Beginner seeking advice on a sharpening kit

Agree with 22-rimfire. Lansky requires great patience and time. Nothing beats free hand sharpening with diamond plates when it comes to speed. That is how I sharpen my chefs knives and other big fixed blades.
 
Yeah, there is that route, but a pain in the butt depending on someone else. Practice on the older knives or get a coupe plain edge carbon steel kitchen knives at Wallyworld to practice on (Old Hickory comes to mind).

The weakness of the sharpening systems I have messed with is knife size. Big knives are a pain to sharpen on them. But I am no expert on that. Sharp Edge is very knowledgeable.
 
If you want to go with bench stones, I also recommend the Norton IB8 8" India combo stone with some inexpensive mineral oil (about $22 for the stone and $4 for a bottle of mineral oil).

A decent inexpensive diamond plate is the CKTG combination diamond plate 400/1000, for about $35.

For a strop, I prefer a balsa block (you can get a 2"x3"x12" from Midwest Products for $7, or your local hobby store) and some 1 micron diamond paste (about $15 also from CKTG). However, I do also use a piece of leather I bought at a local Tandy Leathercrafter, cut to size, and cased by hand, along with some $3 Porter-Cable PCP5 polishing compound from a local big box hardware store.

With that set-up, you'd be all-in for maybe $100 once you figure in shipping.

You could get back closer to your $50 by sticking with the Norton stone and the balsa strop.

I don't recommend starting out with diamonds as your first free-hand sharpening experience, but it may be OK for you. I had a set of three 6" polka dot DMT hones, and before I got the knack of it, I mostly wore out the medium hone because I was afraid of using the coarse stone and as such used too much pressure on the medium.

With the India stone, varying the pressure is part of the technique. With diamonds, a light touch is needed and letting the diamonds do all the work.

Also - your coarser stones are your friend. Get that initial edge set that you want relatively quickly and easy to develop a full-edge burr that you can feel, before moving to a finer stone or progression of stones for further edge refinement before stropping for final polish and removal of the last traces of a burr from the final stone.
 
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jc57 said:
If you want to go with bench stones, I also recommend the Norton IB8 8" India combo stone with some inexpensive mineral oil (about $22 for the stone and $4 for a bottle of mineral oil).
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I don't recommend starting out with diamonds as your first free-hand sharpening experience, but it may be OK for you. I had a set of three 6" polka dot DMT hones, and before I got the knack of it, I mostly wore out the medium hone because I was afraid of using the coarse stone and as such used too much pressure on the medium.

With the India stone, varying the pressure is part of the technique. With diamonds, a light touch is needed and letting the diamonds do all the work.
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I pretty much ruined my first fine DMT the same way. I got another, but didn't like spending the money. I use the DMT Duo Sharp set up. My first was the fine/coarse. Next was a smaller DMT very fine. Next was a replacement Fine/Coarse DMT and then a Fine/Very Fine DMT. For coarse, I use the Norton mostly but very seldomly. I also use a coarse diamond chisel type for machetes and finish with the fine. So I have this grit availabe.

I can't impress this on you enough.... LIGHT PRESSURE on the DMT diamond stones or you will knock out the diamonds. But I would start with the Norton.

You can also use sand paper sheets available from auto parts stores or your local hardware. You use them on a board like the strop.
 
i am sharpening impaired, and the spyderco sharpmaker is easy enough for even me to use.

I've had success with 1095, s30v, s35vn, xhp, vg-10, 154, 440c, aus-8, and a slew of alphabet steels. Contrary to the "harder to sharpen side" reputation, i've done fine with M390 and 20V as well, just was more careful and more patient. I haven't attempted on a s110v and s90v yet, which are notorious for being harder to sharpen. mostly because, i haven't owned a knife on those steels i like enough to keep yet.

*forgot to mention the steel i actually use it the most for haha. my VG-Max chef knife
 
Choice also reflects your concept of sharp. Shaving sharp is harder to achieve and most easily achieved with a strop. I generally don't seek that level of sharpness.
 
