Am I the worlds worst sharpener?

One thing that helped me quite a bit was watching one of my friends sharpen my knife a couple of times. Each time he would give me a few tips about sharpening. He'd check to see how sharp my blade was, then make it really sharp.

Ric
 
Anyone who learns to sharpen is better at it than someone who never tried to learn. Just keep on and you will improve.
 
Congratulations on the "worst in the world" title. I wore hat crown with sorrow for a time, then I got a belt sander and some aluminium oxide belts. Also a leather belt loaded with green compound. After the first try I could shave with my practice blade. Might be an option.
 
If you are the worst, I am a close second :)

Looks like more practice for both of us.

If 20 years is the guide, I'll be 57 by the time I have this down.... Sweet. Still a few years to enjoy it once mastered :)
 
Everyone keeps saying practice, but if you're practicing the wrong things it won't help.

When you sure your sharp maker, remember to hold the knife straight up and down, 90 degrees to the table. And use light light light pressure, the finer the grit the lighter you go. You'll get there. Use the point of the rod first, then the flat side. Don't progress to the next grit until you stop seeing progress.

Today I had to sharpen my D2 nitrous stryker. On Thursday I started out with a beautifully sharp edge and after cutting about 500 feet of road fabric (on the ground, with rocks!) I ended the day with something like a serrated butter knife. I set up my sharp maker with the coarse rods and went to town. I did 200 strokes on the point of the rods, I checked the edge on my nail to make sure that that entire bevel had met the edge (when you try and cut your nail, if the knife slips off then you're not done), then 50 strokes on the flat side. I then cut/tore some free hanging printer paper. I was not ready ready at this point to move to the finer stones. So 50 more strokes and after checking how it cut paper, I was ready to move on to the white stones. I did 100 strokes on the points and checked with the paper again, progress. Then I did 100 strokes on the flats, at this point it was pretty sharp since it would cleanly cut the paper. I then took my black strop and did about 25 passes, then 25 on the white strop. Done and Done. I have a nice sharp edge again. All this only took about 4 beers :D
I also stopped up my master hunter to a razor edge and my mora craftsman kitchen knife to a nice toothy edge.

Practice. But make sure you're doing it right! :D

I would suggest practicing on a soft steel knife so they patience isn't such a big part of it.
 
Make sure you work up a detectable burr so you know your actually sharpening the edge. Than remove the burr with the strop. I got good with a silicon carbide norton stone with medium, fine grit, and an 8" Wusthof from an estate sale. Any chefs knife with decent steel will work. Good luck.
 
I challenge the OP for the "world's worst sharpener." :D I have bought 2 SharpMakers with diamond rods, diamond bench stones, ceramic bench stones and DMT dia-folds.

Out of these, the only tools I can use with a 100% success rate is the little set of Dia-folds (free-hand). X-coarse, coarse, fine, x-fine & xx-fine. No aligner, just a dozen strokes or less on each side and a few passes on a strop = shaving sharp.

Nothing else I've owned even comes close - even after hrs of work. Thank Heaven for DMT dia-folds. :thumbup:
 
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