Anyone else love knives but hate sharpening?

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glocker199

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Mar 14, 2005
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It baffles me when I see someone post about "loving to sharpen knives" or that they find it "therapeutic."

I abolutety hate it. It's time consuming, frustrating and tedious.

Most of the knives I carry and use are Benchmades and I send them in for Lifesharp.

Everything else I generally use until dull, then sell, give or throw away out of frustration. I've tried stones and rods which are an exercise in futility. I've got a Lanksy which I can use to make a knife sharper but I can never get a paper slicing, hair shaving edge.

I recently traded for a used ESEE Izula which came dull. I've been trying to sharpen it with the Lansky today. It now has what looks like a nice shiny edge but the damn thing is just barely sharp. I'm about to the point of throwing the knife and the sharpener in the lake.

Anyone else hate knife sharpening?
 
No, but I do remember times when it frustrated me almost to the point of tears. Sharpening has a very nasty learning curve, but the reward at the end of it is being able to touch up an edge in just about any steel in only a few seconds.
 
Yeah me. ;)

I do it because I have to in the testing that I do and sometimes I will still take on sharpening jobs every now and then.
 
I feel for ya, but I finally got sharpening under control. I had been okay using stones but for as much I'd let my knife get dull that would be time consuming. For kicks I picked up a Farberware steel from the kitchen area at Walmart. Cost around 7 bucks. It's the best sharpener I ever had. On my Buck 110 and my SAK it just takes 5-10 swipes on both sides and both have a solid razer edge. I had to learn to back off on the SAK as I prefer the edge on that to be just short of razor sharp.
Anyway, I don't know how it would work on the more expensive steels, but it's great on 420 hc and whatever Victorinox uses.
The Farberware is just steel, no diamond stuff on it. It's possible my experience working in a packing plant years ago helps, but for less than 10 bucks give it a try. Also I've never tried the diamond embedded rods, they would probably work on premium steels I'm sure. If anyone has ever used a plain steel rod on premium steel I'm curious as to the effectiveness.
 
No. Takes me a few minutes each week or so. I do it free hand while sitting on the couch in from to the television.
 
Insipid Moniker said:
No, but I do remember times when it frustrated me almost to the point of tears. Sharpening has a very nasty learning curve, but the reward at the end of it is being able to touch up an edge in just about any steel in only a few seconds.
Click to expand...

Yea ill second this, i loathed it until i could finally manage to get myself a decent edge.

Now i have a decent stone and a strop and i actually really enjoy doing it now. Try watching tv while u do it, and it might make you relax a bit. It took me such a long time before i felt adequate that i wasnt sure i would ever get the hang of it. Practice and time.

Also i find bench stones are a lot more entertaining than other systems.
 
I like sharpening. I do not like having to do it for lengthy amounts of time to fix major issues though.
 
No. I love both. I love taking my knives apart. Sharpening them and using them.

FWIW spending time with the stickies on sharpening and going through a bunch of systems I can use my stones, sand paper and strop and get a killer edge.

Mike
 
I also hated sharpening as it was a true p.i.t.a. Until I got a Spyderco triangle sharpmaker. I also learned as much as I could about knives and steels. It's not rocket science but it's not intuitive either. Put a newbie in a cave with a dull knife and a sharpening stone, chances are he will not be able to sharpen it effectively. You have to learn, both in your head and manual dexterity-wise. But the triangle sharpmaker really helps. It's almost idiot-proof. You should still watch the entire video before using it though.
 
bt93 said:
I feel for ya, but I finally got sharpening under control. I had been okay using stones but for as much I'd let my knife get dull that would be time consuming. For kicks I picked up a Farberware steel from the kitchen area at Walmart. Cost around 7 bucks. It's the best sharpener I ever had. On my Buck 110 and my SAK it just takes 5-10 swipes on both sides and both have a solid razer edge. I had to learn to back off on the SAK as I prefer the edge on that to be just short of razor sharp.
Anyway, I don't know how it would work on the more expensive steels, but it's great on 420 hc and whatever Victorinox uses.
The Farberware is just steel, no diamond stuff on it. It's possible my experience working in a packing plant years ago helps, but for less than 10 bucks give it a try. Also I've never tried the diamond embedded rods, they would probably work on premium steels I'm sure. If anyone has ever used a plain steel rod on premium steel I'm curious as to the effectiveness.
Click to expand...

Knife steels re-align the edge without removing much metal. I use them a lot on carbon steel and I get the impression they would also work well on softer stainless'.

Get a ceramic rod if you get a chance.
 
I also use the Spyderco Sharpmaker and even use it a lot on my ZDP 189 Steel and have very good results and sharpen
Knives for several guys around here that say I really do a good job and want to pay me but I do not charge anything as I enjoy doing it.!**
 
I liked knives enough to have accumulated many of them. I eventually learned to love them after learning how to properly sharpen them. Logically, that means I now love sharpening. And yes, I do find it therapeutic; it's an itch that simply must be scratched. :D

(My name is David, and I'm a Sharpenaholic...)


David
 
davek14 said:
Knife steels re-align the edge without removing much metal. I use them a lot on carbon steel and I get the impression they would also work well on softer stainless'.

Get a ceramic rod if you get a chance.
Click to expand...
I've used ceramic rods. Years ago I had this wonderful folding ceramic rod sharpener from Spyderco that at the time was my favorite. They quit offering it and was lost during a move. I've got to say my cheap steel is even better than that. When I do decide to get a higher end metal if I have trouble sharpening I'll definetly try ceramic. Right now I am seriously digging my cheap steel.
 
I hated it at first too. I'm just now getting to the point where I can bring a fairly dull knife back to shaving in just a few minutes on my Spyderco Sharpmaker. I enjoy it a lot more than I used to.

There's definitely a learning curve as someone else said, but it's really nice to be able to quickly get your knives sharp once you've started to master it.
 
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Me. I totally stink at sharpening it seems no matter how long I try, how many videos etc I watch. It's MORE than frustrating. I'm trying to learn freehand and it's horrible...been so for YEARS. I have begun to seriously consider contacting one of the pro sharpeners here on the forum to get mine done.... :mad:
 
Nope. And to love knives but hate sharpening must be damn painful!!

Sharpening to me (I do it freehand) is like zen/yoga/peace time...I know, that sounds crazy, but it's super relaxing.

I love to concentrate and get a great edge.
There's a really good feeling you get from scraping a dull piece of steel on stones and coming out of that proces with something great....
 
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