Ahhh.....I have no sharpening skills

wuyeah

wuyeah

Joined
Sep 29, 2005
Messages
1,665
omg, I have to rant a little. On myself. I just don't have a proper sharpening skills!
And it is annoying.

Buying is a new knife to use is fun and exciting. When comes to sharpening the edge myself later,not really.
Some how when I was sharpening, seems like I was never able to get "factory" sharpness. I am a careful knife user, normal cutting doesn't ruin the blade finish. For whatever reason, after sharpening, I made horizontal marks on bevel. Sometimes even worse, on the knife belly....:eek:

I am using Spyderco Sharpmaker kit. I have also tried Spyderco flat fine sharpening stone (white). Pretty sure it is not sharpening stone's fault but my own. I have went through the instruction video too. And a lot of other sharpening video on Youtube. Comes to a point I feel so frustrating like I am a slow learner....Maybe my don't know how to check if my knife is already sharp enough. I just found myself not satisfy and keep on sharpening and dont know when to stop :foot:

Is it unavoidable to make all these marks on knife bevel or belly during the sharpening process? I start to suspect maybe it is common not just in my head prob.
Due to such reason, I am always hesitant to purchase nicer blade. Afraid I might ruin them. So far I only use inexpensive ones, so I know I won't be as heart broken until I required a proper skills knowing exactly I am doing and doing it right.

Maybe few comment from you guys can help. Unfortunately I am the only one among my friend who carry pocket knife around. No one around me to provide me with good guidance.
 
The knife belly is the curve of the edge. Are you talking about making scratches on the cutting edge or on the side of the knife?

The sharpmaker is a pretty easy system to use. Carefully watch videos on youtube. You'll get the hang of it!
 
I am sure someone will chime in and say to keep practicing your freehand skills. I personally had the lansky system and could get knives pretty sharp, but I didn't like to clamp the spine. Recently I got and edge pro apex... I can get knives very sharp and it is easy to use with little risk of scratching the blade. Just put some painters tape on it.
 
If you mean scratching the finish just tape up the blade and maybe buy some thrift store blades to practice on.
 
timbit said:
The knife belly is the curve of the edge. Are you talking about making scratches on the cutting edge or on the side of the knife?

The sharpmaker is a pretty easy system to use. Carefully watch videos on youtube. You'll get the hang of it!
Click to expand...

I was talking about the section between belly and slightly upper part of above edge. and belly too....sigh
 
I had the same problem. The Wicked Edge solved it for me. Not cheap but it'll set you free!
 
A new SharpMaker takes a while to break in. Plus, you need to use a Sharpie Marker to see where you're actually making contact with the stone.

You should do all four steps. Dark stone flat, dark stone corner, light stone flat, light stone corner.

I attached mine to cement board and use two hands. I think you may be just rushing. A Sharpmaker is not fast.
 
Sometimes it takes a long time to get a really good edge on a knife.
I learned this over time because I used to get frustrated when I would sit there for 30 minutes sharpening one side of a knife and still not getting it completely done.
Just go nice and steady at a comfortable pace and do your strokes nice and easy.
Watch more videos while doing what they are in the video at the same time.
It will take time but you'll get the hang of it.
Don't be afraid to get more expensive blades, just practice with the cheaper ones first before sharpening the more expensive ones.
Maybe look into a set of stones for freehand sharpening(this is how I've done it for a long time) or a Lansky(easy to use guided system with edge degree choices). The Lansky will take some time to get the edge perfect but the chances are that you won't scratch your blade and you will get an awesome edge that you like. After getting the basics down, maybe go back to the sharpmaker.

It's not a bad thing to not be the best at sharpening at first. It definitely takes time and experience after experience to pick it up well and get a good hang of it. It takes time to develop skills. Just give yourself some time. When you get frustrated, take a break, then go back to it after you relax for a little bit.

You'll get it!! Don't give up.
Before you know it, you'll be getting edges so good that you're not even sure what to do with them. :D
 
Check and make sure you're forming a burr, also known as apexing the edge. The sharpie trick is a good one both for freehanding as well as for guided sharpening. :thumbup:;)

As other members have mentioned, don't rush or you'll make mistakes. (that's what happens to me all the time with sharpening as I'm impatient. :foot:)

Try not to use too much pressure, let the stones do the work (yeah, it's slow...)

Good luck!
 
