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Sidearms & Scatterguns What do you guys use to sharpen your knives??

Roadwild17

Roadwild17

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Sep 6, 2009
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Central East Texas
Just wondering what everyone is using to put an edge on your blades?

I currently use a low end lansky, but I was thinking about a warthog sharpener (worried about quality). Im now thinking of a wicked edge or higher end lansky kit or even a 1 X 30 belt sander. I would like to handle everything for a 2" case to a 10" chef knife.
 
It's not so much the sharpener as the edge you want to put on them.

I started with a 5 stone Lansky and it worked fine for what I thought to be a good edge, then I bought a KME. It was like a Lansky but with a better guide system, an articulating ceramic ball in lieu of an over-sized sloppy slot. This made for a MUCH more precision edge than I knew was possible.

The one I use now is the Wicked Edge and I love it. From my Kitchen knives to my hunting/fishing, once you establish the initial angle and sharpening, the touch up is fast and easy. Wicked is the proper name too as they truly are. Down side is they are expensive by comparison and hard to acquire as they are often sold out.
 
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Lansky Croc-Stick Deluxe...or whatever that long name is. Know why? Because I sucketh at sharpening knives and need something super easy to use that puts a good edge on my knives. I'm sure there are products that produce a better edge, but none in my price range that are within my skill level (read: idiot proof), at least of which I am aware.
 
Cheap Smith diamond stones for my edc and hunting knives and one of the cheap Smith yellow carbide and ceramic units in my kitchen. My knive cut paper thin tomato slices.lol

Eric
 
I use Japanese wet sharpening stones - 1000 grit to start - 3000 grain to sharpen and 5000 grain to finish. These stones are kept wet while honing the edge of a knife.

But don't go by me I make my living with knives.
One thing I do know is start with good steel. Cheap steel is not worth the effort.
 
I've used the lansky diamond stones foe a few years now and will probably never switch. I added the ultra fine stone to it and that has really made the difference. I could get it plenty sharp to shave your legs before but after the ultra fine, I can polish the edge to shave like a razor and it will hold its edge a little longer I think too.
 
I use Japanese water stones 1000 and 5000 grit. I've also got a set of Lansky's that get used from time to time, but the water stones are quicker and give me be best results.
 
I too have used the Japanese water stones, but they are definitely NOT for the inexperienced sharpener. I have tried various ceramic rods and stones, sharpening kits, diamond, steel, sandpapers to strop sharpen, and the old fashioned whet stones. All work if you practice. You will work a very long time if you start with crappy steel, and end up with a mediocre edge.

Overall, I find myself going back to long whetstones of various grits in combination with a steel and a strop. If you can find an old straight razor sharpening stone they are marvelous for final finish.

In a pinch, the rough ceramic on the bottom of many coffee cups even works.
 
What do you guys use to sharpen your knives??

Name Enough said:
I use Japanese wet sharpening stones - 1000 grit to start - 3000 grain to sharpen and 5000 grain to finish. These stones are kept wet while honing the edge of a knife.

But don't go by me I make my living with knives.
One thing I do know is start with good steel. Cheap steel is not worth the effort.
Click to expand...

Ditto this. I keep a hard Arkansas around too.

That wicked edge kit seems pretty cool . . . But a field kit? It looks like it might weigh about six pounds and you have to have something to clamp it to. Crazy.
 
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Deisel said:
I use an Edge Pro. You can get a very sharp edge quickly.
Click to expand...

The EPA is a great system. It takes about 10-15 blades to get the motion down and you're GTG.

Also, knives over 4.5-5" in length will necessitate a two stage sharpening approach (in my experience anyways).

If you have questions about the EPA, I'd be happy to answer via PM.
 
My dad had these old dark Arkansas stones that were super smooth and quite large. They eventually broke, still got used, but I have no idea where they are now. You could get damn sharp edges off those, but it took time.

Now I have a fine diamond stone. I go over and over on it, lighter and lighter, until I can very easily shave with it. I tend to use it most now, mostly because I have it, it works pretty well once they get broken in (that does take a little time) and supposedly last forever and get even better with time. This has been my experience so far. It's by far the best "all around" IMO, IME. It's an orange plastic Smith, about 6x3 or so inches, probably a little smaller than that, with holes punched in the diamond surface. You use water instead of oil and they don't break nearly as easy a real stone that size, in fact, it'd be hard to break one. Real easy to use, pretty fast if you keep your edge.

