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Posted: 7/30/2006 3:02:12 PM EDT
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In the past I have always used regular stones. I have good sharpening days and bad ones. Are systems like the Lansky very good? What do you knife guys recommend? Thanks |
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I have never have a good day with a hone and a knife. I am barely able to get a good egde on a shovel and lawn mower blade with a hand file. That said I went with the Lansky 5 stone Pro kit or something like that. I opted to add the fine Diamond and Saphire Hones. It make sharpening most any blade a breeze and you wont be at the wrong angle dulling the blade or messing up the angle. I have also hear the Spyderco Sharpmaker is a great system as well. Karsten |
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I have had a lot of practice. I've tried the Lansky system and others as well. I've even learned the basics of the Japanese method of sharpening swords, which is a complex process involving about nine different grades of natural and artificial stones. For normal knife sharpening, I use a few different carborundum, diamond, ceramic, and natural stones freehand. Which ones depend on how much needs to be done. I can get a better edge by hand than with any mechanical contraption. I use a mechanical system for sharpening my wood chisels, and that alone. For that, I use a Makita wet type planer blade sharpener with a very fine grit wheel, followed by a few seconds on a buffing wheel for a buffed edge that goes far beyond "scary sharp". It's "Utterly terrifyingly sharp!" You'd have to experience that edge to truly understand it. Try to shave the hair off your arm and you hear the hairs snap off on contact with the edge. If it cuts you, you won't feel it right away. It requires no effort to cut anything. And unless abused, the edge still lasts a very long time. The sharper it is, the safer it is, too. Because you don't put excess force behind a sharp blade, and when you are forcing a dull blade to cut and it suddenly slips, you will often end up in front of the edge because your hand slips farther than the knife does but the knife is still coming and with a lot of force behind it. CJ |
| My only issue for the Lansky I have is sharpening the curved part of a blade. The straight part is fine, but it seems I have to reset the clamp location and blade orientation for a curve, and possibly more than once, to avoid the sharpening grind line from creeping up the blade. Its just the geometry of it. Im looking to pick up the spyderco sharpmaker cause I hear only great stuff about it. |
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They sell the spyderco sharpner at the local drugstore, they have thousands of knives and do a lot of online business there at newgraham.com so the guy knows what he's talking about and recommended it for people who can't seem to sharpen kives. He demonstrated how to use it, it uses to sticks that look like chopsticks and when in place the sticks are angled so that all you have to do is hold the blade of a kinfe straight and run it down the sticks, for lack of a better way of explaining it. The sticks have 2 or 3 different levels for puttng a finer edge on the kinfe and so on. He says you only have to do a few times down the sticks every few days to maintain a sharp edge. It's sort of like sharpening for dummies, that sort of ting. You can't use it for a knife with a convex grind though, so it doesn't do me any good anyhow since that's what my knife has but overall seems to be a good system for those who can't seem to shapen kinves. That's me, never could shine boots or shoes in the military either, don't know the reason, I'd do exactly what someone beside me would do but couldn't seem to shine boots of shoes.. newgraham.com/detail.aspx?ID=3595 |
+1 www.razoredgesystems.com/ is great! I've always been pretty good at freehand sharpening, but the Razor Edge book still helped. I've also tried the Spyderco Triangle Sharpmaker. It's pretty fast and idiot proof. I use it for my kitchen and utility knives. Now I use a mousepad and adhesive backed abrasive paper to put/maintain a CONVEX EDGE on most of my personal knives. Works great! - particularly on my Benchmade 806D2. Between the D2 steel and the convex edge, that sucker will cut up cardboard boxes all day and is a joy to cut wood with. You don't want to get flesh on the wrong side of it. www.bladeforums.com is a great knife and sharpening resource. I learned as much about knives and sharpening over there as I've learned about ARs here - probably more. |
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Now I use a mousepad and adhexive backed abrasive paper to put/maintain a CONVEX EDGE on most of my personal knives. Works great! - particularly on my Benchmade 806D2. Between the D2 steel and the convex edge, that sucker will cut up cardboard boxes all day and is a joy to cut wood with. You don't want to get flesh on the wrong side of it. the knive I have with the convex grind, the blackjack grunt is described as "wickedly sharp" and it was when I bought it, it would go thrugh leather like warm butter, and it's supposed to be maintained with relative easy sharpening, recommends carboard, I've read about the mouspad, and wet dry paper, and the guy at that knife store said to use some leather. I've used the recommended cardboard but I simply can't seem to get the angle right or something. I think even with a good option like a mouspad or whatever works best i wouldn't get it right because of the angle. I know you pull it towards you which is different, but the angle has to be just right or it doesn't do any good.. 
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