Nope you don't have the skill...yet. It really takes a lot of practice. I'll tell you, I learned to do it by practicing a lot and quite honestly reading this board. It's kind of like making fire (except way harder)...if you don't know exactly what you're trying to actually accomplish, it's not going to get done.

Here I learned about the burr. Here I learned that too much pressure can be a very counterproductive thing. I learned about apexing the edge. I learned the "sharpie trick". I learned about the pros and cons of the different types of stones. Here I will comment that I went with diamonds. Diamonds cut very quickly and in doing so, provide a very fast feedback loop...you can literally see where the metal is coming of at each stroke and make adjustments. On the other end of the spectrum, the Arkansas stone, is a very slow process and I found myself frustrated even though, I expect, half the time, I was doing in more or less right.

I learned that the Sharpmaker is really a fantastic tool...but that is has limitations that you'll be hard pressed to overcome...do with it what it was meant to do...touch up and microbevel. When I get a new knife, unless the edge is downright perfect, I will do what I call "indexing" the thing to the Sharpmaker by reprofiling so that either the 30 or 40 degree setting gets me a clean micro-bevel. After that, touching up is easy until the micro-bevel gets too big.

It really take a while and I personally thing that one has to make the commitment to practice on a good knife. Practicing on a bunch of Pakistani junk, IMHO, will not provide you the learning experience you need...unless the thing is halfway decent steel and is heat treated to hardnesses approaching what your "real" knives will be. Practice on an less expensive brand name knife. No don't practice on a Sebenza or a Hinderer or a Randall. But do so on a good old buck 110. The older ones were pretty darn hard and the newer ones are made of very good, if not exotic, steel.

There are three key factors to learning how to sharpen a knife freehand (and for that matter with "gadgets"), practice, practice, and practice.
 
I don't like the sharpmaker personally, jmo. I prefer freehand sharpening. It took me awhile to get it down but now I'm pretty good at it. The black marker trick works good. Get some cheap knives and practice. You'll get it bro.
 
goephoto said:
I don't like the sharpmaker personally, jmo. I prefer freehand sharpening. It took me awhile to get it down but now I'm pretty good at it. The black marker trick works good. Get some cheap knives and practice. You'll get it bro.
Click to expand...

i freehand but form a micro bevel afterwards with the sharpmaker UF ceramics set at 40...

works like a charm.

gotta strop that bad boy too.

prior to any of that i simply used the sharpmaker to maintain my edges.

:)

to the OP, don't be discouraged.

"persistence is to the character of man as carbon is to steel" - napoleon hill
 
+1 for getting a strop

Finishing your blade on a strop with some compound makes the difference.
I've never been able to get an edge that i'm happy with, on stones alone.
 
My heart sank the first time I made a knife duller. I couldn't understand it at first. I read a lot mostly on this forum. I learned that my prowess early in life was because I bought crappy soft knives that constantly needed work. What a way to build skills. Now that I am a little older, I realize the steel in my knives is a lot harder and takes a lot more work on each knife working up the burr and finishing it off. The strop will give you a new outlook. Get one and don't over do it.

I also quickly discovered the bevel from the factory may not match your sharp maker and you will have to work it to match. This can take a long time with some knives depending on the hardness and how far off you started. The marker trick helps you see progress. Don't give up, but if you do send me all of your rejects. :D
 
Like others have said, practice make perfect. Try reading this link to deepen your understanding: www.bladeforums.com/forums/showthread.php/1014274-What-is-sharpening-a-knife-about

It's a sticky on this subforum, there are some more that'll be useful (i.e. Microbevel).

And this one (not sure why it's not a sticky):www.bladeforums.com/forums/showthread.php/963298-My-advice-for-newbie-knife-sharpeners-(freehand)
HH finally made some videos, seek for thread started by him, just few weeks back.

Good luck as you take on one of the most satisfying skill learned through your own effort and no one else! (at least for me, and am still learning).

You can practice on cheap but decent steel like Sanrenmu and Enlan/Bee. Navy is so inconsistent, if you get a soft one, it'll be frustrating. I have no experience with Ganzo, so I can't recommend any.
www.bladeforums.com/forums/showthread.php/866583-SRM-Bee-Enlan-Navy-and-knives-Fan-post/page24
 
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For many decades, I was in the same boat as you. My efforts tended to end up with a knife that was duller than when I started. Fortunately, I found this video by jdavis883 (crimsontideshooter on BF):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-MHe_8wTHmg

Just a little different technique that made all the difference. When I saw what was possible, I bought an Edge Pro and took my sharpening to another level.

Allen
 
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