Dad wants roller sharpeners...

Peter_E_Ryt

Peter_E_Ryt

Joined
Oct 26, 2005
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How yall! I'm trying to get my family which is rather inexperienced (my dad always carries a multi tool, but that's about it), into knives. I'm covering the knife end, and try to get useful knives within the family circulation whenever, but I figured that it's time to get sharpening mixed in aswell (It'd be nice for me too... I'm rather inexperienced on this end of the knife spectrum). I mentioned either a sharpmaker or bench stones and he immediatly says to go for a roller sharpener :rolleyes: .

My questions are:
-Is there anything particularly weak or wrong with roller sharpeners other than the fact that it's boring and you have less control of it?
-Is it really THAT hard to get a good edge with a bench stone as a newb? On a stick I'm not entirely accurate (my angles vary some), but I figure that bench stones are slower and you're always going in one direction/ you're doing the same movement for both sides. This is something that I really want to learn, and if I can get decently sharp (not quite "hair poppin", but easily shaving) pretty quickly, I may be able to convince him that it's a good purchase.
-What would YOU go with for general sharpening needs?

Thanks!

BTW- I have done research, but these weren't covered to the point that I wanted them to be.
 
Those things are so outdated. Atleast go for a 5 dollar diamond stick or stone. I had one from my g-pops. It dulled the blade worse than it was at first. Horrible mistake. Still got it. But i hid it far away from any one who wants to sharpen thier knife. Id rather use a stone from my back yard.
 
Well, my sentiments on roller sharpeners have been expressed already....I am not even sure whether they are really better than nothing :D.

For good and quick results it is really hard to beat a coarse diamond stone/Sharpmaker combination.
 
A benchstone + Sharpmaker has gotten me into catching hair above the skin territory. But ideally I would go with a DMT 2 sided diasharp stone with the sides being ex-coarse and fine + a Sharpmaker (if I was going to add something else, it would be a strop).

On a side note I don't think that the rolling sharpener that I have it too bad. Main cons are: it is very coarse, the angle is not consistent knife to knife or heel to tip, hard to clean, and only one angle. But mine gives a better edge than the carbide pull through that I have.

While not absolutely necessary, it is generally easier to get a shaving edge with something fairly fine, such as a crock stick.

Edit: What sharpening equipment do you have? Also, What is your budget?
 
Thanks for the responses yall!

My sharpening experience is with pull through sharpeners and a type of carbide stick that is somehow or another assosciated with the electrical buisness (my dad brings them home occasionally). I just held the stick and sharpened the blade allong the stick, though the results weren't always uniform. The pull through sharpener was given to a neighbor, and my little sister just broke the stick doing "ballerina" things a couple days ago. At the moment, I can get some high grit sandpaper from Home Depot, but that's about it. I figured that this would be a good excuse to finally learn how to do "real" sharpening and edge profiling.

My budget is probably no higher than $150, because my parents don't really understand my obsession with knives.

Thanks again!

Edit- do those of you that getting hair popping edges use guides, or go free hand? Is it feasibly/realistically possible to get a hair popping/nice edge going free hand?
 
I use a DMT diamond stone freehand style and achieve hair-popping results no problem at all. It can take some time with a dull or abused edge, but I throughly enjoy spending a few minutes every couple of days hitting my Case stockman a lick or two. Once you get the edge you want, a little touch up here and there keeps it that way pretty easily.
 
You can get very, very good results freehand, but it takes a long time to develop the skills (for me at least) and the Sharpmaker will make it easy and teach you what to expect. I would always recomment first the Sharpmaker and then graduating so some nice stones. There is really no point in going free hand if you don't use the media that work best for you - which pretty much requires some trying around which is potentially expensive.

The diamond stone/Sharpmaker combination will run you about $70 and with some scrap leather or an old belt and some wood backing you can make a strop for very little money. Compound will run you no more than $10. And I would predict that it will take you a long time till you match or beat the results that you get with coarse diamond/sharpmaker/strop. I am not saying that you should try freehanding, but I thing a better way is to go one step at a time. And you don't have to buy everything at once. I freehand a lot because I like waterstones better than anything else, but my sharpmaker still gets frequent workout, because don't always have the time to bring out the waterstone set.
 
I think it really depends on the knife. I have a fiskars knife sharpener, it gets some knives sharp enough for arm-shaving, but immediatly bends others.
 
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