Posted: 6/6/2008 8:29:19 PM EDT
| I have a med. arkansas stone, and I can get my knife pretty sharp but not hair shaving sharp. Do I need a diffrent stone, or is it me? |
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You need a hard Arkansas for a really fine edge. Use water or honing oil as a lubricant for best results. If you don't, the stone will probably load up and lose it's effectiveness. The problem with an edge that fine is that it tends not to last very long. I've gotten knives shaving sharp with nothing more than a cheap chinese two sided carborundum stone or an india stone. |
| Fine stone, and lots of practice keeping the pitch the same. Usually I stop at 500 or 600 grit on sharpening. My favorite stone is an old case 500 grit oil stone. There is a difference in cutting hair and also shaving sharp. With the two finer stones I can get hair to pop off the blade. |
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hold the knife up to a light sorce , looking down the blades cutting edge. it should look like this /\ not this l\ or this /l with either of the latter conditions you will get an edge that will be "sharper" cutting one direction or the other , and the blade won't hold an edge proerly. The shallower the angle (think thin) the sharper the edge , like a razor . However the more quickly it will dull . the broader the angle ( thick ) the longer the edge will last , but the harder it is to achieve a " shavin' sharp " edge. |
So is suppose you want in between that, try to find a balance. |
| OH and BTW , leather straps don't sharpen blades , they actually just clean out the debris from the microscopic "hack saw" that makes up a real edge . An edge can efffectively become to sharp and polished , to the point where the lack of serations actually prevent a powerfull cut. You can go to far , especially with a fine stone that is dirty and clogged up. |
exactly. |
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someone already mentioned it, but leather puts the best finishing touches on a blade of anything else i can recommend. i also suck at sharpening knives. i can do it, and get it pretty good, but if i want it SCARY sharp, i leave it with my dad till the next time i see him. then i KNOW it'll be sharp. 
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I usually try for 25 degrees. 30 is a little more sturdy, 20 is a little too fine. I find that 25 degrees is a good long lasting, but quite sharp angle. |
like I said , it just cleans out the metal shavings and debris . it is almost immpossible for leather to actually remove metal from a solid block...I mean think about it. |
| I usually use a diamond bench stone followed by a quick strop on a piece of cardboard rubbed with some jeweler's rouge to slick the edge and take the burr off. My knives, so sharpened, seem to just glide through those thick plastic retail packages with a gentle push, no straining. They will shave the hair right off your arm with ease. |
i didn't say YOU had to use a leather strap. i simply offered my opinion. i accidentally over-looked the post where you mentioned that. my bad. 
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The DMT Duosharp diamond sharpener rocks. We have one at work, people bring their knives to me for sharpening. I usually strop them on a leather after working them on the diamond "stone". I have a Smith diamond block for home use, it's similar to the DMT, but smaller and less expensive. No oil is used with diamond sharpeners, though water is okay. The DMT and such should be cleaned with soap and water once in a while. Use a marker along the edges of the blade, then stroke the blade, edge first, straight on the surface of the stone you use (circular motions and such are incorrect). Try to hold the angle constant during each stroke. Examine the edge after a few strokes, see where the marker has been taken off to see if you're too steep or shallow on your angle. Start with the coarse side, count your strokes and do both sides the same number of strokes. Once you get a wire/burr on the edge, lessen the number of strokes per side, using a light hold on the blade. This should get rid of most of the wire/burr. Try 10/10-5/5-3/3-1/1 strokes. Flip the stone and use the fine side to finish the edge. Don't put pressure on the blade, just light strokes are sufficient; let the stone do the work. After sharpening, you may polish the edge by stropping against leather, the leg of your jeans also works. Try googling knife sharpening, there are many good sources of info online. The Edge Pro system looks really good, though I've never used one. |
Serated edges are built that way , and they only get sharpened on the sloped side. Cheap knives do sometimes come that way from the factory , but not quality blades.If it's cheap , you'll be sharpening it soon....and often. |
Thanks, I was looking into a smith |
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possibly , I'm not sure . are you sure it's flat on one side after the serrations? I know the serrated part will be , thats by design. seems the front part (normal edge) would be ,well.... normal. 
