Does OKC have a sharpening service?

J

JDX

Joined
Mar 2, 2014
Messages
923
I have ruined my rat 1. It was my first knife so everything you're not supposed to do with it, I did. Including batonning, making feathersticks and tent stakes with aus 8 like it never gets dull, basically the edge is ruined. It's not hair shaving sharp. It's dull and can't slice through paper without ripping through it. It fails at the thumb nail test. And I looked on Ontarios website and found nothing regarding a sharpening service. I am very busy college student who can't afford a legitimate sharpening system so I'd much rather just send it in.

Does anyone know if Ontario has a sharpening service and if not if there's someone who sharpens knives for free or a small fee?

Thanks
 
You can do a fine job of sharpening AUS-8 with some very inexpensive stones, if you know or are willing to learn how to sharpen. Norton India or Crystolon combo 8" stones are about $25 shipped. Of course, a new RAT-1 is about the same price. But you are going to have to learn to sharpen some day if you are going to own knives. Might as well start now.

You can contact Ontario to see if they offer sharpening. I could not find any mention of it on their web site.
 
I don't believe they do.

Learn to sharpen. You can pick up an combo oilstone for about 20 bucks....dont even need oil...dish soap works. Pocket stone even cheaper.

Or a couple grits of wet/dry sandpaper.

You had time to ruin your edge...you had time to sharpen it. Sharpening's part of owning a knife. :thumbup:
 
I agree with jc57 and marcinek, get an inexpensive stone and learn to sharpen. It's a skill that will serve you well the rest of your life. In the future, you may also keep in mind that frequent edge maintenance takes far less time than trying to put an edge back on a blade that's too dull to cut anymore.
 
JDX said:
I have ruined my rat 1. It was my first knife so everything you're not supposed to do with it, I did. Including batonning, making feathersticks and tent stakes with aus 8 like it never gets dull, basically the edge is ruined. It's not hair shaving sharp. It's dull and can't slice through paper without ripping through it. It fails at the thumb nail test. And I looked on Ontarios website and found nothing regarding a sharpening service. I am very busy college student who can't afford a legitimate sharpening system so I'd much rather just send it in.

Does anyone know if Ontario has a sharpening service and if not if there's someone who sharpens knives for free or a small fee?

Thanks
Click to expand...

Did you ask them?

As others have said learn to sharpen. It is an investment in knowledge. If you intend to be a knife nut and use your knives you will need to learn to sharpen. I use a $20 Norton Stone from the hardware store and an inexpensive ceramic rod. Work on sharpening for 10 minutes a day and in no time you will develop the skill to confidently do it yourself. Lots of good info over in the maintenance and tinkering subforum. Plenty of tutorials available (no need to start a new thread asking about it).
 
I agree with everyone else. Learn to sharpen, ideally freehand. Once you do that, you can sharpen with basically anything you find that is mildly abrasive. I learned on what amounted to $3-4 of wet dry sandpaper laid flat on a textbook. I spent probably... a good month or so working on sharpening a few knives a week, reading up on it, and practicing my form. And whats more, I still use sandpaper, as if you touch up an edge before it gets bad, it takes just a minute or to of work to get it back to a good edge.

While I'm not a magician, nor the best sharpener out there, I am confident that I can get a good working edge (have gotten every knife I own to whittle a beard hair at least once). It really isn't all that difficulty, nor does it take all that long to learn to get back to a paper slicing edge (at least with any of the basic steels I've used like 440c, 1095, 1085, etc). Just practice.

EDIT:

I understand being a busy college student. My average work/school week while in grad school was 60-90 hours, not including transit. It was however during this time that I learned to sharpen. I used it as "mental floss". Something that I could do a few minutes every day/few days to take a break from school related activities. It was something that helped keep me sane (that, and a lot of other things, this was just one). So, its doable.

If you're really set on not learning right now, then there are places (even perhaps locally) where you can pay to have it sharpened. I just feel that for a knife the price of a Rat 1, you'll quickly spend more money having it re-sharpened than the knife is worth. Just something to think about.

Good luck sir :).
 
Last edited:
I will also second learning to sharpen. I got a Smiths trihone set for 25 bucks on Amazon. I can easily sharpen my RAT 1 with it. The RAT 1 takes an edge quite nicely. Give it a shot.
 
If you don't have any time available to dedicate towards sharpening (with all of your studies and such), consider sending your knife to a forum member.
Some of us do a great job(not me) and price it right.
 
JDX said:
I have ruined my rat 1. It was my first knife so everything you're not supposed to do with it, I did. Including batonning, making feathersticks and tent stakes with aus 8 like it never gets dull, basically the edge is ruined. It's not hair shaving sharp. It's dull and can't slice through paper without ripping through it. It fails at the thumb nail test. And I looked on Ontarios website and found nothing regarding a sharpening service. I am very busy college student who can't afford a legitimate sharpening system so I'd much rather just send it in.

Does anyone know if Ontario has a sharpening service and if not if there's someone who sharpens knives for free or a small fee?

Thanks
Click to expand...

