knife sharpeners

[Chakta]

I been sharpening knives for a long time and one thing it takes to sharpen a knife is "time" period. Now if your like me, I don't sharpen a knife once it gets dull. I simply put it with the dull knives and wait until I get a half dozen or so before I sit down to take care of business. This can be a half day job!

Now last year, my wife of many years (45) purchased me a knife sharpener. I opened the box and read the instructions, then the wife showed me how to put things together. This little electric sharpener was the fastest, easy to use sharpener I ever seen in my days of fooling with knives. The "WORK SHARP" knife sharpener was $62.50 and In 6 months, I got our money back by sharpening all the kitchen knives, my hunting knives and fishing knives. Then sharpened some of the relatives knives also. You can't beat the WORK SHARP knife sharpener!!!

[southpaw]

I just can't seem to bring myself to use any type of grinding devise on any of my blades. Seems like a good way to shorten the life of a good knife. I have couple of Dunn knives and the steel is some really hard stuff. It can be a little frustrating at times sharpening them but very doable. I don't enjoy sharpening knives any more than the next guy, but if your gonna do it you might aswell get good at it (takes less time when you know what you are doing). A couple of stones in the coarse, medium and fine and a little practice to learn your angles and you should start to get the feel of it. Start out with a cheap knife. Like most things sometimes you learn by doing it the wrong way. If you mess up the angle just get the coarse stone out and reset the angle. I do about 10-20 strokes on each side on the coarse stone untill I feel a burr all the way up the edge. Then I go to the medium stone untill it has smoothed out some and then the fine stone. On the fine stone I start at 10 then move to five on each side then 3 and for the last few sets I do one on each side. Depending on the hardness of the steel depends on much time I spend on each step. You will get a feel for it.

I hold the knife up to a light and turn it some so that I get a reflection off the blade. If there are and flat spots you will see them doing this. You can also use a piece of paper. You will feel it pull, tear or skip without cutting as you slide it through the paper.

Jerry Jr.

[gunfreak]

http://www.worksharptools.com/knife/...sharpener.html

My dad got me one of these for my birthday and it works awesome.

[Horace]

Benchmade Mini Field Sharpener is a very handy tool.

Horace

[buckwheatpaul]

Try the Wart Hog out of Austin, Texas....beats Lansky (Have one) ... Wart Hog has 4 settings and the hardest thing to do is to pick the angle.....pm if you need any other info......Paul

[atiq]

I use the King sharpening stones in 400 800 1200 for normal use knifes for my personal use and 6000 grit on my best knives for outdoors and hunting. Carry two knives usually one is Kudu and recon tanto from cold steel and ALWAYS carry the Nomad from victorinox.

Sharpening is more so a form of art for me and it takes a lot of practice to do things to the extreme level. At the same time kitchen knifes (used by other members of household) are not that scary sharp.

The King brand sharpening stone set i bought from http://www.traditionalwoodworker.com...info/406-003A/ and also have a 30000 grit shapton ceramic stone as well as a norton 250 grit carborandum stone. These 5 stones make up a set that can sharpen almost anything to any level of sharpness though it may be an overkill for most of the people. The King set is more than enough for sharpening anything that you use from chisels to knifes to axes.

The knife has to be very very sharp for me as blunt knifes (blunt for me) make me press harder to cut and that makes me prone to accidents. The best person to connect to is Murray carter of carters cutlery. I remember he has made videos and they are more than enough for most to learn the techniques of sharpening.

[Bazoo]

I've been using whetstones since I was a kid. I can put an amazing edge on a knife with good steel. It took me a while to finally get to where I thought I knew what I was doing. I think I do now, but i've had a lot of practice yet since I began.

A couple of the tips i can offer, from my own experience might be of help to you or someone else.

I've learned to use 3 stones. First is that grey carborundum double sided stone. I use it for taking nicks out, or getting the edge to come together when you can see light reflecting off the edge. I use lots and lots of oil as it soaks in. Normally I use 3 in 1 oil, but I have used motoroil.

The second and third stones I use are arkansas stones, smiths brand.

