After all the talk of free hand sharpening, I decided to see if I could still do it the old way. I used to hold the stone in one hand and the knife in the other and just have at it until I got the edge I wanted. Now I use a couple of angled holders for the stones and follow up with a Sharpmaker, but that stuff is all in my garage and I rarely carry it with me. I consider these items free hand sharpening, since there is no clamp holding the blade, you just turn the stone so its easy to judge the angle by eye, either vertical or horizontal. To get an idea of what I'm talking about, raise one side of a 6" stone 2" off the table and thats a 20 degree angle. Now just hold the blade horizontal and have at it.
Anyway, just to test my ability to sharpen away from home, I held the much abused RADA Cutlery Santoku in my left hand and my waterstone in my right and, after eyeing the angle and setting my thumb on the spine as sort of a guide, rubbed them together, formed a burr, swapped sides, formed a burr, repeated on fine waterstone and repeated and removed the burr on the Spyderco white triangle held like a steel. Vuala, an edge that will catch arm hair above the skin.
I still like my angled wooden blocks and the Sharpmaker, but a pocket stone is so handy when away for the weekend. The bevels arent pretty, but they are sharp and still quite thin, as the knife has a total bevel angle of 24 degrees inclusive (12/side) on a spine of 1/32".
Anyway, just to test my ability to sharpen away from home, I held the much abused RADA Cutlery Santoku in my left hand and my waterstone in my right and, after eyeing the angle and setting my thumb on the spine as sort of a guide, rubbed them together, formed a burr, swapped sides, formed a burr, repeated on fine waterstone and repeated and removed the burr on the Spyderco white triangle held like a steel. Vuala, an edge that will catch arm hair above the skin.
I still like my angled wooden blocks and the Sharpmaker, but a pocket stone is so handy when away for the weekend. The bevels arent pretty, but they are sharp and still quite thin, as the knife has a total bevel angle of 24 degrees inclusive (12/side) on a spine of 1/32".