I still use an Arkansas stone, but it's a small one. I really don't use it much and just carry it in my bag because it's small.

I NEVER use a rough stone, I don't even own one. They ruin the blade and wear out fast anyway. If I feel the need to change the angle on the blade, I'll just do it very, very slowly using a smooth or medium Arkansas stone like I did with my K-Bar back in the day. Buying quality knives that are well designed and made sort of circumvents the need to do this. Not cutting rocks and keeping a decent edge at all times has made the need for rough stones unnecessary.

I saw how they sharpen samurai swords once, that's worth checking out if you REALLY want to get them sharp and are into knives. They use a variety of stones and abrasive powders (down to basically baby powder and their bare fingertips).
 
I used DMT in the past, they worked well and were fast. However they are very short lived, the diamond does not appear to be well bonded to the backing. I completely gave up on DMT, warranty or not.

s
 
O.K., I'm going to admit it, I got a Worksharp Grinder. This thing is a small unit that is really nothing more than a miniature slack belt grinder. The good thing is that it does exactly what it's supposed to do and creates an excellent working edge on everything from kitchen knives to machetes. The bad thing is that it eats up grinding belts because the width is so small. The unit creates an appleseed edge which is an extremely serviceable profile for any cutting tool that gets hard use. Once the edge is set, re-dressing is quick and creates much less belt wear. There have been complaints that this method will round off the point of a knife. This is easy to avoid and the final dressing of the point can be done on a stone.

Kevin McClung, the proprietor of Mad Dog Knives, won a contract with a couple of the Seal Teams in the early '90s. Along with the knives he designed a sharpening system and provided instruction in technique. The system was a slack belt grinder.
 
My knives are maintained between a Tormek grinder, WorkSharp belt sander (for convex edges) and a several water stones for Japanese style blades. I progress from 1,000-16,000 grit between Norton and Shapton Pro stones. In addition to sharpening free hand I keep a few tools around for assistance when needed:

-Magnetic Digital Angle Cube
-Richard Kell brass bevel gauge
-Messermeister snap on angle guides
-

For in between sharpening maintenance, I use a few steel/ceramic rods.

-FDick multi cut
-FDick hardened chrome (polish steel)
-Mac black ceramic with steel core



From this,

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To this,




20130618_200312_zps86c5d6f4.jpg



And this,


20130618_200401_zpsd4ef6569.jpg








And finally...


20130619_131716_zps55c9678d.jpg




The blade is on the left side of the picture. A Coke cooler and metro shelf are behind me and appear through the now mirror finish







Waterstones certainly produce the finer edge. However, general purpose or utility knives don't reap the benefits from meticulous finer finishing that very shallow angled blades do. A sharpening wheel or belt sander can produce teriffic edges for those other applications and much faster. Its also easier to produce different types of grinds and bevel angles. All of the methods require a skill-set to obtain good results, with the exception to fixed stone/knife systems that hold the angle for you. Its not difficult to learn but as with most things takes a bit of patience along with trial and error. Aside from the availability of higher grit, stones allow more control over the amount of material being removed. Hair splitting sharpness is much easier to obtain

20130619_153837_zps040e4a25.jpg



20130619_154550_zps8c4a745e.jpg
 
I have it all. From paper wheels, a 1x42, wicked edge, edge pro, shaptons, DMT's, sharpmaker, sandpaper, etc...

There is no "one answer".
 
Bottom line is that there is no magical shortcut. Just as with shooting proficiency, it takes time, and practice. Different steels, and knives with different purposes take different edges. The edge on a khukuri is different from a straight razor, or a bowie.
 
I have a drill used to drill carbon fiber composite, that has 4 straight parallel flutes with sharp edges. It is like a steel on steroids. I use it to form a sharp edge, and finish with a diamond hone. Fast and sharp.
 
I use a full set of Norton water stones: Norton Water Stones at The Best Things

We have Japanese kitchen steel including micro carbide high-tech powdered steel knives. Twelve degree sharpening angles and Rockwell C hardness of 66. While I feel hand sharpening with water stones is a pain in the arse and time consuming, with the right steel you can obtain a scary-sharp edge.

And I mean really scary. My wife loves these knives but years ago she tired of me insisting I wash them for her. So she was really, really careful washing the knife. Felt very proud of herself. Grabbed a dish towel when she was done and wiped the blade dry.

