Fed up with sharpening!

N

NativeCraft

Joined
Oct 27, 2006
Messages
236
Just getting back into knives, I decided to sharpen up my pocketknife and a hunting knife using an old Lansky system. Well, that thing used to work great on a old hunting knife I had, but my current knives all have a full flat grind and the Lansky just can't hold them properly without them tilting one way or the other...so, it's out.

The FireStone sharpener that I use for the wife's kitchen knives sucks too.

What's a guy to do?

Fed up with sharpening.....
 
It takes time *A LOT* of time to be able to sit down at benchstone and put a perfect edge on a blade. I need to brush up on my skillis as well. even thought ther isn't a blade i have encountered that I haven't been able to make pop hairs on a stone freehand. I still think I should brush up on my skills. The reason being Is that I have been using my belt grinder way too much and need to sit down and just put in the time with nothing but a stone. Sorry that your edges are not comming out the way you want them to, but it really does take some time. I will do maybe a couple hundred strokes per side hours worth of work when using benchstones before even switching sides. It helps me not to stop and look at the edge every twenty or so strokes also, as this can make your sharpening harder. you can make a couple dozen strokes and then look to see if your getting the angle you're looking for but don't check it all the time once you get the flow down you wont even think about sharpening a blade. I twill be more like an automatic robot doing it. then you now you are in the groove. keep at it. it can be really relaxing for me. once you get a burr on one side flip it over and do the same thing until you have a burr on the other side. then you can work on maybe twenty strokes per side. then ten five and so on untill your last eight or ten strokes are alternating one stroke per side. Some people then like to switch to a finer grit and do the same procedure all over again, I rarely do and if I do it is only for about ten strokes per side. After my knife comes off the dmt corse stone it is really hair popping sharp so I don't feel a finer grit is needed for me and my cutting usages. I only use the fine stone to touch up the edge after using the blade for a while. watch out for burrs and remove them as necessary. You can do this by slightly increasing the blade angle and using light pressure. all steels are different when it comes to burrs some are horrrible others are great. then strop it off by using a chromium compound and leather. strop at a lower angle than you sharpened the blade this is critical otherwise you can end up dulling the blade. only strop a few time per side alternating sides with each stroke. Your knife should scare you if done properly and should be so sharp you don't even want to use it because you will dull an edge that took three hours to perfect.:) hope this helps.
Jeff
 
Try thinking more about the way you are clamping the blade. Don't fully tighten the screw then use the thumb screw to tighten the clamp on the blade you should be able to get a fully flat ground blade in the clamp. I used one on all kinds of knives in the past and could always get a good clamp on even rounded spined knives with a little thought.
 
An Edgepro will bring the joy back into your sharpening life. It's worth every penny.
 
sevenedges said:
It takes time *A LOT* of time to be able to sit down at benchstone and put a perfect edge on a blade.
Click to expand...

The main reason for this is people trying to sharpen one consistent angle on a wide bevel. If your angle control and pressure is a little off then it with take a long time to both form the initial edge and even longer to deburr it. If you switch to a significant micro-bevel it eliminates both of these and bench stone sharpening becomes just as simple as tying your shoes, no exaggeration. Set the primary bevel about 5 degrees lower than the final using an x-coarse hone and only sharpen the secondary bevel (if desired) with finer hones. This will easily get anyone slicing newsprint immediately and with just a little work on getting the pressure right, push cutting it.

-Cliff
 
sodak said:
An Edgepro will bring the joy back into your sharpening life. It's worth every penny.
Click to expand...

I second that:D. I just finished sharpening one of my Sebenza knives last night. It took a bit of effort but it was well worth the results.
 
Thanks for the responses, guys.

Is the EdgePro clamp able to properly clamp a full flat ground blade?

For those that recommended using a coarse DMT stone and the Sharpmaker, how do you estimate and control the bevel on the DMT stone?

DB, I'll try your trick tonight and see how it goes.
 
NativeCraft said:
Thanks for the responses, guys.

Is the EdgePro clamp able to properly clamp a full flat ground blade?

