't need extra work. If I had the money I'd invest in a Lansky or Wicked system.
I used a smith pocket sharpener when all I had was cheaper knives, right now I use a Sharpmaker, and I might just buy an Edgepro Apex in a month or two.
I use a Work Sharp (Ken Onion edition) Kinfe and Tool Sharpener. Works awesome and puts a highly polished convex edge on any knife in about 5 minutes. I use a leather strop with green rubbing compound to maintain my edges. Very happy with this system as I'm no longer afraid of beating the crap out of my knives since I know it will be easy and painless to get them back to hair shaving sharpness. With three kids I just don't have the time for water stones and the like. My system enables me to have sharp knives without sacrificing a significant amount of time. Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk
Other! sheets of micromesh from 1500-12000 grit, over something soft for convex or glass for everything else. My sharpmaker has been gathering dust for about 2 years, the micromesh sheets cost me about 15 quid and I'm still on my first set. Schwing!
Wow, thanks for all the responses guys. I never heard of using sandpaper to sharpen a knife. What grit sandpaper do you use for that? Do you just put the sandpaper flat on a table and run the knife across it at an angle like you would with a stone? It's nice to see all the positive responses for the Sharpmaker. I'm thinking of getting one, but I wanted to make sure it was worth the money first. So what's a strop? It's just a piece of leather right? And is it for sharpening or just removing burrs from the edge or what? Do you really need an official strop, or will any old piece of leather like an old belt work? I've heard people use a "stropping compound" of some sort when they strop, is that necessary? For now, I'm just using an old 2 sided stone my Dad had lying around and a smith pocket pal I found at Lowes the other day. That'll work for most things, but I'm not sure I want to go ahead and sharpen my Forum Stockman that way. umm... so some of you mentioned a convex edge? Is that a normal edge or something different? Are the multiple types of edges you can put on a knife?
I use the Lansky Crock Sticks for curvy blades or quick touch-ups, but prefer bench-stones for everything else. Leather stropping paddle with green & red compound for the finish touch.
Been using s stone my whole life. Learned to sharpen free hand in the boy scouts, and kept at it for the next 50 years. For a while I was using diamond stones, but recently I found a box of my old boy scout stuff in the attic and went back to using my silica stone we all called a 'carborunum' stone again just for yuks. It gets a razor edge sharpening dry, and stropped on some leather afterward.
Hello I use a squared piece of wood, with a soft leather glued on the top. I place a sandpaper on the leather, and all my knives are happy !
Have a strop don't use it much I like my knives with a toothy edge stopping point for me is 4000 grit stone sometimes that's too much
Worksharp guided field sharpener About as idiot proof as one can get Only sharpener I've ever gotten long lasting edges on that was hair poppin sharp I do however want to try a spyder I sharpmaker I'm pretty sure that's a good bet also Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
I currently use an old pocket honing rod and a strop to keep my knives shaving sharp. Its very infrequent that my blades will need anything more aggressive than the honing rod but if they do I currently have the Lansky clamping type sharpening system. IMO the Lansky clamping system, electric, and most pull through sharpers are really better suited for reprofiling (fixing chips, cracks, and or broken tips) a blade rather than "sharpening" one. I've never been able to get a edge that comes even close to being able to shave hair with these methods, they are just to aggressive for that. If I were you I would go to your local home improvement store and pick out a few of the straightest/flattest paint stirring sticks you can find (they're usually free at the paint counter so look there before you buy any), then get some Mother's Mag and Aluminum polish (Usually in the automotive section). Put some of the polish onto the stirring stick and use it just like you would a wet stone. This is how I got my first hair popping edge. If you want to take it a step further you can then strop the blade as well, you can use any untreated peace of leather for that. I often use the "furry" side of my belt, as long as its real leather its works great and the buckle makes it easy to loop around a chair etc. PS: Wipe as much of the Polish off the stirring sticks as you can. The moisture in the polish will cause the sticks to warp over time and once they are no longer flat sharpening a knife becomes difficult.
