Ever get frustrated sharpening?

I used to have a harder time with the Sharpmaker. but that was due to inconsistent angles.
It's been getting a lot easier for me with time :)
I usually just maintain with the stropman, but a few light strokes on the sharpmaker will help get out any rolls.
 
I have just started and I am practicing on my kitchen butcher knife. It's nothing fancy and I don't want to mess up my already super sharp Griptilian. I am using medium and fine dry stones and for the life of me I cannot get it sharp.

I'm still trying to find the elusive burr and I don't exactly know what I'm looking for. I am going to look for a sharpening class nearby because I'm just not getting it. Yet. :)
 
You can feel and see the burr, sounds like you need to apply pressure, keep your angle fairly constant.

Burrs are simple, when you run your finger over the flats the bevel and the edge you should feel your finger drop off the edge cleanly. Another test for burrs, strop the blade a couple times on your pants, if you see the edge has picked up fuzz from your pants, tha's the burr.

Of course normally with good eyesight by looking at the edge from different angles you can see the burr reflect light from a different direction than your bevel.
 
It helped me to slow down i find that the faster i try and sharpen the more mistakes ill end up making taking the time to check my angles every time has helped me
 
I have little patience and have little luck with stones. I've had good luck with the Smith's 3-in-1 system which is also quite inexpensive compared to the Sharpmaker (but the rods are shorter). My daily carry is a Mini-Grip and a small SAK and this does a great job keeping them hair-popping, paper slicing sharp. My knives are tools and getting a good edge is important. Being able to shave my face with them is not. The serious knife guys and collectors will obsess over sharpness but my guess is folks like me who use them a lot just need a good, sharp edge. Sharpeners like the Spyderco and Smith system work well enough for people like me. I also don't own any super steel knives.
 
Frustrated isn't quite the word I'd use, but there are times when a knife takes a lot longer than I expect to sharpen.
Fortunately I'm not in any hurry and I always have another knife around that is already sharp. If I have a knife that just doesn't seem to be sharpening up quite right I just leave it on the bench until I have time to finish it later. If I think I'm done and it still won't slice, but I can't find a flaw with a hand lens, I go back to a coarser grit for a couple of passes and then polish it up again. That generally does the trick. If I'm frustrated (or angry) I don't work with sharp objects.
 
The only one of my knives that frustrates me is my kershaw blur. I cannot sharpen that thing to save my stinking life
 
Good thread in general... :)

I´ve learned to sharpen knives by my grandma in the age of 13 or 14 - and I sharpened (more or less) through the years. Now I´m 30 and have experience, especially when sharping freehand. But not every day seems to be the same, some are plain great and on some the results are more than poor.

However, when I realise that it doesn´t work - I try it on another day. (But no excuse for carrying a dull knife, that´s why I have so many :D )
 
me2 said:
Again, I'm not trying to be difficult, but I really am curious as to what advantage they offer you if you feel the need to sharpen them after every use?
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I don't sharpen after every use, that's the plus side of using some of these super steels. I can go for quite some time before I sharpen certain knives, but when it does come time to sharpen, some of these steels can be a bear to work with.
 
My frustration usually comes from cheap steels that form an aluminum foil burr (my description) that flip flops back and forth, and will not form a good hard burr or wire edge. You wind up grinding away until you can get a half @%& apex on it and settle for a so so sharpening job. I assume it is poor heat treating on the edge as I have had the problem on supposedly 440 stainless. No problem with carbon steel in getting a good burr and subsequent sharp edges. Generally the better the steel and heat treat, the easier to get a good edge on with out frustration.

Blessings,

Omar
 
I use to, but then I got a work sharp knife sharpener! Makes life much easier for me. I couldn't get anything razor sharp on a stone. But all is well now :D
 
Tony8179 said:
I don't sharpen after every use, that's the plus side of using some of these super steels. I can go for quite some time before I sharpen certain knives, but when it does come time to sharpen, some of these steels can be a bear to work with.
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Looking back, I meant to ask PurpleDC. It was him that sharpened after every use. I just let go of a blade in Duratech 20 CV. It took a little more effort in the finishing stages, but shaping the edge and forming a small burr were not a problem. It was another 20 passes per side to get up to the sharpness that I like, although it was behind my other knife for the same sharpening effort. Not really frustrating, but it just took some more care.
 
me2 said:
Looking back, I meant to ask PurpleDC. It was him that sharpened after every use. I just let go of a blade in Duratech 20 CV. It took a little more effort in the finishing stages, but shaping the edge and forming a small burr were not a problem. It was another 20 passes per side to get up to the sharpness that I like, although it was behind my other knife for the same sharpening effort. Not really frustrating, but it just took some more care.
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Gotcha. :thumbup:
 
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