Beginning at freehand sharpening

[razorback1595]

I want to begin with freehand sharpening, but i'm just 16 so funds are really limited for buying stones. And since i live abrought shipping costs stack it pretty high for stones.

I want to buy 2 DMT 6" double sided (xc/c and f/xf) and a spyderco 302UF benchstone
My question is if these stones will be good for great edges (after enough practice)

 

[Gotsouthern]

Throw in a decent leather strop charged with some .5 mic CrO powder, and I'd say you got a very capable system there. I was like you though, starting out free-handing while your young will pay large dividends in the future. Don't get discouraged and practice practice practice. Good luck and keep us posted!!

 

[razorback1595]

That's what i'm hoping

Will need to wait till i have the money
as a strop i'm already going to buy one from knivesshipfree with the 2 bark river stropping compounds

 

[radeo]

wow, i feel left in the dark, i use a stone from the 50's or early 60's that was given away as a gift to customers of an old Mobil oil service station where i live. the station closed up about 10yrs ago.

 

[dalefuller]

Good advice already given. My .02 addition... find a very cheap "practice" knife and use that to learn on before moving to anything that you value highly.

Actually, I have another .01 to add to that. With the 2 DMT stones and the KSF strop, you might want to consider putting off the Spyderco benchstone until you get the hang of the DMTs and the strop. I have all of the stuff you've listed and it's all great, but the Spyderco stone might be somewhat redundant between the XF DMT and the strop.

 

[razorback1595]

Good advice already given. My .02 addition... find a very cheap "practice" knife and use that to learn on before moving to anything that you value highly.

Actually, I have another .01 to add to that. With the 2 DMT stones and the KSF strop, you might want to consider putting off the Spyderco benchstone until you get the hang of the DMTs and the strop. I have all of the stuff you've listed and it's all great, but the Spyderco stone might be somewhat redundant between the XF DMT and the strop.

Thanks for that, i've already been looking for a cheap knife but one i will carry and use so now if come to a kershaw junkyard dog, cheap enough for me and i can get it from the same seller as the stones so that will cut in the shipping costs

 

[THG]

I want to buy 2 DMT 6" double sided (xc/c and f/xf) and a spyderco 302UF benchstone
My question is if these stones will be good for great edges (after enough practice)

I think those will do you just fine. Personally, all I use is a DMT 6" XC and an EF. That's it. XC is for restoring an edge, EF is for touch-ups and polishing. Everyone seems to like to go XC --> C --> F --> EF, but I personally think that's a waste of money and time since I can polish out all the XC scratches with the EF in about 15 minutes.

I've never used the double-sided DMT stones, and I'm not sure how you'd place one on a tabletop surface without abrading it. Mine are all single-sided, so I get to attach the non-skid rubber feet that come with them to the bottom.

Good luck, and remember that you MUST practice! You're not going to get it down in a day, and probably not even in a week. I'm almost 2 years into sharpening, and I'm still changing my ways. And others have said that they're 25 years into it, and even they are still learning

 

[Gotsouthern]

wow, i feel left in the dark, i use a stone from the 50's or early 60's that was given away as a gift to customers of an old Mobil oil service station where i live. the station closed up about 10yrs ago.

Lucky you. Don't stand too close if you don't wanna see what's down the rabbit hole. Very addictive past time for the right personality type. You've been warned, it was more than I got lol

Razorback...Dale may have a point there with the Spydi UF (though it's on my list of gotta have it's lol). And as well, in freehanding, the learning curve tends to get a bit steep the more zero's you stack on your grit count. As in, to get any benefit out of the ultra fine stones, you need a distinct mastery of the lower grit ones first. And you've chosen well, the DMT's to me, are very forgiving overall....they WANT to make your knife sharp, you don't even have to ask nice

 

[David Martin]

THG's, is the better method to go . Just make a stone holder from a 2x4 . Method posted in another thread . You'll like the 2x8" size better but 2x6" will work . I used that size for years before going to the large one . DM

 

[razorback1595]

THG's, is the better method to go . Just make a stone holder from a 2x4 . Method posted in another thread . You'll like the 2x8" size better but 2x6" will work . I used that size for years before going to the large one . DM

i'm wanting to start with the 6" just because my knives aren't that big and it saves a bit of money

 

[THG]

i'm wanting to start with the 6" just because my knives aren't that big and it saves a bit of money

For some reason, I don't usually use more than 4" on my 6" stones. I have no idea why; it's just much more comfortable for me to make those smaller strokes. So for me, a big 11.5" stone wouldn't benefit me much. Your milage may vary; see what ends up working for you.

 

[David Martin]

The 2x6" stones have been named as the minimal correct size by knife writers and I'll agree . But when I got my first 2x8" stone, I thought darn, this is much better ! Then when I purchased my 11.5" stones and began using those I thought this is the cats, meow ! Now, should some mfg. offer a 15" I'll not run out and purchase those as I'm very happy w/ what I now have and don't think theres a need for more . DM ;-)

 

[udtjim]

These work well for me and are easy to take along. These are the DMT diafolds