Good first sharpening stone?

T

Theknife

Joined
Nov 5, 2012
Messages
280
Hi all,
I would like to get some sharpening stones (whetstones/water stones???) to maintain convexed edges on some of my knives. I have a sharpmaker but I can't convex any of my outdoor/bushcrafty knives on it.
But I have no idea what is good and was hoping some of you experienced guys would be able to point me towards some decent stones. I would also like to keep the price down because some of the things I have seen are quite pricey, and I don't want to be spending $300 on a few sharpening stones.
Thanks in advance.
 
Being that you want to convex your knives and you don't want to spend a lot of money, I think sandpaper and a good sized strop may be worth the investment. There's a user on this board, Heavyhanded that sells these "washboard systems" which, simply put, is a surface to which you can attach an abrasive (in this case sandpaper) to sharpen your knives on. Its relatively affordable and a couple sheets of silicon carbide sandpaper (the black kind you see at auto stores) won't run you too high.

When I started to freehand sharpen, I started practicing with sandpaper being that it was affordable and waterstones are rather expensive. Since then, I've upgraded to waterstones and spent up to near $300 for all of them together :rolleyes:

In my opinion it was worth the buy, but $300 is a lot to invest in. I acquired all of my waterstones over the coarse of over 6 months, which is not that many--4 to be exact.


EDIT:

If you prefer a stone as opposed to sandpaper and the majority of your outdoor/bushcraft knives are made of carbon steels or softer/less wear resistant stainless steels you can also buy a norton india stone. I have a similar stone to that of the india and it does a great job on the carbon steels. Its cheap too, around $10-15 I think.
 
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I've used DMT diamond hones for a couple of decades, without wearing one out so far. You can quite easily hone convex edges with a bench stone. They aren't cheap, but I suspect mine will outlast me.
 
Alberta Ed said:
I've used DMT diamond hones for a couple of decades, without wearing one out so far. You can quite easily hone convex edges with a bench stone. They aren't cheap, but I suspect mine will outlast me.
Click to expand...

^^^This.

One of mine I've had for 29 years now.
 
Thanks for the answers guys! I will look into the Norton India stone as well as standpaper and a mouse pad.
 
The Norton India stone and Norton Crystalon stone are great all around stones. I prefer the Crystalon when doing Scandi or convex because it breaks down a bit and makes a mud that helps smooth out the contour of the blade face. I prefer the India for chisels and plane blades - V bebels. Either will do a fine job in any event. Compound can simply be applied to several sheets of paper and wrapped around the same stone.

The item that Bladenoobie1 mentioned can be found through the link in my signature. It uses sandpaper or lapping film and can be customized to fit whatever blade/tool needs sharpening, from V bevel to full convex. It major advantage is that it increases feedback considerably - makes it a lot easier to get consistent results freehand. Also makes very good use of finishing (stropping) compounds. Takes the place of a fine hone and a strop all in one step. Full explanation through the link.
 
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