The larger stone is medium, and finer than the carborundum's fine side. I use this for getting an "okay" sharp knife sharper. If I start using this stone, and I find a dink or it doesnt seam to be getting sharper, i'll go back and use the carborundum stone a few more minutes. This to me means that I stopped too soon with the coarser stone, and it seems to work for me. I use this medium arkansas stone for getting a knife at the low end of shaving sharp.

The smaller arkansas stone, is fine. A finishing stone. I use this after I use the medium arkansas stone. Again, if I feel it needs more from the other stone I may go back. But this stone will put a very nice edge on a knife.

Now, one thing I noticed, is I tend to try to rush it. I dont spend enough time using each stone. I try to stop when it "feels" sharp. But If i keep sharpening say, 5 minutes, then it gets sharper. If I begin to think about using a finer stone, ill always use lighter strokes for a few minutes. This helps feather out the edge some, instead of rolling it as much.

Then, i use a strop. Normally the leather case my stones are in. Strop about 20 times, 10 on each side, alternating each stroke. Now, it should be razor sharp. All of this will take me anywhere from 10 minutes to an hour depending on how easy that knife is to sharpen. Which is a factor of steel hardness, and quality. And how dull the knife was to start.

This is how I do it.

[BethelHntr]

Edge pro apex works very well.

[leebuilder]

Wet stones all the way. It takes years to perfect the right tecnique, lansky system is very good, had one but gave it away as it was to slow. Norton brand stones are my faverite, some recycled tiles of the right grit work very well too

What i dont like are those smaller carbide type sharpeners, they do work and leave a kean edge but if you have a nick in your blade you will have a gape in a few scrapes.
Be safe

[snuffy]

I visited this forum a couple of years ago, actually was on the link that winelover gave above, the link from M-tecs gave to the Wicked Edge sharpening system. Costs over 400 bucks for the diamond grits from 100 to 1000, then the leather strops embedded with diamond paste for 3.5 and 5.0 MU. It just flat-out works! Shaving sharpness on any steel blade. There's ceramic hones available in the finer grits as well.

One thing I just have to say those here that say hand holding a knife to a sharpening stone to establish a precise blade edge angle is just about impossible. The human body is just not capable of that kind of precision. You,(whoever you are), will rock a little from one stroke to another. NOT being precise on the blade angle results in parts of the blade not being sharpened while other parts are over-sharpened.

The blade edge should look like a mirror! All the way from tip to handle. A smooth polished blade edge is the sharpest.

https://www.wickededgeusa.com/

[William Yanda]

I also am very inept at sharpening knives. I did see a show on PBS once (I believe it was The Woodworker Shop or something like that). They used a pane of glass and glue finer grades of emery cloth Starting at like 160 and going down to 3000 to polish the edge. I tried it and was able to put a fair edge on my knifes but still was unable to shave hair with them.

Unless I am mistaken-seems to happen more frequently now- you are describing the "Scarey Sharp" TM system

[M-Tecs]

I visited this forum a couple of years ago, actually was on the link that winelover gave above, the link from M-tecs gave to the Wicked Edge sharpening system. Costs over 400 bucks for the diamond grits from 100 to 1000, then the leather strops embedded with diamond paste for 3.5 and 5.0 MU. It just flat-out works! Shaving sharpness on any steel blade. There's ceramic hones available in the finer grits as well.

One thing I just have to say those here that say hand holding a knife to a sharpening stone to establish a precise blade edge angle is just about impossible. The human body is just not capable of that kind of precision. You,(whoever you are), will rock a little from one stroke to another. NOT being precise on the blade angle results in parts of the blade not being sharpened while other parts are over-sharpened.

The blade edge should look like a mirror! All the way from tip to handle. A smooth polished blade edge is the sharpest.

https://www.wickededgeusa.com/

Glad you are liking yours. I love mine. After learning how to get the most from it shaving sharp seems dull.

[harvester]

Lansky and follow up with a strop. Literally shaving sharp and easy to touch up with strop.

[tigweldit]

Lansky for sure for your good knives. Finished with a leather strop and you will have a shaving sharp edge. Ceramic crock sticks, or steel sharpening rod, in the kitchen will put a good quick edge on your chef, carving and steak knives. Remember, when using a steel, to put the tip down on the cutting board and to stroke the knife downward to the cutting board, away from your hand. This will save you from getting cut should anything slip.