beginner sharpening..

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focusafe_T

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Apr 19, 2010
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Hey fam.
I have a beginner sharpenning question about a vg10 blade: what is best stone to acheive the easiest sharpenning?? Thanks for the info. I am thinking of putting a little kit together. Thanks.
 
You are going to need a med and fine stone.

Something around 400 grit and another around 800 to 1000 grit for finishing.
 
What kind of knife?

I have some VG10 kitchen knives. They will take an extremely sharp low angle edge. This type of edge will chip under hard use.

In general for real hard steels and stainless steels I like to use DMT diamond stones. I would recommend a DMT coarse/fine combination and a leather strop. To really polish the edge i would use a 6000-8000 grit waterstone.
 
OK. To add.... I am gonna want roughly how many stones for a say basic collection. The stones I will think about first. Someone give me a clue.
Gonna be using a access card by SOG knife.
 
focusafe_T said:
Hey fam.
I have a beginner sharpenning question about a vg10 blade: what is best stone to acheive the easiest sharpenning?? Thanks for the info. I am thinking of putting a little kit together. Thanks.
Click to expand...

Probably a flat, rectangular stone.
 
for starting water stones I aways feel good about saying seek out the large size king brand 1k/6k combo stone and learning how to deal with water stones. but again budget and knife size can help drive a more in depth set.

I mean I have like 10 waterstones of varying grits but really unless you are grinding huge chips or wear resistant stuff for extended periods you can get out pretty cheap with a combo stone. vg-10 is pretty trivial to sharpen once you get the hang of it.

I use choseras for the most part as they are fast at each grit but they cost a fair amount per stone and are down right expensive at 5k grit and 10k grit. You can if you were really serious about sharpening invest in expensive gear but expensive doesn't mean better. A chosera 1k is not better than a king 1k sure it's faster at the grit range but really when you are only doing an occasional knife the minute saved is pretty meaningless. I sharpen several knives all the time being a working chef who uses rather expensive custom or japanese steel. I'd say for me for example the difference in speed adds up quick.
 
Yeah. The more specific the better. Ok. My ideas to own a small variety talking knifewise.... My idea also is to spend the cash on the tools first so I am PRIVY?? To the advise. Anyways I'm looking for a consise rundown: like maybe an amount of money that would give me coverage as an owner of a few knives. Mainly looking for advise. Tks.
 
## yeah that is good stuff darkmotO alright. Like I said a few knives for collections sake. And budget I'm gonna say not a problem ~ ideally putting together my set for the road if youy will.
 
waterstone sharpening is almost an artform you dont learn it all overnight. I mean even a beginner with a little understanding can put out a decent edge. It however takes a while until you are able to go crazy and do radical reprofiling and handle all sorts of grinds and do different techniques and varying what you do on a per knife basis tuning the edge to a task. It takes a fair amount of commitment to make the stones and your blades your own.

I mean I feel comfortable doing a shifting hamagur-ba with a gradual taper to flat at the tip on a 300mm+ blade without using soft pads and stuff. Doing a pretty flawless convexing on a stone is far more involved than the mousepad trick but is doable and easy with a fair amount of practice. You will make mistakes learning it comes from the territory. If you are doing kitchen knives there is a fair amount of technique which if ignored will do some rather bad things like birdsbeaking the tip portion of a knife or unevenly doing things across a long blade etc.

also worth noting with waterstones you need to realize they are not rugged they require careful handling and depending on the binder types handling the proper soaking and drying if you dont use stones that can soak forever. They do crack if dried too fast or dropped. They are also messy so you need to figure out where you plan to sharpen. I personally have a tojiro sink bridge that I love and I put it on a hard cambro tub so I have a mobile sharpening station.

along with water stones it is wise to pick up an 8 inch dmt diasharp xxc plate to flatten stones and it also is good for fixing busted tips and doing hard reprofiling by hand.

waterstone sharpening can range from around 100 bucks to get a good cheap setup (not a bad thing to do) to several thousand for a natural stone collection there are several synthetic stones that you can make a good kit with for 200-400 bucks.

the pitfalls of waterstone sharpening are few

the largest is not maintaining angles properly through out a knife which is just part of the learning curve but even with a little variance it is not a big deal as you can fix your mistakes with a little time.

the primary contributing factor to messing up free hand waterstone sharpening for beginners is getting in over your head. You do not need a pile of stones to make an edge sure I use 6 stones in my line up to go from dull to sharp. In the case of a beginner using less stones means less chances to mess up and invariably the more complicated your line up the more mistakes you make.

I have said it 100x on another forum you are better off learning how to sharpen with one stone and once you can make a good edge using a 1k stone and consistently make that good edge then if you feel the need add more stuff to the line up gradually. If your knife isnt sharp coming off a medium coarse stone like a 1k it will never be sharp no matter how much extra fluff you add in.

also worth noting after you gain a little know how adding a coarse stone is a wise choice something like 400-500 grit it will make things go faster if you thin knives a bit or fix issues like chips and broken tips.

my advice is pretty much pertaining to knives 58hrc and up softer knives really arent worth high polish in my eyes as they do not support it long enough for it to matter.
 
Ill say one thing I'm gonna take the piecemeal and put it together for myself the rough stone will be first. After I get onto a dealer so the technique will come as natural as the advice . Hopefully. Peace out.
 
My advice. 'Eep your hands clean and lay it out. .. It worked great thanks to all that posted. Peace ;)
Put a sock on it.
 
Let me give you some advice, since a couple of months ago I was on the same position as you are now.
I started to sharpen knives using a coarse/medium combo silicon carbide oilstone that used to be my grandpa's (it was over 20 years old, accordig to my aunt). So I decided it was time to get some newer stones (specially considering it is broken in one side, and have a hollow as deep as a dale carved on it...). Well, I live in Brazil, and getting benchstones here is as hard as getting cow beef in India. For some reason, the only stones availabe in the marked are cheap 120-220 grit that do more damage than honing (after a few strokes you can notice a few sand grains, holes, and all sorts of defects). So, I decided to order some from USA. I had no clue if I should order waterstones or oilstones, or buy a sharpening system like edge pro or wicked edge. After a few months reading about it and playing around on online shopping sites, I bought a set of oilstones and a set of waterstones, some green compound and a double sided paddle strop. I spent roughly 600 dollars on everything, and I managed to ask my uncle who lives in USA to bring them here two months ago when he had planned to come and visit us. If it were not for him, I'd have spent 600 dollars more on shipping and customs.
So after testing both waterstones and oilstones, I concluded that the oilstone kit I bought was much easier to use for a begginer like me (cuts faster and does not require much technique). Also, I got a great deal of two combo stones plus a strop and compound for 80 bucks. So if you want to give it a try, I HIGHLY reccomend getting this oilstone kit for 80 bucks, it is great, and unbelievably cheap for the value. I bought it on sharpeningsupplies.com on this link: http://www.sharpeningsupplies.com/Ultimate-Oil-Stone-Kit-P320C100.aspx
Also, consider getting a coarse/extra coarse DMT diasharp combo stone (actually not a stone, but a piece of steel with diamond glued on it...) for some heavy duty.

And that's it. You should cheer that you're in USA and have fun trying out everything you can until you find what you like. But if you want something cheap and great for a begginer, go for the kit I mentioned.

Regards,

Zepp
 
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