Sharpening knives, what do you all use?

[TedKennedy]

Wicked Edge GO Precision Knife Sharpener - WE60
https://a.co/d/3DeIbfv

 

[mtngunr]

I have used a Lansky for circa 30yrs, it works well on blades with flat sides, from smallest to 7"-8" but longer blades require shifting the fixture along blades to not end up with stones at acute angles, the further you get from the guides, the shallower the angle. Most knives kept sharp stropping on 1000-1200 grit and stropped on leather or pasteboard dressed with assorted jeweler polishing compounds which run finer and more consistant than most such compounds sold commercially, my favorite is red rouge for deburr and edge polish.

 

[Firpo]

I use a Gatco on most blades and a whetstone on really small blades and my straight razors. For my really big blades I have a Work Sharp that does a decent enough job. Everything gets finished off on my father’s wide leather belt from the ‘70s and for the razors I have one of those strops with canvas and leather.

 

[red dirt shootist]

A stone, some oil, a knife. That's all you need. Herman from Herman's Sporting Goods, downtown OKC taught me, I was 14, he was blind, I was hungry.

 

[Hangfire]

Several years ago I was running behind one morning to head to work but the wife ask me to touch up a couple of knives for her real quick to use to trim some deer meat that she was going trim and make jerky out of that day.

The wheels on the bench sharpener turn towards the person sharpening / me and I moved the blade slightly to high into the oncoming wheel which caught the knife blade and sent it into my stomach....all I could see was the knife handle sticking out of my shirt.

Didn't know if I should pull it out prior to the trip to the ER or not but once I got to my car I realized that if I didn't remove it that it would probably do more internal damage by the movements required to squat down and slide behind the wheel so I pulled it out and hauled azz to the ER and walked in wearing my blood soaked shirt holding the knife.

Once I told them it was a knife wound I guess it's standard procedure for the ER to call the police who showed up and questioned me on how it happened....once I told them they made their report and left.

I was rushed back to some sort of scanning machine that would show if any organs had been punctured and luckily none were....what saved me was that the blade was fairly thin sort of like a fillet knife and when it caught the wheel it bent slightly and went in at sort of a angle as opposed to straight in.

After getting stitched up I brought the knife back home, didn't wash it and hung it on a nail above the sharpener to remind me to be careful....you can plainly see from the line on the blade that it went in right at 3 1/2".

Thought about purchasing some sort of thick-ish leather apron to wear when sharpening knives after the incident but never did but I'm a lot more careful now.

 

[montesa]

Several years ago I was running behind one morning to head to work but the wife ask me to touch up a couple of knives for her real quick to use to trim some deer meat that she was going trim and make jerky out of that day.

The wheels on the bench sharpener (like pictured below) turn towards the person sharpening / me and I moved the blade slightly to high into the oncoming wheel which caught the knife blade and sent it into my stomach....all I could see was the knife handle sticking out of my shirt.

Didn't know if I should pull it out prior to the trip to the ER or not but once I got to my car I realized that if I didn't remove it that it would probably do more internal damage by the movements required to squat down and slide behind the wheel so I pulled it out and hauled azz to the ER and walked in wearing my blood soaked shirt holding the knife.

Once I told them it was a knife wound I guess it's standard procedure for the ER to call the police who showed up and questioned me on how it happened....once I told them they made their report and left.

I was rushed back to some sort of scanning machine that would show if any organs had been punctured and luckily none were....what saved me was that the blade was fairly thin sort of like a fillet knife and when it caught the wheel it bent slightly and went in at sort of a angle as opposed to straight in.

After getting stitched up I brought the knife back home, didn't wash it and hung it on a nail above the sharpener to remind me to be careful....you can plainly see from the line on the blade that it went in right at 3 1/2".

Thought about purchasing some sort of thick-ish leather apron to wear when sharpening knives after the incident but never did but I'm a lot more careful now.

View attachment 541105

That's what I use but you're supposed to turn it so the wheels spin away from you. Unless you just want an injury. I would throw it away if I had to use it with the wheels spinning towards me!

 

[montesa]

This guy shows the right way. Spinning away from you. Too easy to catch the edge towards you.

 

[TreeFiddy7]

A V-Sharp and a steel

 

[Hangfire]

That's what I use but you're supposed to turn it so the wheels spin away from you. Unless you just want an injury. I would throw it away if I had to use it with the wheels spinning towards me!

@montesa I purchased the 1/4 hp grinder and sharpening wheel kit off of a fella that was always at the gun shows sharpening knives and he gave me a class on how to use it....apparently dangerously.

His grinder was set up with the on/off rocker switch towards him which makes the wheels turn towards the user but by simply spinning it around with the switch facing away I can see where the wheel will spin away from the user.....I do remember when he showed me how to use it he did make a special point in telling me to watch the angle of the blade so that the blade edge didn't come into contact with oncoming the wheel which I've always been careful to do except for that one time and it landed me in the ER.

I've got 1/2 dozen kitchen knives to sharpen for the wife and I'll make sure that the wheel is turning away from me from now on.....thanks for the heads up.

 

[Chief Sapulpa]

@BrandonM does an awesome job using the paper wheel system.