For those that recommended using a coarse DMT stone and the Sharpmaker, how do you estimate and control the bevel on the DMT stone?

DB, I'll try your trick tonight and see how it goes.
Click to expand...

The Edge Pro doesn't clamp the blade, it just has a platform for it to rest on. When using a coarse DMT angle isn't important, as you are just shaping with it. If you do want angle control with the DMT just lay the stone against the Sharpmaker rods in the appropriate slots. That's how I applied my microbevel to my Jess Horn last night and it worked like a charm with my DMT and Spyderco benchstones.
 
slightly off topic.

I use to have a KichenDevil knife that had it`s own block with a built in sharpener.

every time you slid the knife back into the storage block it was re-sharpened.

this was a few years ago, and i have never seen any since.

regards.

John.
 
NativeCraft said:
Thanks for the responses, guys.

Is the EdgePro clamp able to properly clamp a full flat ground blade?

For those that recommended using a coarse DMT stone and the Sharpmaker, how do you estimate and control the bevel on the DMT stone?

DB, I'll try your trick tonight and see how it goes.
Click to expand...

You cheat like this:
sharpeningtable_02.gif


oil
 
Cliff im going to try your advice with only honing microbevels, however i have some questions. Once you have a burr on both sides with the x coarse, do you immediately increase the angle 5 degrees and set the microbevel, or do you first do a burr removal step? Also, what kind of a burr removal step do you use with this method. Right now i set my primary bevel, and the burr removal step i use is 40 degrees for 10 strokes alternating per side, then 5 degrees more than my primary bevel 10 strokes alternating, then back to my primary bevel 10 strokes alternating. Is there a more efficient burr removal method than this? So far i've had prety good results with it.
 
I followed Cliff's advice of cutting straight into the stone before sharpening, and also use it for removing the X coarse burrs. That way you are sure you are only working with good metal. Yeah, it slows things down some, but you can get a longer lasting edge that way by removing all of the fatigued metal.

Edit to add: I took Cliff's advice for microbeveling and there is no way I'll ever sharpen without it again. It makes your sharpening much quicker and easier.
 
Just as Oilman showed. I have some wooden wedges cut at my favorite angles that I can touch the blade on, to see how well I am holding the angle while freehanding. On the coarse stone, it is not necessary to hold a precise angle anyways. Even if you are using the Sharpmaker, Cliff's advice is very advisable :D.
 
OilMan said:
You cheat like this:
sharpeningtable_02.gif


oil
Click to expand...

That's exactly how I cheated. You can leave both rods in at the same time to speed it up as long as you don't let the sharpening surface of your DMT hit the Sharpmaker stone when you are switching sides. With the Spyderco benchstones you simply flip it back and forth between both of the rods, without having to flip the benchstone around like you do with the DMT. It is fast and prevents one side from loading up too quick by honing each side of the blade with opposite sides of the benchstone.
 
MikeMade™;4084058 said:
Once you have a burr on both sides with the x coarse, do you immediately increase the angle 5 degrees and set the microbevel, or do you first do a burr removal step?
Click to expand...

If the burr is really large, meaning I can see it, then I will remove it with the x-coarse stone. How depends on the nature of the steel. The first thing would be to elevate the angle, make a few passes and if this works then reduce the angle and reform the edge at the lower angle. As long as the burr isn't visible by eye then it will usually be removed by the micro-beveling automatically.

Is there a more efficient burr removal method than this?
Click to expand...

Often one of the best methods is to simply remove the weakened steel before sharpening as gunmike1 noted. If the edge is highly deformed/fractured which is common on knives which are used until they are really blunt, then grind into the edge directly to remove all weakened metal. Generally just a few passes until the knife has no fine cutting ability. This tends to make a drastic difference in minimizing the burr formation because the edge will form on quality steel.

Tinderbox (UK) said:
...every time you slid the knife back into the storage block it was re-sharpened.

this was a few years ago, and i have never seen any since.
Click to expand...

There are many of these still being made, usually real cheap kitchen knives. They are left with a very aggressive slicing finish. Tends to wear the blade fast.

-Cliff
 
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