Cheap knife to practice my sharpening skills!

Joined
Jan 30, 2012
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I'm looking to work on my sharpening skills before I touch my para 2, Looking for a cheap knife that doesnt suck that I can practice on!
 
I was lucky enough to have a couple of el cheapos to practice on and of course friends want there knives sharpened as well next thing you know you will be a pro just keep at it.
 
Try some kitchen knives, or get a cheaper SAK to work on. Both will sharpen up easier than a Para's S30V, but it will get you used to holding consistent angles, which is the main part of sharpening. You could also get one of the cheaper Kershaws from Wal-mart like the Crown.
 
I guess it depends what you like in a knife and what "cheap" means to you. You may as well buy a knife you like the looks of instead of buying an ugly hunk of steel to sharpen ;)
 
Other people's kitchen knives. The blades need the love, you get the practice, and your friends get sharp knives out of the deal. It's a great feeling to do this for your friends.
 
definitly a 420 steel or something there. Very cheap steels edge roll easy if I can put it that way
 
Check your garage, or your friends garage, for an old Mora. This is my go-to knife when it comes to experimenting and abusing!

Then again, maybe they aren't as prevalent in the states as they are in vikingland. But a new one won't exactly hurt your wallet either ;)
 
Get you a Spyderco Tenacious.
It has the same length (1 mm different) FFG blade in a decent steel. I would think it would be perfect to get ready for the Para 2.
And you get a pretty nice little knife in the bargain.

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Get some Rough Riders - they are fairly inexpensive & after you have a good edge on them you can give them away as gifts.
 
I've been using my Leatherman E33L to practice on.

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That is it with my Mini-Barrage. I got it as a cheap kitchen utility knife because it has a bottle opener in the back.

I like practicing because it is 154CM. So I get to practice on a good steel on a cheap knife.
 
Other people's kitchen knives. The blades need the love, you get the practice, and your friends get sharp knives out of the deal. It's a great feeling to do this for your friends.

That's good advice. Be advised - the happy feeling fades when they bring them back a week later after beating the snot out them on glass cutting boards and stuff like that. :mad:

Barring other peoples knives, grab a couple $0.50 kitchen knives at your local thrift store/garage sale and go to town. If you want an inexpensive knife that's actually worth using, get you a Mora or Old Hickory.
 
Try the SRM 710 as they are pretty cheap and some people have said that they dont suck! :)
 
im sure a lot of us have non knife crazed buddies with a super dull beat up gas station folder or two in their desk drawers... offer to sharpen them for free without consequence if anything goes wrong.
 
Rough Rider makes some very inexpensive slipjoints that feature pretty decent blade steel. Given their low price you could buy a couple to practice your free hand sharpening with. The blade steel should provide a good challenge seeing as it isn't super soft like a lot of more inexpensive knives are but still it's by no means as hard as a lot of more exspensive blade steels are.
 
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