Define "legitimate." You can get a very serviceable system for about 35 bucks and all it takes is you learning how to use it. You'd probably want to upgrade at some point but it's definitely something for a budget minded beginner or even intermediate knife guy to consider. Look up the Ruixin Pro. It's a generic edge pro. And get some good, strong neodymium magnets. A 1" x 1/4" x 1/4" at about N50 should work well to keep the blade held firmly in place. And a sharpie. And download a free angle meter for your smartphone. Then watch a couple of videos showing how to use that kind of system. You should be good to go and can start to maintain your own knives. Figure out angles and how it feels when you're properly hitting the bevels and upgrade to some decent benchstones and don't look back at guided sharpeners unless the sharpening bug bites you.

All that would cost you about what someone would charge you (maybe a couple bucks more) to do a bladeforums quality sharpening job. I'm sure someone could throw it on a belt grinder for a couple of bucks but it won't be as accurate as a guided system or a professional free hander, but you won't have the satisfaction of sharpening your own knives. And if there's a simple skill a man should have, it's sharpening simple knives.
 
By the time you pay shipping both ways, even someone that will sharpen it for free will be costly. It sounds like it's dull not trashed. Knives get dull, so like everyone else, you might as well learn to sharpen if you want a sharp knife because they will get dull if you cut stuff.

If you are that hard up, find a Bass Pro Shop and they will sharpen for free.

All that said, I can't imagine battoning with a Rat 1 or even the desire to try.
 
Cabelas will sharpen any knife for free too, or at least that's what they announce over the store intercom.
 
JBradley500 said:
Cabelas will sharpen any knife for free too, or at least that's what they announce over the store intercom.
Click to expand...

Thats just scary. I wouldn't let the equivalent of a walmart kid touch my knives with a powered grinder.
 
They use paper wheels at BPS and there are usually only a couple people that do it and likely sharpen dozens of knives a week. I gave them a beater grip and they did a good job and you can't butcher a knife too bad with paper wheels.
 
I'm gonna break the mold here. Ship it to Edge Pro. They allow people 1 free sharpening. You pay for the shipping. Send it super snail mail and it won't cost that much. Give them a buzz in the morning.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
So I commute an hour to and from school. I saved enough money to cover tuition and to cover gas for the semester. I don't have money for anything else, literally. I have the money in my account strictly for gas. I'm staying with my aunt and cousins who live an hour from my school so I just have to do chores in exchange for a roof over my head which is great. But I can't even buy a 99¢ Arizona iced tea unless I found change on the ground. I literally do not have any extra money unless I decide to start selling my knives, and I use all of them so I'd rather not. What I'm saying is I don't have money for anything extra so please don't suggest I buy stones.

On top of that, I'm carrying 19 credits, have to maintain a 3.5 GPA in order to increase my cumulative gpa to get accepted to Syracuse. Basically I spend every second o my day focusin on: physics II, organic chemistry, genetics, calculus and advanced composition. I'm not a genius by any means so I have to work my ass off to do well in these classes.

When I say I don't have time or money for something, I mean it. So thank you to the one person (Fishing Fool) for actually answering my question
 
JDX said:
So I commute an hour to and from school. I saved enough money to cover tuition and to cover gas for the semester. I don't have money for anything else, literally. I have the money in my account strictly for gas. I'm staying with my aunt and cousins who live an hour from my school so I just have to do chores in exchange for a roof over my head which is great. But I can't even buy a 99¢ Arizona iced tea unless I found change on the ground. I literally do not have any extra money unless I decide to start selling my knives, and I use all of them so I'd rather not. What I'm saying is I don't have money for anything extra so please don't suggest I buy stones.

On top of that, I'm carrying 19 credits, have to maintain a 3.5 GPA in order to increase my cumulative gpa to get accepted to Syracuse. Basically I spend every second o my day focusin on: physics II, organic chemistry, genetics, calculus and advanced composition. I'm not a genius by any means so I have to work my ass off to do well in these classes.

When I say I don't have time or money for something, I mean it. So thank you to the one person (Fishing Fool) for actually answering my question
Click to expand...

So use your other knives for cutting tasks. You own a fair amount. Save the money you would consider spending on sending that knife to someone for sharpening and buy a Norton stone. And don't buy that $1 Arizona tea. Buy a grip of Lipton and make tea for a month.

If you are so destitute then why 5 days ago do you have a $150 budget:

JDX said:
Finally going to take the plunge on one of these, they seem pretty similar other than the slight recurve. I'm just curious which is more ergonomic for extended use and which is more heavy duty? I cut through extremely abrasive materials at work, carpeting, cardboard and occasionally drywall. I've used box cutter type knives and they dull too quickly and are uncomfortable when holding for long periods of time which is why I'm opting for a folder. My budget is around $150 if you'd like to recommend something else. I just can't seem to find good comparisons using the search function or google
Click to expand...

http://www.bladeforums.com/forums/s...-Mini-Griptillian-G10-or-Benchmade-North-Fork
 
Use a concrete step for a sharpening stone. Bottom of a ceramic mug when you need a fine grit.
 
And another person added to the ignore list. ×%!hole duped me into wasting my time trying to offer advice. To think, I was going to offer to sharpen his knife and return it with one of my old sharpeners and some old stones. Glad he showed his colors before I offered.

Ain't nobody got time for that
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top