To be honest these days for a pocket knife, I usually go with the 400-grit edge off the fine side of an India stone and do final deburring on a home-made leather strop with green buffing compound on it and call it a day. It will still shave arm hair, but more useful to me, it will cut corrugated cardboard boxes with ease. I save the finer edges for kitchen knives using a progression of water stones, where having that sort of edge is meaningful in my actual usage.
 
a strop is nearly always necessary for sharpening system or no system. the only way it would not be needed, is if you are not forming a bur.

lansky deluxe diamond kit. this is an okay system. its not that great in comparison to the rest. but it will get your knives sharp. they do have a lot of cons over the other systems but its affordable. try this and if you want something different sell it and get one of the others.

if you are good with both hands sorta like ambidextrous the edge pro is a really great system. you can often find them on the exchange and if your fast enough can grab one. i find this system better than the kme personally.

the hapstone is a edge pro on steroids. it has attachments and can hold different size stones etc. if you like the edge pro but want a clamp system it has an addon for that. i would have got this one if i didnt find such a good deal on an edge pro in the exchange.

the KME is a clamp system. this means you dont have to hold the knife and sharpen. the clamp holds it. my only gripe with this is, that my particular setup (others may vary) is not even when flipping the knife to the other side. the edge cube shows a few deg off. this can be remedied apparently by using extra tape on one side apparently. some dont see this as an issue at all.
the advantage with the kme is price and the clamp. it comes with either the basic stones or 4 diamond stones and is cheaper than the other systems with those stones. the base is also additional i added nob's and some other things.

wicked edge has a new "more" affordable system. and the current all out pro system. these are clamp style and they have stones for each side. the pro system is overly expensive and you can get the same results with any other system for the most part. some folks like them a lot. some folks dont like them at all. i dont have any interest in wicked edge. the budget version is interesting but i dont see any need over what i currently use, as its more expensive than them also.

with any of the systems there is a lot to learn. and a right way and wrong way.
 
Mo2 said:
a strop is nearly always necessary for sharpening system or no system. the only way it would not be needed, is if you are not forming a bur.
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excellent post Mo. As a sharpening impaired individual, i'm still stubbornly reluctant to spend any money on a sharpening set up beyond my sharpmaker (i can definitely see the diamond stones being added in the future, but currently procrastinating as none of my knives have an immediate need).

that being said, i think i've procrastinated getting a strop for long enough, but i'm still reluctant to spend... what could go wrong with something like this:

and if that thing is a big no no, what would you (or anyone) recommend?
 
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josh yu said:
excellent post Mo. As a sharpening impaired individual, i'm still stubbornly reluctant to spend any money on a sharpening set up beyond my sharpmaker (i can definitely see the diamond stones being added in the future, but currently procrastinating as none of my knives have an immediate need).

that being said, i think i've procrastinated getting a strop for long enough, but i'm still reluctant to spend... what could go wrong with something like this:
https://www.amazon.com/Trend-HP-LS-...&qid=1504025735&sr=8-3&keywords=leather+strop
and if that thing is a big no no, what would you (or anyone) recommend?
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i got some leather and glued it to a flat piece of wood and applied compound. worked for me. got to be picky on the type of leather you use, but you can also use denim just wood itself, balsa wood etc. some even just get flat glass and news paper, and apply compound to it. the possibilities are plenty.
 
josh yu said:
that being said, i think i've procrastinated getting a strop for long enough, but i'm still reluctant to spend... what could go wrong with something like this:
https://www.amazon.com/Trend-HP-LS-...&qid=1504025735&sr=8-3&keywords=leather+strop
and if that thing is a big no no, what would you (or anyone) recommend?
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I think that is just an 8x3 piece of leather you'd be buying for $9 ... You can get a long belt-blank for a lot cheaper or get a finished strop for nearly the same price elsewhere. While i don't see anything wrong with it, I am not sure why you'd choose that over another option...
 
One thing that I have done to improve my free hand sharpening was to buy a cheap, lighted jeweler's loupe for inspecting the edge during sharpening. It lets me see what I'm actually doing on the edge and whether that little rolled spot or nick is actually sharpened out. I originally got it because I wasn't as happy with my results using small field stones (taking the stone to the blade instead of taking the blade to the stone) as I was with a more traditional bench stone. I've gotten better, but there's always room for improvement. The loupe helps me see where I'm making mistakes.
 
I went in reasonably deep for my first set up. Got three Naniwa water stones in 400, 1000 and 3000 grit.

