This topic is something a lot of blade collectors and even blade makers have largely either ignored or remained ignorant on.



That, and many folks think they know how to maintain the edge of a knife, but really don't.



I'd like to open it up with questions, but if we don't get a good discussion started, I'll follow up posts of instruction and information.



This is just as much about getting the edge correct to begin with on a new knife, as it is about keeping a knife sharp in the long run.

what do you use as a strop, and what do you load it with?

http://www.amazon.com/Smoky-Mountain-Woodcarvers-Razorsharp-Strop/dp/B0006GT3H4/ref=sr_1_11?ie=UTF8&qid=1412992969&sr=8-11&keywords=strop



I keep a large block of the green, since I use it more than anything else.







 

Great topic. Personally I sharpen on DMT plates,  strop on a Flexxx quadratic with 6,3 and 1 micron dia-paste.


Usually iI go for very sharp with light stropping to keep the micro serrations.

Sometimes I get bored and go for sexy. This is after cutting shit up


VG 10 at 15 degrees. Extra time at each micron level and heavy work at 1 micron. Fast light strokes at the same angle I sharpened at to avoid rounding the edge or over convexing

What grit are you using for the plates?



10 deg is brave.



The only thing I run that on is my knife for skinning rabbits.
 

325,600,1200 grits usually


I do have 3000 mini stone for when I get bored





This one was done on the 3000 then stropped on diamonds lightly because who knows what it's made of.

It's pretty sharp but I doubt it would hold up long.

I like a good 6000 myself, but I can't find a plate for it.



 

I thought about waterstones and still kinda am for fun.


Diamond  are nice because I like some pretty wear resistant steels

Between sharpenings, when a knive gets "a little dull", I strop it back to great sharpness (shaving sharp) using paper.  Newspaper works well, is widely available, and cheap as dirt (frequently free).  I also sometimes use phone books.  Phone book pages have a limited useful life for this purpose.  When a page is no longer good for the task, I just rip it out of the book and use the next page.  Manila envelopes work great too.  When using paper, I use a light, edge following stroke.

Sharpening steels & fine ceramic rods (freehand) also work pretty well for a quick touch up (light, edge leading stroke).  You can also improvise using the unglazed bottom of a coffee mug or the top edge of a car window in a similar fashion.

Using an old leather belt (the smooth side) loaded with red polishing compound.  Will push cut (as opposed to draw cut) a time magazine easily.

Just a regular slab of wood with some scrap leather glued onto it. I load it with Tormek Honing Compound. Its 6,000 grit (edit: It could be 8k, I'm seeing conflicting data) and is absolutely awesome for touching up blades. I follow that with the other side of my strop which is just a normal piece of leather with nothing on it. That just serves to remove any residual compound and clean up the edge.

Good stuff.



 

Hot

I work with a lot of surgical grade stainless knives.  They can be hard to sharpen.  I use a diamond stone, fine grit.  Medium grit if they get in bad shape.  

I don't shave with them or do paper cutting demonstrations, but I can see easily when they aren't up to snuff.  The diamond throws a very nice working edge on them in short order.  To me this means slicing through a tomato skin, not sawing it.  The same quality edge tends to cut meat very well.

I don't use power equipment or jigs, I have just been hand sharpening long enough to know the correct angle.  

Yep, just dug an old belt out of the "probably never fit me again closet" this weekend.  Haven't really done much with it yet other than a little altering and softening it up again with mink oil.  Should work great when I get some polishing grit in it.

Let us know what grit you use, and how well it works.
 

Nice work man.



Are you laying the belt flat or securing it at both ends so there is a taper?



 

hehe

I'm ghetto fabulous

I loop the buckle end into a loop, put it around my foot, and then pull it tight.  On a plus side, it packs up nicely into my camping/backpacking gear with minimal weight.

I use a sharpmaker on all of my edc knives.  I set the bevel with a gatco, or my homemade "edge-pro", then just a few swipes on the sharpmaker when they need it.  Sometimes I finish with a strop, but not usually.  I save my waterstones for chisels and plane blades.  I might use my pocket knife for a couple minutes each day, when I use chisels and planes, it's for hours at a time, so that's where I concentrate my efforts.

I freehand on a belt sander, or use sandpaper.

I also have too many strops laying around loaded with anywhere from 6 micron to .1 micron compounds.

Everything has a purpose.

I also strop knives on the back of notepads a lot. Blows people's minds to bring the edge of a slightly dulled knife back on a note pad.

ETA:
I do have a few water stones and oil stones laying about that I really don't use.

On large objects like axes and mower blades, if I can't bring them home to sharpen I have used a file many times with good results.