She didn't actually feel anything at the time, but knew she had done something wrong. Turns out the blade cut right through the towel like straight razor and cut the face of her thumb off. Had to be sewn back together and for some crazy reason they gave her a local by sticking a needle in at the base of her thumb and winding it up to the tip. Hurt more than stitches alone probably would have. Anyway, that's the kind of sharpness you can get with the right steel and a lot of practice. Of course it may take a while to get to that point with stones so it becomes a bit of a masochistic exercise at some point and may not be worth the trouble to non-obsessive people.

And knives like that require different cutting technique and cutting boards to keep your knives right as well. Which also makes them not worth the trouble for a lot of American cooks. But done right, you'll cut your sharpening and honing requirement down considerably. A final interesting factoid is that most people assume Zwilling J.A. Henckels' top of the line knife is a German steel knife. Crazy as it sounds their top knives are actually made in Japan out of Japanese steel. I was surprised. To put the information I gave early-on in perspective, top German knives are cut at a 22 degree angle with hardness levels in the 50s. But, you can chop your food with those knives on a poly cutting board without damaging the knife, so there are trade offs that work for some and not for others whichever way you go.
 
When I was working with the power co. I was in charge of street lighting. we were using a lot of high pressure sodium fixtures ( the ones that give off an amber glow). they have an arc tube inside that holds the gas that ignites and burns. When the lamp gets old and is changed out we would break the glass bulb and extract the arc tube. It has a ceramic like finish to it and makes a terrific knife sharpener. It's about the size of a cigarette. It's small and can be stored anywhere. You can use it as a primary sharpener or for emergencies. It works great. If you know of any electricians or linemen they can get you one.
 
Roadwild17 said:
Just wondering what everyone is using to put an edge on your blades?
I currently use a low end lansky, but I was thinking about a warthog sharpener (worried about quality). Im now thinking of a wicked edge or higher end lansky kit or even a 1 X 30 belt sander. I would like to handle everything for a 2" case to a 10" chef knife.
Click to expand...

Get yourself a couple or few GOOD quality wet [whet] stones, to do it right. They don't "need" to be Japanese to get good results. I have been sharpening knives since I was 5 or 6 with wet stones varying in size from [WxLxTh] 1"x3"x1/2", up to 5"x12"x2", and I have never removed a fingertip.

I sharpen all of my edged things with wet stones without motors: Pocket/sheath/jkitchen knives, hatchet/ax, drawknife/spokeshave, adz and chizels, and everything in between. I currently use seven stones, depending on what I am sharpening.

The most important thing is consistency- ALWAYS stroke an even angle, and ALWAYS stroke an equal amount of times on each side of the blade. Except serrated. If you use serated blades, you need to sharpen each seration seperately from the sloped side, then finish off by stroking the flat side of the blade across a stone to de-burr it. I have seen a LOT of nice serrated blades ruined by using various stick sharpeners, like the Lansky, and I have earned a LOT of money fixing those blades when those nice serrated cutting blades turn into bread knives... Crock stickes and jewlers files work for sharpening the individual serations.

I don't like the diamond srahpeners because they eventually loose the diamond dust that is imbedded in the polymer base. Diamond sharpeners really need to be used with water, and flowing water makes them work best, and last longer. I wore out two high-end diamond 'stones' in less than two years, while I have real stones that are over 40 years old, and probably have another 100 years use in them.

If you start with oil as your medium, ALWAYS use oil, and if you start with water, ALWAYS use water You can store the stones in a Mason Jar or plastic snap-top container, and they are always ready to use. Water has one distinct advantage- if you are in the middle of no-where, you almost always have some sort of "water" handy; spit or urine will work in a pinch.

I use oil, always have, always will, because I started that way. Over 50 years I have used every oil that I thought might be better than the last, and I almost never saw any better results with those expensive honing oils [Buck, for insytance...]. For the past 15 years or so, I have been using Marvel Mystery oil on all my wet stones.

Get yourself a Black Arkansas, a White Arkansas, a fine, a medium, and a course stone from a reputable business, like a Wood Working Supply house,and ask one of the 'Old Timers' to give you a little instruction in sharpening, and you will never fail.
 
I know i can get a knife sharp with stones, i also know that i am a very good filer with 25 years of toolmaking and gunsmithing.
Filing and stoning is very difficult and very few people can make a decent result.
Buying Stones and beliving you will be able to make knifes sharp is as stupid as buying a fiddle and belive you can play a fast jig!