Made myself a wooden paddle with the leather on it and bought bark river green and white compound.
 
one tip for leather strop someone just told me was, dont get a 4 sided strop. cause when you put it in a bag, all 4 sides mix compound, mixing compounds on different strops is not good. they keep them in bag's to preserve the leather, so it wont dry out or get contaminated.

its good to get say 3 strops. each with a smaller micron compound or polishing grit. this can even give you a mirrored edge depending on the compounds chosen.
 
bobshoy said:
I went in reasonably deep for my first set up. Got three Naniwa water stones in 400, 1000 and 3000 grit.

Made myself a wooden paddle with the leather on it and bought bark river green and white compound.
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That is pretty deep for a first set up!:eek:
I have a Norton 1000x 8000 water stone that I use for my straight razor, but I haven't tried sharpening any of my knives on it yet.
I also splurged for an incredibly awesome strop for the razor too!
 
chiral.grolim said:
I think that is just an 8x3 piece of leather you'd be buying for $9 ... You can get a long belt-blank for a lot cheaper or get a finished strop for nearly the same price elsewhere. While i don't see anything wrong with it, I am not sure why you'd choose that over another option...
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thanks for the reply. i'd be choosing it because it's 9 bucks haha. actually leaning towards this $14 combo, but looks like the same crap with green compound included

that being said, i don't feel the need to entertain cheaper options than $9... belts have finishing on them, who knows what crap cheap leather belts go through.

can you "suggest a finished strop for nearly the same price elsewhere"? if you have a suggestion, my wallet is ready!
 
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I got the Worksharp KTS as my sharpenings system, and found many more uses for it than sharpening. Shaping material, grinding gemstones with aftermarket diamond belts, etc. For sharpening, it is excellent. It is good if you have an intuitive sense of how sharpening works and how belt sanders work. This gives a convex edge. I re-configured mine to be portable, and able to be attached to a DC power supply (analog variable speed essentially), so overheating isn't an issue, but people have brought up overheating the knife edge as a potential hazard, which will ruin the heat treat. If you go this route, I can't stress enough that you should test it out on a cheap knife first. It removes material very quickly, and if you try it with an expensive knife you could ruin the edge, scratch the blade, etc.

WITH THIS SAID, I highly recommend the Spyderco sharpmaker, even though I never got the hang of it. I tried the sharpmaker on a recurve knife to start, which was a terrible idea. I ultimately failed at freehand sharpening, and ditched the sharpmaker, only to realize that my bevel angle was steeper than the sharpmaker angle, which was why it wasn't working. If you can get the hang of using a system like the sharpmaker, that is the ultimate in my opinion. No batteries or outlets needed, just you and your skills. Unfortunately, I apparently have the hand eye coordination of a giraffe when it comes to freehand sharpening, so I had to go with the powered solution.

With enough practice, you can make either system work.
 
josh yu said:
thanks for the reply. i'd be choosing it because it's 9 bucks haha. actually leaning towards this $14 combo, but looks like the same crap with green compound included https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01N20BY2T/_encoding=UTF8?coliid=I1MV8G9VRHW64W&colid=1LDOG7ZG7TB3U

that being said, i don't feel the need to entertain cheaper options than $9... belts have finishing on them, who knows what crap cheap leather belts go through.

can you "suggest a finished strop for nearly the same price elsewhere"? if you have a suggestion, my wallet is ready!
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For a comparable price to the $14 combo, you can go on knifecenter.com and search "strop" - you will find a variety of products available, including a strop from "Flexcut" of comparable price as well as a variety of stropping compounds. There are also more expensive strop options that are larger or glued to wooden backing, etc.

Alternatively on the bay is a seller landco317 who sells leather hides and belt/strop blanks of varying widths and lengths. For $10 you can get 48" of 1.5" wide leather (of excellent quality) so that you can make multiple strops. The $9 8x3 piece of hide is about 2x wider than you need, so you'd get two 8" strops, whereas Landco317 gives you six for almost the same price. Maybe you don't need six strops but it opens the door to various compound options, and you could always use the leather for something else.

Just ideas, not telling you to NOT buy that other strop, just wanting to be sure you've checked out some of your other options. As someone mentioned, you could also just buy some auto emory-paper and glue or fix it to a stiff mouse pad and a wood backing to craft yourself a strop for cheap. One warning regarding the emory-paper, it wears down fast in my experience.
 
Spyderco Sharpmaker is a tried and true system. The trick to the Spyderco SM is to not let your knives get really dull before you touch them up. It comes with a very good instructional DVD to get you started.
 
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