Do you sharpen your custom knives?

R

rifon2

Joined
Oct 9, 2005
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A few of my user customs are going to need a sharpening soon.

I'm thinking of sending them back to the maker who had put a wicked sharp
initial edge on them.

Or, of course, I could do it myself...


Any thoughts?

Thanks in advance.
 
I would recommend doing it yourself, just get a Norton India stone and a stropping rod and you can get a razor edge on a knife in no time.
 
I sharpen them myself, AND, i am a real amatuer at sharpening, but it's getting better. the helpful aspect of a custom knife is that usually the edge bevel was properly done by the maker. there usually is no need to re-profile.
so, using a felt marker pen on the edge, i match that on my EdgePro, and go to it. my results are good, almost as good as original, and in 1 case, better.
it's much easier than a new dull, fat, Queen in D2, which needs re-profiling first.
my knives, my fun, is how i see it. and sharpening is fun and satisfying. and then the knives feel more like "mine". roland
 
If you did not dull the knife too bad,and it's initial grind on the blade was done correctly,it should be easy enough to get it back to "scary sharp"
I use Arkansas stones with oil,by free hand
 
I sharpen some of them (on a Belgian water stone). Those that are hard to sharpen for my skills (steels with high wear resistance), I have them sharpened in a knife shop by a buddy of mine. He uses a belt grinder with a very fine belt, the results are top notch.
Sending them back to the maker is kinda slow and costly for me, as I'm in France and have a lot of American knives.
 
I always send them back because I am not very confident, and I worry to much. I would however, like to learn how to properly sharpen with a hands on lesson.
 
I don't mean to hijack, but I think this may also help the OP-

My (few) customs have pretty thin edges- would it be OK to just use a strop with some compound on it to sharpen them? Am I right that done repeatedly this would end up convexing the edge?
 
i sharpen all my customs on japanese waterstones.......ryan


mvf-eventually you will need to sharpen them....but to answer your question you won't necessarily convex them....if you used sandpaper on a piece of leather or mousepad you could though......with leather loaded you want to use no pressure really....just the weight of the knife is usually enough....ryan
 
My only custom is a puukko. Very easy to sharpen being carbon steel with a fine heat treat and the acute scandi grind.

It's not hard to learn to sharpen yourself. When I came to this forum I knew nothing about sharpening, now I can get "shaving sharp" by accident. Just read a lot of the advice around here and try everything suggested. SAKs are good to learn on. You'll find what methods work best for you, which don't seem effective at all etc. For instance, lots of people prefer the sharpmaker or similar, I'm more comfortable going freehand with a ceramic rod.

When you can consistently get hair whittling sharp edges on your knives you'll find your standards are going to make a lot of knives you buy disappointing in regards to sharpness. At least, that's happened to me. Every knife I buy goes to the strop instantly, then gets reprofiled when I have the time.
 
IF you know how to sharpen a knife I would not hesitate to sharpen your custom knives. They key word here is IF!!

IF you don't know how to sharpen a knife freehand on a stone why not learn? I think this is a skill that you need to know. I think it is a skill that used to be taught at an early age to boys and that is not getting done enough anymore!

If you want to learn how to sharpen knives there are several good books on sharpening. Take every method with a grain of salt and try to grasp the concepts of what is happening. Basically you need to maintain the same angle until you get a burr or wire edge. This tells you that you are thin enough and you can then strop the edge to remove the burr.

If you want to learn how to sharpen get good bench stones, not pocket stones!! A two sided 2" X 8" Norton India stone in medium and fine is a GREAT place to start and they are pretty inexpensive add a fine ceramic stone and a two sided leather strop with one sided loaded with jewelers rouge and you are ready to start. Get some inexpensive 3-4" paring knives from Wally World to learn on.

Good luck!

Tom
 
Tom Krein said:
IF you don't know how to sharpen a knife freehand on a stone why not learn? I think this is a skill that you need to know. I think it is a skill that used to be taught at an early age to boys and that is not getting done enough anymore!
Click to expand...

No kidding. A knife is the first real tool. Knowing how to use one and maintain it is a survival skill. The only thing that I would add to Tom's post is that it should be taught at an early age to girls, as well as to boys.
 
Hi "Shaldag",

Drop me a line or phone me.... :)

All the best,
David Darom (ddd)
 
Tom Krein said:
IF you know how to sharpen a knife I would not hesitate to sharpen your custom knives. They key word here is IF!!
Click to expand...

Thanks for sharing your thoughts on this, Tom.
(And again to everyone else who's posted.)

Yes, I've been sharpening my own production knives for many years and have gotten very comfortable with it of course.
IMO it's just one of those things you have to know how to do if you collect knives.

I just had kind of a different feeling as I was about to take one of my customs to the hone for the first time...
 
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