Buying a sharpener question

dynamicmoves

dynamicmoves

Joined
Jan 6, 2011
Messages
1,285
I need to find a good sharpener thats <$32 (shipping included). I know I don't have the best budget, but it's what i've got.

Thanks in advace
 
^That. You want 120grit, 400grit, 800grit, 1000grit, 1500grit, 2000grit


They come in packs and I listed 6 of them. You can skip one or the other but the higher you go, the more refined it is
 
paper wheel system, 25-35 bucks. find a cheap grinder on craigslist if you dont got one.

BTW: how do you only have 32 bucks total? christ you might wanna put down the knifes, get off the internet, and get a job dude! Don't be a broke ass, chicks don't dig it! Seriously, how does anyone only have 32 bucks and for christ sakes; what kinda knifes are you trying to sharpen if all you can afford is 32 dollars? even when I was 12 I had more liquid money then that. I have known meth heads with more money in the bank then that (meth aint cheap!). Shagging carts for a supermarket at least pays 7-10 bucks an hour. think about it, seriously!
 
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eccvets said:
(( Don't Feed The Troll. Don't quote the rant. Don't perpetuate the disruption. ))
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:eek:

that's the first time i read such a stupid comment and i've spent way too much time on internet forums kudos to you, you deserve an award...
 
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The sandpaper on soft backing (mousepad, leather, etc.) does work amazingly well. Especially on a tight budget. Quite easy to learn the technique, too. Edge-trailing stroke, on an orderly progression of grit (220/320/400/600/etc.). Just like stropping, but with a range of grits. Produces excellent results relatively quickly & easily.

I've been spending a lot of time with this method lately, working on refining my own skill with it. Given enough 'refinement' of my skills with it, I'd consider ditching the rest of my sharpening gear.
 
dynamicmoves said:
With the sandpaper, does it matter the kind of grind I have?
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If, by the 'kind of grind', you mean V or convex?

Assuming so, the sandpaper on a soft backing will produce a convex edge (at least slightly, depending upon how soft the backing is). You could also apply the same technique, but use the sandpaper on a hard backing (like glass or wood). That will at least lessen the convexing of the edge, depending only upon how steady you are at maintaining a consistent angle (same as if sharpening on a stone). On hard backing, either an edge-leading or edge-trailing stroke can be used. Keep in mind, you'll need to keep the pressure light (which is good sharpening technique anyway), so you won't cut the paper.

If you want to maintain a 'V' grind on your edge, you'd best do that by using the hard backing.
 
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Obsessed with Edges said:
The sandpaper on soft backing (mousepad, leather, etc.) does work amazingly well. Especially on a tight budget. Quite easy to learn the technique, too. Edge-trailing stroke, on an orderly progression of grit (220/320/400/600/etc.). Just like stropping, but with a range of grits. Produces excellent results relatively quickly & easily.

I've been spending a lot of time with this method lately, working on refining my own skill with it. Given enough 'refinement' of my skills with it, I'd consider ditching the rest of my sharpening gear.
Click to expand...

That's where I'm at right now, don't imagine I'll be breaking out with my bench stones for a long time. Combined with what I feel is some pretty good insight into stropping with various grit sizes, my edges from 80 through 2000 grit have never been better. Sooner or later I'll play around more with the lapping films just to see how refined I can get, but imagine it's much like with stones - once the basics have been mastered the rest comes down to the materials at hand. The one thing I cannot figure out is why this method of edge trailing produces such a smaller burr than edge trailing with a stone, but suspect it has something to do with the give of the backing (leather or mouse pad) or the way the grit stands on the paper?

HH
 
HeavyHanded said:
That's where I'm at right now, don't imagine I'll be breaking out with my bench stones for a long time. Combined with what I feel is some pretty good insight into stropping with various grit sizes, my edges from 80 through 2000 grit have never been better. Sooner or later I'll play around more with the lapping films just to see how refined I can get, but imagine it's much like with stones - once the basics have been mastered the rest comes down to the materials at hand. The one thing I cannot figure out is why this method of edge trailing produces such a smaller burr than edge trailing with a stone, but suspect it has something to do with the give of the backing (leather or mouse pad) or the way the grit stands on the paper?

