Greetings

[Tucson_Tom]

Is this the place to say hello when first joining the forum? Anyway, greetings to all of you. I have been reading threads off and on for quite a while and figured it was time to join up. I have had Benchmade knives for years, but for some reason just recently discovered Spyderco and am quite impressed with what they make. I'm looking to learn about proper knife sharpening. That and I need to find a guy named "Keyman" and see if he is still making grips for the Griptillian.

 

[Anaries]

Used to live in St.David, welcome!

 

[LimuHead]

Greetings fellow Earthling!

This can be an expensive voyage of discovery, but it doesn't have to be.

I bet you already knew that.

Welcome to the fold.

There is no such thing as 'proper' sharpening.

Perhaps you mean 'effective' sharpening?

More information please.

And again, Welcome!

 

[Tucson_Tom]

There is no such thing as 'proper' sharpening.
Perhaps you mean 'effective' sharpening?

Hmm, well I guess I am feeling there could be such a thing as "improper sharpening" or ill-advised attempts to sharpen. So my first thought is to not do anything to screw my knives up. Do no harm as the medical professionals like to say.

Then having addressed that, I would like to put a razor sharp edge on some of my old benchmades. I have a 930 for example with S30V steel that at this point in time could be used to cut cheese, or it might be effective as a dagger ....

And I was figuring that there must be resources here that would instruct a person like me as to doing it right. I'll get busy and do some searching ... but I'll be listening too.

and thanks for the friendly greeting and response.

 

[TimmyJ]

"proper"
"effective"
"tomato"
"potato"

Welcome to the world of knife semantics!

 

[whitty]

Welcome! There is a ton of great info on here. Use the search function often and you will typically find what you are looking for. There are a ton of very knowledgeable people here and you will learn something new every day. Glad to have you on board!

 

[LimuHead]

Hmm, well I guess I am feeling there could be such a thing as "improper sharpening" or ill-advised attempts to sharpen. So my first thought is to not do anything to screw my knives up. Do no harm as the medical professionals like to say.

Then having addressed that, I would like to put a razor sharp edge on some of my old benchmades. I have a 930 for example with S30V steel that at this point in time could be used to cut cheese, or it might be effective as a dagger ....

And I was figuring that there must be resources here that would instruct a person like me as to doing it right. I'll get busy and do some searching ... but I'll be listening too.

and thanks for the friendly greeting and response.

I apologize. My reply smacked of arsy-ness that was purely unintended.

What I should have said is that there is no one particular answer to this question because there are so many methods that work.

I enjoy this forum because it gives me so many different 'angles' (ark, ark!) on how to sharpen.

For me, the greatest discovery in sharpening came from using the Washboard, made by member HeavyHanded. The feedback that the Washboard gives while sharpening will give you the confidence that you're not destroying your edge, and the sharp edge you end up with will give you a major thrill.

Things get nit-picky when sharpening different steel alloys, but the basics of two planes intersecting cleanly does not change.

tl;dr: apology, Washboard system is a great start.

Aldon

 

[Tucson_Tom]

I apologize. My reply smacked of arsy-ness that was purely unintended.

No need to apologize -- I didn't take it that way at all.

I have already bought a gadget -- a DMT duosharp diamond bench stone thing. It has interrupted diamond grit in 600 and 1200 in the version I bought.
I am going to print a big 20 degree triangle and tape it on the wall for a visual reference and try free handing the blade.
I have a couple of "trash knives" with 440 steel (so they say, of some unspecified type) that I plan to use as guinea pigs
before I try working on my Benchmades.

But I bet there is a better subforum for this kind of discussion. I need to explore around using the forum search tools.
Most of my reading so far has been threads that Google found for me in the forums.
So much good information kept turning up via Google searches in these forums that it was becoming clear that
this would be a good place to spend time.