I found this pic of my 710 in M4




The recurve is fun to sharpen.

I actually had built a device to sharpen recurves using SiO sandpaper and square wooden dowels

I am using a Kalamazoo 1X42 belt sander.

I just don't have time for sharpening stones.

It works fast and will put a very sharp polished edge on just about anything.

It took me a while to get used to free hand sharpening and I'm still not an expert but can do a pretty good job.

You  do have to be careful not to get the blade hot but it's really not an issue. Just use light pressure and keep it moving.

Been using some CBN paste on linen belts lately. Seems to work really good.

Would not go back to any other method.

Edited to add a couple pics

You guys are all way ahead of me.

Um..any tips for someone who doesn't know the first thing about sharpening? I've tried a Lansky...didn't seem to work for me. Stones? Ha! I wish. Now I just use an Accusharp on my beater work knife , but I would really like to learn.

Sure I've got a few tips for you. First thing you are going to want to do is buy a stone. It can be an Arkansas Stone, Ceramic Stone, or Waterstone. All of them work, all of them have their pros and cons, it just whatever works best for you. I'll try to list a very general quick pros and cons list for each stone.

-Arkansas Stones-
   Pros
-Cuts and Polishes at the same time
-Much finer than most synthetic counterparts
-Can use either water or oil (but whatever you use, stick to it)
-Very refined scratch pattern
-Lasts a really long time and does not develop deep valleys or hollows like other stones
-Easy to recondition the surface (using only sandpaper and a flat surface)
-Awesome tactile feedback when sharpening
-Relatively inexpensive
-Comes in all shapes and sizes

  Cons
-Doesn't cut high alloy or exotic steels (due to the vanadium carbides being harder than the quarts in the stone)
-Cuts slow and since it only comes in very refined grits, it makes reprofiling a blade a very time consuming process
-Only comes in Soft (Medium), Hard (Fine), True Hard (Extra Fine), Translucent (Ultra Fine), and Surgical Black (Super Fine).

-Ceramic Stones-
  Pros
-Cuts quick
-Very uniform scratch pattern
-Can cut almost any steel
-Comes in the largest array of grits 120 - 30,000
-Comes in many forms and shapes
-Does not flatten or hollow over time
-Using the correct grits, produces a very fine and keen edge
-Often just requires a little bit of water to lubricate the surface during use

  Cons
-Very Expensive
-Does not have the wide array of shapes/sizes that the Arkansas stone does
-Surface gets clogged quickly and requires frequent maintenance
-Quality control on the stones is important, when it comes to ceramic, buy quality (Spyderco, Shapton, etc)
-Are relatively fragile when compared to Arkansas stones

-Japanese Waterstones-
  Pros
-Come in a huge array of grits 60 - 12,000
-Can produce an extremely fine edge
-Finest and most refined scratch patterns
-Can cut fast and polish at the same time
-Comes in both natural and synthetic
-Not as expensive as ceramic stones

  Cons
-Steepest learning curve of all of the stones
-Requires constant maintenance of the stones
-Lapping the surface is a regular process to keep the surface flat
-Wears away quickly
-Can be very fragile
-Requires a much different technique than the other stones
-Can be a very messy process
-Requires a constant saturation of water to cut and work effectively

-Diamond Stones-
  Pros
-Cuts the fastest
-Quickly creates a burr
-Can cut any steel
-Inexpensive
-Easy to reprofile an edge
-Comes in many shapes and sizes
-Often very light and compact
-Works well in tandem with other stones
-Easiest of them all to work out chips/nicks in the blade

  Cons
-Does not polish at all.
-Compared to the others, creates a very uneven scratch pattern
-Can create deep gouges in the steel
-The extra fine diamond stones create a less refined edge than most medium stones of the other types
-Its much easier than you think to remove too much steel or screw something up with a diamond stone
-Quality matters, diamond surfaces can often flake off or have an uneven cutting surface, which negatively effects the final edge
-Can often leave diamond grit on the edge itself, make sure to clean off the blade before going to a different grit