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I do not like diamond sharpeners for normal use. They remove material too fast and reduce the service life of the blade. I reserve diamond products for major resharpening and reshaping of blades only. The term "hard Arkansas" stone is a bit of a pet peeve of mine because it's so often abused and applied to stones that are not TRUE hard Arkansas stones. A true hard Arkansas stone is Novaculite, essentially it's pure Quartzite. There are a few different grades and colors of it. each with its own specific sharpening attributes. jparkansasstones.1colony.com/about.html I've seen the term "hard Arkansas stone" applied to all manner of crap rocks that may at one point in time passed through the state of Arkansas but are nothing of the kind. CJ |
| The right tool for the job. Are you going to be using your knife to shave? the sharper the edge, the easier it is to dull. I'd rather my knife have a sharp sturdy edge than a shaving sharp thin edge. Never understood the shave hair crowd. I can do it but choose not to. |
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The Spyderco Sharpmaker is very excellent, but I like to use a stone. I have been using a triple stone setup where the stones are glued to a triangular piece of wood and it includes a base to hold it. It was about $15. The fine "Arkansas" side works well. After that I use a rough side strop with white or red polishing compound sticks(from Sears) rubbed on it. A few days ago I bought a new ax. (keep track of who you loan tools to because they never get returned on their own). I was surprised that it was blunt. Not just dull, it was "rounded off" blunt. I used a stationary belt sander to shape it and one of those hand held little forked carbide sharpeners. It worked pretty good. When you google ax sharpening, the suggestions are to use round hand disc stones to achieve an arm hair shaving edge. |
You need a high quality blade, a high quality diamond stone.. or two.. coarse and medium... in time they will be meduim and fine. add LOTS of practice and you can do it everytime.. |
Yep.. might be sharp as all hell.. without a "burr" to cut with.. it wont cut as well. |
Uh, no.  Incorrect, if you truly have "The Edge". Only a lesser sharpening job benefits from having an edge burr, which makes it cut like a microscopic-scale saw.A great comparison is a tomato. Its skin is thin but tough and resists cutting by mediocre but smooth edges. A bit of a burr does help in a case like this, but a much sharper blade with no burr will cut through it like the skin isn't even there. Scalpels, for example, do not have edge burrs. CJ |
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Step one would be a search for blade forums and reading their faq on sharpening things. We have a knife section here as well and it should have lots of info as well. My personal opinion is that it depends. I have known folks who can take the most ungodly blade and a creek rock and come up with something shaving sharp. I also know others who can take a scapel and nothing else and wind up with a sewing needle. Personally I think you need something in the fine range of stones and then to get the scary sharp edge you need to go into the "stropping" stuff and as mentioned you can use leather or cardboard to hold the product. And the products vary. I like diamond stones for my everyday use folding knives since I use them to cut stuff they should not always cut. It hurts the edge and removing a lot of metal is nice at these times. I don't aim for shaving sharp and I can't tell you degrees of the edge, but it is a working edge and as you read about degrees you will see what that means. For super duper uber sharp I am more careful on sharpening stuff, I might actually sit the stone flat on a table or desk instead of holding it. And to finish it off I get out the leather or cardboard strop, these days it has been leather since I lost weight and have a big belt I no longer use. To really confuse you on sharpening read about using an old mouse pad and some sand paper to create a rounded edge. My blackjack mamba came with this sort of edge and I forget its name but it has a strong following and there are other methods of acheiving the edge. Sharpening a knife is something lots of folks have opinions on. Some folks have spent the time needed to always hold a perfect edge while doing things by hand. Others need stuff mounted to a bench. And others feel their time is better spent earning a bit of money and paying someone else to do it. I have messed with all 3 and I won't say I can get my stuff the sharpest it can be but I often get close enough. Now and then I run into someone who is amazing at getting things super sharp and in most cases I find it a joy to pay them to sharpen some stuff simply because it is amazing to see someone demonstrate a skill that is hard for many to acheive. I do think a person should learn to handle their sharpening skills themselves, but knowing someone is better and enjoying that fact is part of life in my opinion. |
| I have the Spiderco Sharpmaker, and all kinds of stones. Lately i have been using a Warthog V Sharp. Scary sharp really fast, even on a crappy steel knife. Just the right "burr" on the edge for my liking. Just a couple strokes every now and then and you always have a razor sharp edge. |
Yes. The serrated part of a CRKT I have is ground like |/ while the rest is ground \/. Note that many blades are ground one-sided, like chisels, plane blades, and traditional Japanese chefs knives. Most knives in the US, though, are ground two-sided. A narrower, more acute angle doesn't make a knife "sharper". Making sure the edge doesn't look like \_/ is what makes it sharp. The angle you want depends on what you plan to use the knife for and the quality of its steel. Softer steel won't hold a very acute edge. Hard steel + acute edge + chopping through hard stuff also ruins edges or causes chips. A sharp razor blade will be good for shaving, but not chopping down a tree. A sharp ax, the other way around. |