DOES ANYONE KNOW HOW TO SHARPEN A KNIFE?

nephron

nephron

Joined
Aug 3, 2017
Messages
2,283
Or maybe better....why do OP think they know how to sharpen a knife? I have run across way to many knives lately sharpened all wrong. I have seen so many that unless the pictures are crystal clear in that area I will not even consider buying it. If you point it out they usually do not want to drop the price unless it is practically not salvageable and then I am not interested. I thought I finally found a San Mai Taipan for a decent price and almost cried when I saw it in person, OP tried to reshape the blade after(I am assuming)a botched sharpening job. I really didn't think it was possible but you can make a San Mai Blade look like crap. I was so disgusted I left without pics, but it will haunt me LOL. Anybody else running into this(I am new to knife collecting on this scale). After firearms I thought this would be a piece of cake, I mean what can go wrong with a knife (plenty!).
 
If I do a crappy sharpening job I always state that fact and is reflected in my selling price.
Usually a fantastic deal for someone and plenty of "room" for the new buyer to have a pro from the forum touch it up to perfection, or use the savings I allowed to grab a couple of six-packs for the weekend. :)
That said...
I have received plenty off of the exchange here that were so messed up I swear I should have returned them or start a GBU thread!
But in the end some folks just don't know what a decent edge is so I bite the bullet and depending on the value of the knife I have it resharpened or send it for a spa treatment.
I'll usually have more into the knife than I can get out of it but it's a good feeling returning a piece to as good or better than new condition before I either keep it or send it back to another happy owner.
 
I cannot stone sharpen to save my life, I think the knife got duller and i have watched many video on youtube i just cannot hold a angle.
 
It's not just knives, go to any big hardware store and you will see people milling about musing,"How hard could it be to do [X] if I have this big bad tool here?" People who want to learn to sharpen often don't want to allocate the time it takes to do it properly. Out come the power tools and another collector's item is turned to junk.
 
I sure as heck can't so I just hone and strop, which btw extend the life of an edge for a very long time. But I tell you what, if I even do a single stroke on both sides with a diamond stone the blade is blunt as a wooden spoon and un-salvageable.
 
Well here`s my sharpeners, the little black ceramic pull sharpener is the one i reach for when i blunt the knife on the diamond stones (red square around it), It puts a nice sharp (finger nail cutting) edge on the blade and they cost like $2-3, I am going to buy a couple more.

The electric sharpener is good, It`s ceramic but it only fits large chef type knives.

EDIT: A larger image of my little black ceramic sharpener, I paid £2 each.

https://i.imgur.com/HyowXHm.jpg

FaT2uCf.jpg
 
yes.

freehand too on a benchstone.

i dislike those pull through carbide types. tears a good edge up. seems sharp from all the micro shredded edge but not a good useful edge.
 
Indeed the carbine V pull through put an ugly but useful edge on knives. I'd never use it on nicer knives but use a lansky something or other pull through for the 8CR13MOV garbage Wuhstofs and cheap flea market katanas I get on ama zoo'n.
 
I use Japanese Waterstones, freehand. Then loaded strops. Never had trouble putting hair popping edges on my knives.

Learned how to freehand sharpen with an Arkansas stone as a kid-Buck 110. My friends would give me their knives to sharpen as well.

I cannot stand a dull knife-nope. If I find a dull knife in my house, it irritates me, and gnaws in the back of my mind, until I get the time to sharpen it.

A dull knife is just a chunk of steel.
 
PoorUserName said:
I cannot stone sharpen to save my life, I think the knife got duller and i have watched many video on youtube i just cannot hold a angle.
Click to expand...
Like any artisan skill, muscle memory is involved.

Besides, you can’t really consider yourself to be a “knife guy” if you can’t sharpen a knife. Just like you can consider yourself to be a car guy, if you can’t even change your own oil. Or a gun guy if you can’t clean your own guns.

Get a cheap, hollow ground knife, that has a decent heat treat, and practice practice practice.

I learned how to sharpen as a kid with a Buck 110. Take your time-make slow passes if necessary. Eventually you will feel it-edge alignment etc.

All Steels sharpen the same way-some just take a little longer than others-but no Steel is harder than the stone-don’t get psyched out.

If it can scratch the blade, it can sharpen the blade.
 
I had a terrible time sharpening when I started, and it took a few years of off and on trial to get better. I started with those V notched carbide deals that rip a strip off the edge as you pull it through, primarily for filleting knives. Then I got a large Lansky kit and things improved. Finally I got a Sharpmaker years ago. That's as far as I went. All I need is to have a knife slice cleanly through paper and I'm done. I'm of the mind that cleanly slicing paper is pretty darn sharp and they all end up needing to be resharpened again anyway, so I don't go for that ultimate last bit of performance. The last knife I sharpened besides some kitchen stuff for the wife was one of my AUS8 SRK's. I used it hard processing wood a few times, then got it slicing paper again, and I edge wipe oiled it. Done. I have never really known how to use a strop properly and have no experience with one. Am I missing out ? May well be. But I am happy as a pig in a puddle with my edges actually. Although I bought a few knives in D-2 and got those diamond flake, or whatever, impregnated Sharpmaker rods. I haven't needed to use them yet.
 
Lay the knife edge on your thumb nail. Slowly move the blade forward and back while raising the angle of the blade. Stop when the edge catches on your thumbnail. Use this angle for an equal amount of strokes on your sharpening medium. Shave hair. :)
 
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