What's an easy to use, effective, and cost efficient sharpening tool/system? I have 6 folding knives that will need to be sharpened soon enough, in all types of steel (154cm, aus8, 8cr13mov, vg-10). You guys have been such a great help already, thanks!!!!!
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Good sharpening system/tool for a newb?
- Thread starter mk.ultra
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Another vote for the Spyderco Sharpmaker.
IMO, for someone new to sharpening who has several blades to sharpen:
The Sharpmaker is great for blades requiring only some sharpening.
For reprofiling, dealing with very dull blades, or dealing with steels that are particularly
tough to sharpen (such as D2), I recommend the DMT Aligner.
You get top quality diamond hones, and a jig to keep your angle relatively constant.
The Sharpmaker is great for blades requiring only some sharpening.
For reprofiling, dealing with very dull blades, or dealing with steels that are particularly
tough to sharpen (such as D2), I recommend the DMT Aligner.
You get top quality diamond hones, and a jig to keep your angle relatively constant.
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Show me how you sharpen serrated knives, hawkbills, and recurves with sandpaper.
Sharpmaker. :thumbup:
The Lansky system is entirely dependent on where you clamp the knife. Clamp it differently and your angle will change. The Sharpmaker doesn't have this problem.
go to a local hardware store, get a double sided stone in coars'ish and fine'ish grits. while you're there, get an 8" length of 2x4 softwood, some quickset araldite, a piece of 8"x4" leather and a Mora Clipper 860 (for practising on, and it's a good knife too).
practise sharpening the Mora on the stones (youtube has many vids explaining how to do this).
glue the leather to the wood. rub the ground up blade gunk from your stones onto the leather. voila: strop.
not that time consuming.
personally, i rekon just learn freehand sharpening from the start. it's not that hard to do.
practise sharpening the Mora on the stones (youtube has many vids explaining how to do this).
glue the leather to the wood. rub the ground up blade gunk from your stones onto the leather. voila: strop.
But learning how to sharpen well using that method can be very time consuming.
not that time consuming.
personally, i rekon just learn freehand sharpening from the start. it's not that hard to do.
kreole
Gold Member
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For serrations, you put it on a mousepad and bend it or wrap it on a pen/dowel.Show me how you sharpen serrated knives, hawkbills, and recurves with sandpaper.
For hawkbills/recurves you put the sandpaper on the edge of something. In the case of stropping, you use the edge of the strop.
How do you sharpen serrations? I thought the mousepad method was common
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If I have to sharpen serrations I use my Sharpmaker. I don't typically have serrated knives though.
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Have not noticed a problem with this. I mark the edge with a sharpie before I start.
While I wouldn't argue against the Sharpmaker being an excellent product, it really did not appeal to me, a beginner. Mainly because it appears
that the angle you want on your blade depends entirely on how you hold the knife and how good you are at holding it the same way everytime.
Might as well just get a regular ole sharpening stone.
Anyway that's what turned me off by it, but I have never actually used a Sharpmaker.
Edit: Also seems like if you slip up with the Sharpmaker, it will result in a scratched up blade.
Also, not ideal for an untrained, unpracticed hand.
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I don't recommend the Lansky. I have one and it just plain sucks. The clamp does not do well on FFG blades. They narrow towards the tip and keeping a consistent angle requires jerry rigging.
The stones are usually chipped and end up scratching the blade. Even when being careful. In teh case of my kit, the stones were not even level/flat.
I do recommend a DMT Duosharp stone (6/8/10" available). This thing sharpens everything from chisel grinds (Emersons) to FFG to Saber to Zero grind. Pricey, yes but the device will outlive you easily.
For recurves, I wrap sandpaper around a dowel and use it similar to a sharpmaker. For serrations, I use a triangular hone that came with teh Lansky. Wasn't a total waste of money. The Lansky is great for saber grinds, and medium fixed blades, not much else.
The stones are usually chipped and end up scratching the blade. Even when being careful. In teh case of my kit, the stones were not even level/flat.
I do recommend a DMT Duosharp stone (6/8/10" available). This thing sharpens everything from chisel grinds (Emersons) to FFG to Saber to Zero grind. Pricey, yes but the device will outlive you easily.
For recurves, I wrap sandpaper around a dowel and use it similar to a sharpmaker. For serrations, I use a triangular hone that came with teh Lansky. Wasn't a total waste of money. The Lansky is great for saber grinds, and medium fixed blades, not much else.
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I do agree that the Lansky is not great for FFG blades. The clamp just doesn't work with that type of blade. The clamp screws need to be longer I think.
The first time I tried to sharpen my SOG Flash II, resulted in a lot of sweating, and swearing.
:grumpy: After I put it aside, and tried some other blades, I came back to it, and was able to get the Flash II shaving sharp. But it wasn't easy.
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I do agree that the Lansky is not great for FFG blades. The clamp just doesn't work with that type of blade. The clamp screws need to be longer I think.
The first time I tried to sharpen my SOG Flash II, resulted in a lot of sweating, and swearing.
After I put it aside, and tried some other blades, I came back to it, and was able to get the Flash II shaving sharp. But it wasn't easy.
I ruined a Spyderco Military
I did fix it on a mousepad with sandpaper. Took me like an hour and a half, but it's much better. Has a little bit of a mirror edge on it too. :thumbup:
Wax on, Wax off Daniel Son!
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I use a Spyderco Sharpmaker and it's really really easy to sharpen knives with and gets the job done. I've been wanting to try out the sandpaper+leather belt method and was wondering what grit sandpaper do people use to start the blade off with and what grit is used to finish the blade with.
Ankerson
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Personally I would recommend the Edge Pro Apex, might not be the cheapest but the results speak for themselves. :thumbup:
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That sucks. At least with my SOG, I wasn't too worried about ruining a good knife. 40 bucks and a trip to Lowe's, and I can have a new one.I ruined a Spyderco Military
Cool. Yeah, I've played with mousepad/sandpaper method with some success.
I was able to put a pretty good edge on a Kershaw Storm II. Not shaving sharp, but pretty good.