Favorite sharpeners?

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Nov 20, 2001
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All,

What are your favorite ways to sharpen? Do you use free hand stones, or one of the systems such as:

- Spyderco Sharpmaker
- Lansky
- EdgePro
- DMT Aligner
- Gatco Edgemate

If that, which ones do you like or not and why?

(Personally, I am looking to re-profile and sharpen my kitchen knives.)
 
I use my....

EdgePro for setting new angles

Sharpmaker for quick touch ups

and, DMT dia sharp Diamonds freehand stones for beater blades

I had all the systems you mentioned and the three listed above is how I use them. I like freehanding on the DMTs the best, its fast, but not as good looking as a edge pro. The edge pro is well worth the cost. Good luck, sharpening is as much a hobby as knife collecting! :D
 
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I have a Lansky system, but I haven't used it since the day I got it. I stick to my Norton combo oilstone.
 
Larger Freehand Stones - Pike/Norton, Ezelap & DMT diamonds...

Oh, almost forgot - Portable small stones - Ezelap & Fallkniven DC3/DC4



-Ron
 
I freehand with sharpmaker stones. It's more convenient for me in most cases to just grab a stone than to actually use the system set up properly. I sanded one side of each fine stone extra smooth for finishing. The only sharpening stuff I have is the sharpmaker and an old DMT pocket fine sharpener which I never use. I would love to try a Norton stone or super fine Arkansas stone sometime.

I have a strop (leather and linen) coming in the mail along with some white and red compound. I'm getting them mostly because I plan to try straight razor shaving but I'll also see how they work with "normal" knives.
 
Reprofile: DMT (not the aligner)

Touch-ups: richardj's cardboard wheels and compound (VERY quick) or the Sharpmaker (NOT as quick)

Strop: green loaded
 
(Personally, I am looking to re-profile and sharpen my kitchen knives.)

If you want to re-profile than I highly recommend anything in Coarse or Extra Coarse DMT Diamond. In my experience they are without a doubt the fastest hand sharpeners you can buy. For finishing/polishing I prefer to use fine and ultra-fine ceramics, but that is primarily because I have an aversion to strops and stropping.

Learning to free-hand sharpen is the only way to go in my opinion. It does take a lot of time and practice to become proficient at but it doesn't take long to learn how to get sharper-than-most-factory edges on most of your knives. The basic sharpie technique (run a magic marker along the edge and then see exactly where you are removing metal as you sharpen) is really all you need to know. That and some attention to detail is about it.
 
For me, it's all about the waterstones. it's how I was brought up to sharpen and the only way to do it.

Only recently have I begun to finish using a strop and some green rouge...works like a charm every time.
 
For rebevelling, a DMT D8XX or a belt-sander. For setting and polishing the edge, lapping film or wet/dry sandpaper over glass and/or waterstones. I often use a rubber and steel "stone holder" to hold the abrasives still and sometimes put the stone holder in a Panavise and tilt it at an angle (turns the abrasive in the stone holder into an infinitely adjustable Sharpmaker or freehand upsidedown EdgePro - I stole the idea from ksskss!).

If you're using an EdgePro to sharpen kitchen knives, please build a narrow elevated stand that lets you get the very heel of the knife to match up with the sharpening arm at exactly a 90 degree angle (this is not possible with the standard EdgePro system on all but a few Japanese-style kitchen knives where the edge doesn't start until almost an inch from the blade). If you don't, the EdgePro will eventually grind a curve into the heel of your kitchen knives which reduces their effectiveness on a cutting board (if you rebevel with the EdgePro, this will happen faster).

Taking that shortcoming into consideration and dealing with it, the EdgePro lets you concentrate on forming an edge and then going through all of the steps to remove the scratch patterns of the previous hones or polishing tapes without bleeding off your energy on cleaning up oopses (don't worry, you can still make mistakes with an EdgePro - the most common is pressing too hard - and you can slip and put nasty scratches in an otherwise pristine blade far away from its edge. Speaking of which, coat your blades in painter's tape above the edge to reduce such accidents from happening no matter which system you choose.) and focus on a sharp, strong, beautiful edge.
 
GATCO Professional with the extra fine and ultimate finishing hones added.

Leather strops loaded with polishing compound.

Arkansas tri-hone for whatever gives the GATCO trouble.
 
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