It takes long time and lots of skill with Stones to get it sharp.
Save yourself the hassle and buy a tormekmachine instead !
You will not regret it!
 
Just bought the Spyderco Tri-Angle Sharpmaker with a recent knife purchase and have been happy with it. I've used a variety of stones in the past with varying degrees of success but wanted something easy to keep a working level of sharpness on some folders and combat-style fixed blades that guys have at work. When it came in everyone in the tent brought out their old broken-tipped knives and the $1 convenience store trash they'd accumulated to see what the sharpener would do before giving me their good knives.
The Sharpmaker actually put a decent edge on some knives that I would have thrown away if not for wanting to see what the sharpener would do.

You can set multiple angles; it works well on serrated, and came with not only a booklet but a 45min tutorial video (which also showed how to do scissors, nail clippers, fish hooks, tin snips, etc).

I won't compare it to some of the high end stone systems we'd use when I was working in a butcher shop and later a kitchen, but for a self-contained kit that will sharpen most things without a ton of work it's been a good option so far.
 
Spuhr said:
I know i can get a knife sharp with stones, i also know that i am a very good filer with 25 years of toolmaking and gunsmithing.
Filing and stoning is very difficult and very few people can make a decent result.
Buying Stones and beliving you will be able to make knifes sharp is as stupid as buying a fiddle and belive you can play a fast jig!

It takes long time and lots of skill with Stones to get it sharp.
Save yourself the hassle and buy a tormekmachine instead !
You will not regret it!
Click to expand...

Well I've had experience hand polishing parts in a machine shop, so maybe that either helped, or suggested I had the hand and feel to be able to do it. Hopefully my post makes clear it isn't easy. I suppose success isn't even guaranteed and I would hate for someone to spend several hundred bucks on a set of waterstones and not be able to be successful.

A few years back a pro sharpener was making these and I probably should have made my life easier and bought one then:
<iframe src="//www.youtube.com/embed/jB0pNsI1mZY" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" width="420"></iframe>

If I were to get a guide system today the Edge Pro looks pretty good to me.

I looked up the Tormek machines and some of them made other options look downright cheap. Then again, if you value your time and sanity yet demand a sharp knife, maybe they are a deal.

And Bob D, I just saw your post -- nice.
 
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I carry this. I works well enough to prepare my knives for whatever I need them to do. It has the added advantage of always being with me on my keychain, and it will not scar the side of an elegant blade if I slip. My pocket folder uses replaceable utility blades, and this will touch one up if it needs it and I don't have a replacement blade handy. I give them to friends at Christmas. My working knives may be inexpensive, but they're not cheap. I also used the folding diamond rod to unscrew a sling stud for a fellow competitor during this past Saturday's FV250 Match.

Greg
 
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I've got one of the little tools Greg mentioned and it works well in an emergency. I've been sharpening knives for an awfully long time and could do a pretty credible job on most knives, but some of that steel (Buck for instance) was more trouble than it was worth. Now that I don't have as much time left as once, I can sharpen anything shaving sharp on a Worksharp in less than five minutes (way less). If you don't have any talent, or patience, for sharpening knives or don't want to make it a matter of personal pride, a Worksharp will sharpen everything in your house in less than thirty minutes. Like mentioned above, order a few extra belts in medium and fine. After you sharpen a few, the belts will start to last longer...
 
Thanks for the comment Cartman.

To those who are using the smaller worksharp.... Not the 3000...

You can get commercial belts for it, check your local woodworking store. They last more than twice as long, have a thicker backing and different grit options.

Also, there was a group buy a while back on a different site from a company that was producing custom belts. I'll have to double check on the name.

Glad to hear some of you are using the Tormek as well. It creates a great edge. Its a beast of a machine

Sent from my SCH-I605 using Tapatalk 2
 
OP-
You asked about the Warthog sharpener. I've had one for years and I don't have any complaints. It's probably not the best thing compared to what other guys are using, but it's idiot proof for a guy like me and puts a decent edge on my knives.
 
6" wet drum sander with a worn 600 grit belt, you can have a good edge in about 10 seconds with one of these. Also a hard Arkansas stone or ceramic. Usually I just touch up the edge on the hard stone and rarely re-grind.

I use a medium India stone for engravers in the shop and strop the edge with a piece of paper and green rouge or Fabulustre. This works well on tools that need to be resharpened after less than a minute of use. If the edge chips badly I'll go to the drum sander with these too.
 
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