Any body actually still sharpen their EDC knives in "Oldschool" way?

I sharpen mine as all true "old school" people do, I sharpen mine on the skulls of my neanderthal neighbors. I dont know how it works for metal but it works well on wood.
 
Here is my 3 sided stone case. I finish up with a smooth buther steel
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I still use the old school method. Norton combo india stone with WD40. Same stone I bought over 30 years ago. Just recently got a Spyderco ceramic stone just for fun.

Booker- Your stones look like the sharpening set up we had in out jr. high wood shop. Brings back some good memories.

Ric
 
Nortons combo stone and a fine one. I occasionally use the old steels I have from my time as a meatpacker. I got a ceramic rod awhile back when I picked up a Kershaw with a recurve blade.

tipoc
 
Great reminders here. I use stones, files, rods, etc... Never thought about ceramic mug, window, etc... Thanks for the info. :)
 
I'm 100% old-school. I've been hand sharpening for 30+ years, and it only took me 10 years to get it completely down. LOL! Now, every year when I visit the family for Thanksgiving, they automatically hand me their kitchen knives and a stone. Of course, I enjoy it!

For my personl knives, I use EZE-LAP Diamond Sharpeners in 250, 400, 650, 1200, and 2000 grit. Works every time. . . .
 
I have a Boker ceramic folder with a Titanium handle. It is quite portable. I use it as a finishing steel for steel blades that are slowing down. You can also use the sides of a ceramic coated steel blade as a finishing steel. The useful coatings include, but are not limited to, Titanium Nitride, Zirconium Nitride, Tungsten diamond like Carbon, Titanium Aluminum Nitride, and Titanium Carbonitride.
 
Cardboard has just enough abrasive qualities to be used as a strop to touch up a knife, so sometimes at work when I don't have any stones nearby, I will strop my knives on some cardboard and it can take them up a level or two in sharpness. Generally though, it's coarse stone, fine stone, leather strop with compound. All freehand, of course.
 
Just tried the ceramic mug with a crappy kitchen knife.

took me 1 minute to get it shaving sharp.

My mind is blown
 
I do everything freehand and use all the methods you mention I have my water stones, strops steels and diamond hones.

I also have an Apex that rarely gets used unless I need to do a major profile and hair poppin' sharp ain't sharp enough.
 
Ceramic items have an unglazed ring on the bottom where they rested in the kiln. It's this unglazed portion that is used to sharpen. Since ceramics vary widely, it takes a little experimenting to find something that does a good job for you,

Never tried it on a knfe, but I had an uncle who sharpened used razor blades on the inside of drinking glasses. He could control the angle by the amount of pressure he put on the flexible blade.
 
The ability to improvise with limited tools is a benefit of knowing how to sharpen.

It really doesn't matter what you use as much as how you know how to use it. I sharpen using the latest and greatest tools but I also have the skill to use the most primitive methods. Like, using the basement floor to sharpen a friends kitchen knife because it wouldn't cut a onion even with force. Or, making a strop from a paint stick and some metal polish.

Its amazing what you can come up with when you look around :)
 
Apart from reprofiling or repairing the edge I find that I can do all the sharpening I need with a loaded strop. My current strop is a piece of old belt glued to a piece of wood with some green (CrO2?) compound rubbed into it. I find that my SAK blades sharpen pretty easily on that strop and so do my Leatherman blades (wave & squirt). I have noticed that I can wear off enough steel to be able to see that the blade is convexed from the stropping.

When I reprofile an edge I use my DMT Aligner kit and I can get a blade shaving sharp with that alone. After that I use the strop to get the blade properly sharp because I consider shaving sharp just the starting point. I do have some new toys on the way to make reprofiling easier and for better field sharpening, but I could handle the basics pretty well with my strop (for day to day sharpening) and one of many options for reprofiling. I want to switch my blades to convex edges so for that I think a belt sander for setting the edge and a strop for maintaining that edge would work well.

A rock or a ceramic cup is definitely capable of grinding off some steel, but I probably wouldn't be able to achieve the results that I want with them, that doesn't mean that others can't get the desired results with the basic methods though. (they probably have more skill than me)
 
I never ever use a system for my sharpening.
I had a lansky set for some time, but I was never satisfied with the result, so I went back to free-handing. Now I always carry a DMT Diafold, or some swedish diamond stic I got from a shop here in Norway.
All my knives are scary sharp, and if you keep the old diamond stickks they get to a finer grit so they can polish up the edges too...

The swedish thing is this http://dianova-ab.se/first.php?lang=eng small but super-usefull...

Other than that I have learned from my grandfather to sharpen with whatever is at hand, LOL...
Oh the memories...
 
Never have used anything but freehand sharpening. Sometimes I use my old boy scout gray carborunum stone just for yuks, but mostly I carry a cut down model L Eze-lap in my wallet. The red plastic handle is cut off just above the diamond part of the tool, and it fits in the zipper part of my wallet. I like to be able to re sharpen my knife at any time, anywhere. I strop on the back part of my belt. Works just fine. Too many people over think knife sharpening.

Gizmo's and gadgets don't fit in a wallet or pocket.
 
I still sharpen my knives on stones, and occasionally touch them up on the bottom of a mug or the top of a car window partially rolled down if I'm out somewhere and need to restore an edge. I can get paper cuttin' sharp edges, and can shave hair sometimes, but some of you guys dazzle me with the hair whittling edges you can get. If you can do that by hand, I'd sure like to know how.
 
I was a Meat Cutter for 38 years, my apprenticeship started with learning to sharpen my knives, on a triple sided Norton oil stone.
Now a days, I use dmt stones and strops.
 
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