Freehand Sharpening Stones

S

SliCed

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Feb 12, 2014
Messages
152
I've been using the Spyderco Sharpmaker for over a year now and still love it, and probably always will. I'll never get rid of it, but I think it's time for me to learn to freehand. I've watched some videos and read a few opinions on where to start on other sites, but I'd appreciate some more opinions.

What are some of the best value free hand kits, brands, single stones etc.?
Are there any diamond like hardness or grits that you don't have to worry about putting too much pressure on them?

I have the Spyderco Diamond, coarse, fine, and ultra fine rods and I'm going to eventually want at least a few grits/stones that will be similar to these.

Thanks a lot!
 
I do all my sharpening free-hand and I use 2 stones to do ~90% of it:

http://chefknivestogo.stores.yahoo.net/bester1200.html
and
http://www.chefknivestogo.com/naao2kgrbr.html

The second one, the naniwa aotoshi puts about a 5k polish on my knives (a murky mirror finish) after very little work, which is a good enough surface to start stropping off of if you want to.

I wish I had just started with these two stones when I got into sharpening. I ended up accumulating a ton of stones, most of which I almost never use.
 
When I use waterstones, I take the Beston 500, an unknown 1000 grit JWS (I think it is also a Naniwa stone) and my new Naniwa Prof 3000.
 
duxbellorum said:
I wish I had just started with these two stones when I got into sharpening. I ended up accumulating a ton of stones, most of which I almost never use.
Click to expand...
I did the same thing too. I wish I had started with just one, a combination coarse/fine Norton India stone. I do 95% of all my sharpening on this one stone. Then I added 2 strops. I would have saved a lot of money. DM
 
As the years have gone by and my level of sharpening level has gone up, I've progressed through the pull sharpeners, to Spyderco Sharpmaker, Edge Pro Apex and finally Japanese Water Stones. You should watch some of Virtuovice's videos on you tube, Ive learned a lot from him, and Murray Carter. I work my way through the water stones, then strop on leather with white compound.
 
I use a Norton India combination stone and a spyderco 302F bench stone. I get pretty good edges with this setup. Of corse I finish with a strop
 
Thanks guys! I'll check out the youtube channels and all the stones you guys told me to check out. I've learned a lot from jdavis882, I've learned a lot about sharpening and he goes in depth with some other subjects you usually won't hear about on other channels.
 
The Lone Gunmen said:
As the years have gone by and my level of sharpening level has gone up, I've progressed through the pull sharpeners, to Spyderco Sharpmaker, Edge Pro Apex and finally Japanese Water Stones. You should watch some of Virtuovice's videos on you tube, Ive learned a lot from him, and Murray Carter. I work my way through the water stones, then strop on leather with white compound.
Click to expand...
I've been tempted to try Japanese Water Stones. I wonder if Virtuovice is a member of B/F's? He's very big on the convex style edge and Bark River knives.
 
Yeah Sky, I think he's BRKT's biggest fan. Every other vid is him showing one of his new Barks haha. Ive learned more from him than anyone on youtube.
 
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