Once you've selected your stone (I recommend not going with a diamond stone in the beginning) and you want to start sharpening a blade the next thing you need is a Sharpie. Sharpie is a beginners freehand sharpener's best friend, it can tell you all sorts of stuff about your technique. Take that sharpie and mark the edge bevel of the knife you are going to sharpen. Take that marked blade and put it on your stone, tilt the knife till you think that final edge bevel is on the stone and push the knife forward like you are trying to cut a very fine layer off of the top of the stone. Dont push too hard, try to push with about 3 times the weight of the blade. After two or three strokes across the top of the stone, check the sharpie on the edge. If you have removed all of the sharpie from the edge you know you have the correct angle. If you see that you have only scratched the top of the sharpie mark you know that you are too shallow. If you have only scratched the very edge of the sharpie mark you know you are too steep. Use this to constantly check your angle while sharpening. After a while you will get the muscle memory down and you wont need to remark the edge. When you are moving across the stone, slowly move the cutting surface of the knife from heel to tip over the length of the stone. So at the beginning of the stone cut the heel and as you move through the length of the stone slowly tilt the handle up till you get to the point. At this point you should start checking for the burr on the other side of the edge (the one you arnt sharpening). If you have developed a burr over the full length of the edge you can then flip your edge over and start on the other side. Repeat this process till you've created a burr on the other side. Then alternate one side to the other till you feel like you've knocked off the burr from both sides.

Do this on your initial stone (stick to a fine stone in the beginning, 800 - 1,000 grit). If thats the only stone you have then move on to stropping, if you have finer grits at your disposal, move through the finer grits till you have done this process on your finest grit stone then move to stropping.

Here are a few quick tips to remember while sharpening
1. At the end of the stone dont fling the blade off of the stone like you see in many videos and movies. This actually rounds the tip of the blade off. Stop the blade before it gets to the end of the stone to avoid this.
2. Watch this video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lm53mCOQTR8
3. But like I said in number 1, don't fling the blade off of the end like you see in the video.
4. Get a strop, it can really help even out any mistakes that you may have made while sharpening. I recommend loading it with either green compound or Tormek Honing Compound. Both strike a good balance of cutting and polishing at the stropping phase.

Well I am sure others will chime in soon. Thats all I can think of off of the top of my head!

Great post Cobalt-60

Great info! Thanks, man.

*runs off to get a stone and a Sharpie*

Cobalt-60 that's some great info!

I've been sharpening with stones for over 20 years and I still use a Sharpie to mark bevels.  It's a quick and easy way to make sure you have the angle you want.

Ordered this to give it a shot.



I don't have a nice set of Ak stones.



http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B003J7QXGQ/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o01_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

the only advice I can give that cobalt didn't is to take your time.  it might take some time to go slow at first, but it takes more time and effort to fix mistakes.

I am a huge fan of Arkansas stones they are my preferred stones, sure they arnt as fancy as some of the ceramic or waterstones available but I love the edge they produce. No one makes a better Arkansas stone than Dan's Whetstone.

Arkansas stones work best on simple carbon and tool steels. It also works well with basic stainless steels like 12C27, 420HC, 440C, Victorinox stainless, etc. Vanadium is the enemy of Arkansas stones, trace amounts are fine but anythinge much over 0.5% should be used with a little caution, anything over 1% you should just use a different system. But for the simple carbon and stainless steels, you wont find a better sharpening stone.

I recommend Dan's honing oil for use with the stones. It also does a good job cleaning them.

Either way you wont regret it! I own a soft, hard, and surgical black from Dan's, they are my go to stones!

Great news! Thanks man.



 

Great advice.  It also helps to start with simple blade shapes.  Blades with no belly are easiest to learn, just to build consistency with your bevels, muscle memory, etc.  The top blade is maybe the easiest to learn with.  No belly, single bevel + a space between the edge and handle to allow for mistakes/imperfect technique.  Middle one is a little more difficult because there is less of a space between the edge and handle.  You have to pay a little more attention to what you're doing.  Then a blade with just a little belly, like an Endura.  Each progression builds on the one before it.  But there's no substitute for practice and taking your time if you want to sharpen by hand.

Its been said, but great thread. Quick question: What method do you guys recommend for 1095 steel? I have a Lansky that works ok for kitchen and my edc, but doesn't seem to "cut" it on my other knives.

I have a deluxe Lansky that seems to work well for me. I suck trying to sharpen a knife on a stone I have been thinking about one of the Work Sharp Ken Onion belt sharpeners though. Looks like it does a great job from all the reviews it has.

Great post by cobalt.


I started on a set of Arkansas stones. Worked great for kitchen knives but not so much on my pocket knives even D2 was taking forever.


Skipped to diamond stones and never looked back. I polish on higher grits and finish the job on diamond laden strops.


One thing I do like about diamond is it raised the burr quickly even on steep reprofiles. It also reduces human error as less strokes are needed to develop the edge.


And it works on steels like S110v and M4.

Two on the way to the strop after being touched up on diamonds.

They'll be stropped on my Flexxx strop loaded with DMT dia-paste.


Cuts quick so I don't round the edge. Light quick strokes with no pressure aside from blade weight. They're already polished up and reflecting the opposite page