HH
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When I started using this method, I began with only 220/320/400 grit. Had more burr issues then, which I 'fixed' on my ceramic stone (sorta felt like I was cheating on the technique). But now, I've started using a more comprehensive sequence of grits (220/320/400/600/800/1000/2000), and I'm not noticing the burrs hardly at all, anymore. I think there's at least a little something to be said about taking 'baby steps' with the grit, especially above 400. Each successive grit seems to do a pretty good job of cleaning up whatever burr might've been left at the previous step. By the time I've finished with the 2000, I take it straight to the green strop, then to the bare strop. Haven't noticed any burrs at all, on the leather. That's where the burrs usually make themselves obvious.

I've also had good luck with my hones (Lansky) in the past, by progressively lightening my pressure as the edge becomes more refined. Starting with the medium hone, usually, I'll do what needs to be done to clean up the marks from the coarse, then use the same medium hone with much lighter pressure to further refine it. Repeat the same with the Fine & UF. That seems to help a lot in cleaning up the burrs.
 
Obsessed with Edges said:
When I started using this method, I began with only 220/320/400 grit. Had more burr issues then, which I 'fixed' on my ceramic stone (sorta felt like I was cheating on the technique). But now, I've started using a more comprehensive sequence of grits (220/320/400/600/800/1000/2000), and I'm not noticing the burrs hardly at all, anymore. I think there's at least a little something to be said about taking 'baby steps' with the grit, especially above 400. Each successive grit seems to do a pretty good job of cleaning up whatever burr might've been left at the previous step. By the time I've finished with the 2000, I take it straight to the green strop, then to the bare strop. Haven't noticed any burrs at all, on the leather. That's where the burrs usually make themselves obvious.

I've also had good luck with my hones (Lansky) in the past, by progressively lightening my pressure as the edge becomes more refined. Starting with the medium hone, usually, I'll do what needs to be done to clean up the marks from the coarse, then use the same medium hone with much lighter pressure to further refine it. Repeat the same with the Fine & UF. That seems to help a lot in cleaning up the burrs.
Click to expand...

My impression (and I was hooked pretty much with the first attempt at this method of sharpening) was if I raised a burr on the first side, flipped and raised on the second, progressive flips with decreasing number of strokes would take care of most of the burr. The level of tactile and auditory feedback for detecting when an edge is completely ground, and when an edge has lost most of its burr, is IMO better than with a bench stone. I can eliminate the remaining burr very easily by stropping with a particle that's approx half the size of my sandpaper (120 paper/220 lapping compound, 400 paper/black emery compound, 1000 paper/Flexcut Gold, 2000+ paper/ green CrO) - stopping at whatever level of refinement I was shooting for. Like you, I generally don't strop until I'm at the grit size I intend to finish with. This is the same method I essentially use with bench stones but the sandpaper method seems to create smaller burrs, more easily and effectively reduces them before going to the strop, and therefore are just plain easier to get rid of. Again - I don't know why this is, but I've noticed it across a range of grit sizes and steel types.

HH
 
I went out and got 220, 320, 400, 800, 1000, and 2000. It was actually a lot cheaper than I thought it would be, I ended up spending only about $20. But anyways, I tried it out on my gerber powerframe, my cheap knife, and I got amazing results.

Thanks for all the suggestions.
 
dynamicmoves said:
I went out and got 220, 320, 400, 800, 1000, and 2000. It was actually a lot cheaper than I thought it would be, I ended up spending only about $20. But anyways, I tried it out on my gerber powerframe, my cheap knife, and I got amazing results.

Thanks for all the suggestions.
Click to expand...

Excellent! :thumbup:

Way to go. Glad it worked out well.
 
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