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Get the most coarse one they have, don't worry about losing too much on one pass, no stone is that aggressive. In general waterstones are much cheaper and faster than the diamonds. You will have to flatten them though, frequently with the more coarse ones. Some cheaper knives can also be readily filed and this will be faster than any stone.

-Cliff
 
I use a 6" x 2" x-course DMT whetstone. It removes steel efficiently. I have been given knives in such terrible shape that I take a flat file to remove lots of steel quickly and get to a somewhat even edge without chips, etc.

http://www.dmtsharp.com/general/basicsharp.htm

If you are getting overwhelmed with work get a belt grinder.

http://www.knifeforums.com/forums/showtopic.php?tid/754696/post/801622/hl/grinder/#801622

Harbor Freight has some good deals. Here is a very affordable $40 popular model used by some sharpeners. They put course belts on it and use it for profiling the secondary bevel.

http://www.harborfreight.com/cpi/ctaf/displayitem.taf?Itemnumber=2485


Fyi - good sharpeners charge $5 and up to sharpen a kitchen knife and more for folders, serrated, etc.
 
I agree, get the coarse diamond. You know these knives are going to keep getting damaged, so I'd just want to get the job done fast and adequate, knowing I'll be doing it again pretty soon anyway.
 
G Clarke said:
I want something that will allow me to re-profile quicker ...
Click to expand...
Get a 2"x72" grinder. It's what most knifemakers use to "reprofile" a blade from a bar of steel in the first place. :thumbup:

For the church folks with their dull-as-a-brick knives, there's an old saying that runs something like, "Sharpen a man's knife and he cuts for a day (if you're lucky). Teach a man to sharpen his own %#$!&#* knife and he stops bugging you to do it for him for the rest of his life."

Unless you are charging those folks for services rendered, hand them a sharpening stone (cheap double-sided coarse/medium hardware store variety that eats metal real fast) and say "Here you go, help yourself." Otherwise you're just enabling their continued ineptitude.

As for the wife (which is what I thought the "mate" in your title was going to request of us... y'know... like a wife that color coordinates with your Sharpmaker or some such thing ;) ), I think you're stuck with her. :D You may want to buy her a set of el-cheapo knives she can drop in the sink, put in the dishwasher, use digging in the garden, etc etc etc ad nauseum and keep her away from your good knives. Works for me.
 
Wow! I am impressed. This was part of the question I came to this discussion group to ask. My wife also cuts vegetables on the tile counter. I have my eye on the DMT Whetstone.
Thanks guys.
Richard
 
There are two related problems with using the combination of a coarse diamond hone in combination with a sharpmaker. The first problem is the huge difference in the coarseness of the diamond and the ceramic hones. It takes a lot of work to get rid of the scratches make by the coarse diamonds using only medium ceramic rods. The second problem is that if you use the coarse diamond hone freehand your subsequent honing with the rods stuck at a fixed angle will not match your diamond honing. Hopefully you will hone at a lower angle with the diamond plate than the angle of the sharpmaker fixture. In that case you will at least be smoothing the apex of the edge with the ceramic rods. It will leave a crummy looking finish on the sides of the blades. To get around the angle problem you could lean your diamond hone against your rod and hone at the same angle as the ceramic rods. This is clumsy for removing a lot of material. I would consider getting a finer diamond hone since they cut rather fast. I would suggest that you get a medium diamond hone if you have only one.

I would take a different approach. I would skip diamonds entirely. For the inexepensive solution I would just get an 8" combination coarse/fine aluminum oxide benchstone. I would freehand sharpen the blades first with the coarse side until sharp then smooth the finish of the blades freehand on the fine side. I would then microbevel the edge using the Sharpmaker. Here is one that would work:
http://www.acehardwareoutlet.com/(d2t4g1vc43qk4t55s05jii55)/ProductDetails.aspx?SKU=21165

I would lubricate the hone using water. If that didn't work well I would try light oil.

The more expensive solution would be to buy a benchtop belt sander somewhere like Home Depot. For about the price of a good diamond hone you could by the sander which would work at least 5x as fast. You could buy various belt grits. It is usually easy to find 80, 120, and 220 grits. This would work great for rough sharpening. If you can find 320, 400, or 600 grits you can do an even finer job. If 220 is the finest that you can find you just save your old worn belts and use them as a final step for a smoother finish. This is what I do for the gang from church and for the local soup kitchen.
 
Jeff Clark said:
It takes a lot of work to get rid of the scratches make by the coarse diamonds using only medium ceramic rods.
Click to expand...

If you micro-bevel, and there is really no reason not to, this isn't an issue, you will take off the coarse scatches pretty much immediately as in a few passes per side.

-Cliff
 
RokJok said:
Get a 2"x72" grinder. It's what most knifemakers use to "reprofile" a blade from a bar of steel in the first place. :thumbup:

For the church folks with their dull-as-a-brick knives, there's an old saying that runs something like, "Sharpen a man's knife and he cuts for a day (if you're lucky). Teach a man to sharpen his own %#$!&#* knife and he stops bugging you to do it for him for the rest of his life."

Unless you are charging those folks for services rendered, hand them a sharpening stone (cheap double-sided coarse/medium hardware store variety that eats metal real fast) and say "Here you go, help yourself." Otherwise you're just enabling their continued ineptitude.

As for the wife (which is what I thought the "mate" in your title was going to request of us... y'know... like a wife that color coordinates with your Sharpmaker or some such thing ;) ), I think you're stuck with her. :D You may want to buy her a set of el-cheapo knives she can drop in the sink, put in the dishwasher, use digging in the garden, etc etc etc ad nauseum and keep her away from your good knives. Works for me.
Click to expand...

Where do you get a 2" x 72" grinder? Most of the affordable ones I have seen were 1" x 30".
 
DGG said:
Where do you get a 2" x 72" grinder? Most of the affordable ones I have seen were 1" x 30".
Click to expand...
The reason I mentioned belt grinders is that the original poster wanted a means to reprofile quickly. Such grinders are the quick method for doing that.

Affordability gives the nod to the 1x30 grinders which are cheaper (and typically less precise, thus wanting some tuning/tweeking to work well) than the 2x72 grinders. You can get 2x72's from the knifemaking supply houses and some metal machine shop suppliers. However, knifemakers who use a 1x30, then step up to a 2x72, typically demote the smaller one to handle/bolster shaping or other such tasks. The bigger one simply works so much better for serious grinding.

Some of the 2x72 manufacturers mentioned over in the BFC Shop Talk maker's forum are Bader, Coote, Wilton, Grizzly (IIRC), and the Cadillac of the bunch is the KMG grinder from Rob Frink at Beaumont Metal Works. Some handy fellows make their own grinders, either welding or bolting together the framework and using wheels purchased from the knifemaker suppliers. Doing a search of the Shop Talk forum should return a bunch of hits, because new guys ask "which cheap grinder to start out with" over there all the time.

None of these, either 1x30 or 2x72, will be as handily portable as the much smaller sharpening stone sets or the Edge-Pro/Lansky type jigs.
 
Almost any tabletop belt sander will work. For example I have used a 4x36 for years. It even works on shovels. What you need to check is that you can get a good variety of belt grits in whatever size you find. I would take a look at my local Home Depot, Lowes, or Ace.
 
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