freehand stones

M

mlawson

Joined
Mar 29, 2003
Messages
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im getting better with freehand sharpening ( i think ) and was wanting to know if anyone could direct me toward or just give me information about different sharpening stones and brands. I have been useing stuff from walmart and they are ok but i would like to go up in the world of sharpening stones. having a Tri-stone in a little box works fine and is great for sticking in the toolbox of my truck but i would like something larger or at least try different styles. any info would be great.
 
No brands, i´m from europe, but, those benchstones from spyderco are very nice in finish. For something more agressive, i´ve tried simple stones as long they got silicium carbid.

So my way is at first this thing from APEX, afer that the stone from Puma (two different grits) after that the rods from the SM, at least those new ultra fine rods, at the very end i strop them on soft wood. I use the SM rods freehand.

I´ve heard, industrial products are better than natural. I would strongly believe that. :D
 
It is hard to beat a natural stone. The Arkansas stones are excellent (various grades available).

There are several places to buy good natural stones. Might check out a Woodcraft store.
 
A Norton FINE India stone works very well. It doesn't cost much and it seems to bite into harder steels much better than any natual stone that I have used. I picked up a small one from the knifecenter for around $5.
 
Check out Shapton Waterstones. www.shaptonstones.com . There was a thread a while back in Shop Talk about using them to flatten grind bevels, I intend to pick up a set of these eventually. I really like the way waterstones cut on my Edge-Pro, plus they polish the edge very well too.
 
I recently bought a soft and a surgical black arkansas stone from Hall's ProEdge. They work great for me. They're not the cheapest but they are high quality natural stones, not reconstructed. You can get them in a variety of sizes. I also really like an old gray Smith's stone I've had for years, it was just sold as a "sharpening stone" but it's even finer than the surgical black stone - you can't always tell by the color how fine the stone is. It really puts a nice final touch on the edge.
 
By "Tri-stone" you don't mean the Smith's "Tri-Hone" Sharpener do you? I have one, and it's an excellent bench-stone "system".
 
not sure what brand it is.... to many cleanings with brake parts cleaner have left the plastic box that contains them somewhat nasty. But if this tells you anything they are in a black plastic box that has pads on one end to hold to surface better. the tri-stone sits in groves in this box as the top can be removed and the tri-stone can be rotated to one of three stones. course is light grey and oil and water run through it really quickly, the medium stone is an actual stone but feels like a finer grit than the fine stone witch is much like the ruff stone but tan in color. Hope this helped. and thanks for your posts, one day ill stop asking a bunch of stupid sharpening questions.
 
Lee Valley Tools (www.leevalley.com)has a wide selection of natural and manufactured sharpening stones, plus diamond hones. A Canadian company (think 'cheap' dollar) they mail order all over the world. Good stuff.
 
I have not used a great lot of the available systems, so I can not compare them so much as I can give high praise to the stones I do use: a Spyderco Profile (two stones: one white fine, one gray medium); a Spyderco Ceramic Whet Stone (gray medium); and a DMT Dia-Sharp (currently using a very small one, but plan to get a bigger one).

The Dia-Sharp eats away a whole lotta metal, so I use it not to touch up or polish edges, but to really reprofile them.

The Profile is what I was using before I got the larger Whet Stone, which sits in a plastic box and provides plenty of square inches for sharpening even large blades.

I can't argue with the success these stones have given me... but... you have to be pretty confident with a freehand technique to get good results.

---Jeffrey
 
with these stones ya will be ready to sharpen most knives imho, work for me.

*norton fine india, and get a large one the larger the better, lube w/WD40

*DMT duofold fine/xtra fine, lube w/water

*spyderco ultra fine ceramic, dry or with water, i know, $50 or so, but they are well worth it if ya want something REALLY sharp.

*a good soft ark stone w/honing oil for gen'l use (ie kitchen knives)

throw in a steel (essential imho for EKI's)and a tapered diamond rod for serrations, and your set up to sharpen anything i can imagine. i use a DMT rod myself.

all can be had for a little over $100, and will prob outlast you unless ya drop them anyway.

greg
 
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