I've seen people use this method, and it's impressive! Very steady hand and great control required! It makes an awesome edge though once you master it!
I've seen people use this method, and it's impressive! Very steady hand and great control required! It makes an awesome edge though once you master it!
I make knives as well (as a hobby) and it took quite a while before I felt really comfortable doing it. It is extremely satisfying, however, to take a dull knife and have it popping hairs in just a matter of minutes. Now if I could just get my straight razors to pass the HHT (hanging hair test)!
Lots of excellent options out there, it all depends on how much you want to spend, how often you're going to be using it, and how much variability you want in a system (pre-determined angles and abrasives)... You've had some good recommendations so far, I suggest you look into them all while thinking about your personal needs/wants out of a sharpening system.
You just missed a deal I posted the other day on the tri-angle Sharpmaker for a great price.
If you want to stay idiot-proof and quickly repeatable, systems like Smiths and Lansky are good to start out on - you can upgrade the stones cheaply enough (if you want to add a strop or ceramic fine/super-fine stones; or if you want to eventually re-profile and get diamond stones). The Spyderco Sharp-Maker and stick-systems are another good way to go too - stones are more expensive, but a lot of folks take various grades of sand paper and wrap the sticks as sort of a cheaper upgrade.
I'll be honest - if you're going much above the Sharp-maker in money, I'd skip a lot of the pricier systems and just go to the Wicked Edge - it's 100% Bad Ass and it's honestly worth every penny (but it is very pricey). I personally don't have the patience for systems like the Edge Apex Pro, but a lot of folks get mirror edges out of them and love 'em.
In all the pics I've seen (or in-person knives), I've not seen a belt-sander or paper-wheel sharpening job that made me think it was worth the cost of lost steel at the edge of the blade. It's essentially like re-profiling the blade every time you take it to the belt (and the paper-wheel removes a lot more material than most folks think). That might not seem like much (especially on a cheaper knife), but I tend to like to set the primary edge-bevel, and add a secondary (micro) bevel and just touch up the very apex of the edge as often as possible before having to get in to removing more steel than is absolutely necessary.
The key to sharpening is patience. I have none, so it was a long hard learning process for me (I kept applying too much pressure or getting in a hurry and wanting to be done too quickly).
If you get everything set up (no matter what system you use) and plan on doing a little bit at a time and walking away from it for a break every now and then, you're better off (if you're like me and have little patience).
You can free-hand sharpen, but it takes a super-steady repeatable-motion hand and even some of the better free-hand sharpeners have slight imperfections in the primary edge-bevel - which is not a big deal on a user knife other than you're essentially removing more material than necessary. If you're good enough, it's minuscule, but I've never had a steady enough hand or the patience to become good enough that I didn't end up taking more metal off of the edge than I was happy with. I like to keep things consistent and I'm cheap, so I try to get as much life out of a blade as possible. I basically learned enough free-hand sharpening that if I were ever backpacking and just absolutely had to touch-up (or even re-profile) a blade, I could if I needed too.
A good beginner setup is the Lansky (or similar) with natural stones (depending on what steel your knives are made of). If you've got blades with harder steels, then you might consider a Diamond Course or Med stone if you need to re-profile. I personally love the natural med/fine stones and recommend adding a ceramic ultra-fine stone.
Youtube is your friend - lots of good videos out there, but you basically just have to take the plunge into one particular method or system and then learn as much as you can (cheap kitchen knives are great trainers).
I don't have a good method of sharpening serrations or re-curves as I don't own any of either (save my new ZT -121 - it's got a re-curve and I'm dreading sharpening it).
If you want to stay idiot-proof and quickly repeatable, systems like Smiths and Lansky are good to start out on - you can upgrade the stones cheaply enough (if you want to add a strop or ceramic fine/super-fine stones; or if you want to eventually re-profile and get diamond stones). The Spyderco Sharp-Maker and stick-systems are another good way to go too - stones are more expensive, but a lot of folks take various grades of sand paper and wrap the sticks as sort of a cheaper upgrade.
I'll be honest - if you're going much above the Sharp-maker in money, I'd skip a lot of the pricier systems and just go to the Wicked Edge - it's 100% Bad Ass and it's honestly worth every penny (but it is very pricey). I personally don't have the patience for systems like the Edge Apex Pro, but a lot of folks get mirror edges out of them and love 'em.
In all the pics I've seen (or in-person knives), I've not seen a belt-sander or paper-wheel sharpening job that made me think it was worth the cost of lost steel at the edge of the blade. It's essentially like re-profiling the blade every time you take it to the belt (and the paper-wheel removes a lot more material than most folks think). That might not seem like much (especially on a cheaper knife), but I tend to like to set the primary edge-bevel, and add a secondary (micro) bevel and just touch up the very apex of the edge as often as possible before having to get in to removing more steel than is absolutely necessary.
The key to sharpening is patience. I have none, so it was a long hard learning process for me (I kept applying too much pressure or getting in a hurry and wanting to be done too quickly).
If you get everything set up (no matter what system you use) and plan on doing a little bit at a time and walking away from it for a break every now and then, you're better off (if you're like me and have little patience).
You can free-hand sharpen, but it takes a super-steady repeatable-motion hand and even some of the better free-hand sharpeners have slight imperfections in the primary edge-bevel - which is not a big deal on a user knife other than you're essentially removing more material than necessary. If you're good enough, it's minuscule, but I've never had a steady enough hand or the patience to become good enough that I didn't end up taking more metal off of the edge than I was happy with. I like to keep things consistent and I'm cheap, so I try to get as much life out of a blade as possible. I basically learned enough free-hand sharpening that if I were ever backpacking and just absolutely had to touch-up (or even re-profile) a blade, I could if I needed too.
A good beginner setup is the Lansky (or similar) with natural stones (depending on what steel your knives are made of). If you've got blades with harder steels, then you might consider a Diamond Course or Med stone if you need to re-profile. I personally love the natural med/fine stones and recommend adding a ceramic ultra-fine stone.
Youtube is your friend - lots of good videos out there, but you basically just have to take the plunge into one particular method or system and then learn as much as you can (cheap kitchen knives are great trainers).
I don't have a good method of sharpening serrations or re-curves as I don't own any of either (save my new ZT -121 - it's got a re-curve and I'm dreading sharpening it).
This is what I use for sharpening serrations : http://www.amazon.com/Smiths-PP1-Po...2950&sr=8-3&keywords=serrated+knife+sharpener Very simple, self explanatory.
One side of the serration is angled/flat like the blade, and the other side is serrated (on a lot of serrated blades). So you use your general sharpening method on one side, and the other, you use the file. I've had knives that were double serrated (both sides serration), and they were much more difficult to sharpen, as you are trying to maintain an angle on both sides the same with the file.
One side of the serration is angled/flat like the blade, and the other side is serrated (on a lot of serrated blades). So you use your general sharpening method on one side, and the other, you use the file. I've had knives that were double serrated (both sides serration), and they were much more difficult to sharpen, as you are trying to maintain an angle on both sides the same with the file.
I use the Spyderco tool for my serrated blades, for everything else I use two sided Arkansas oil stones. I have several flat ones and three round stones for axes an swords. Once you learn how to use these you'll not need all those fancy tools. Once you've finished with both sides you'll want to use a razor strop hand finished with jewelers rouge. The only time you want to use a steel is to straighten the edge where the edge starts to bend when using them on a cutting board. Unless your using Japanese water stone's(the ones that have to be soaked) never put water or oil on a oil stone, cause all your doing is ruining the stone.
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