Hey Everyone! Some quick questions for all you experts.

I

Inverness11

Joined
Jul 21, 2007
Messages
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Hey everyone, great forum ya got here. I've never really been a knife person but I keep finding myself wanting more lately. I'm wanting to improve my every day carry knives and possibly upgrade. Here are my questions.

1. I have a plain two sided stone. I've had this thing as long as I can remember and have only had limited luck with it. If I really take my time on it, constantly maintaining my angle and getting a good wire edge on the coarse side then alternating strokes on the fine side until the burr goes away - I can cut paper, and not as well as I'd like to either. Is this the kind of sharpness you all expect from this type of stone or is my technique lacking? What grits are either side of this stone usually? Assuming my technique is OK with this stone, what stone is the next step up?

2. I got some cheap diamond hones from Harbor Freight a long time ago in my quest to get my knives sharper. They are red, yellow and blue. The only time they've been good to me was when I smoothed out the crappy trigger on my AK. Although part of this might be because I forgot which is coarse, medium, and fine. So...um..anyone have these and know which colors correspond to coarse, medium, and fine. :o Know what grits they are?

3. I've got one of those cheap yellow plastic smith's sharpeners. I really liked it at first, but after a while of using it I noticed my CRKT Rollock's edge looked like a little saw. Am I right to think this is a bastard method?

The knives I've been working on lately are a Kershaw Scallion whose blade is made of 420 HC (55-57 hc.) and a CRKT Rollock II whose blade is made of AUS 4 (55-57 hc.). I know these aren't real fancy but I would expect they can still get pretty sharp.

My grandfather taught me freehand sharpening but I've never been able to get close to what he does. I'd like to develop my freehand skills before I mess with any "systems."

Thanks everyone and sorry for the lengthy post. :)
 
If you can sharpen freehand, you don't need a "system." They are for people who can't (or won't) take the time to learn to sharpen. A good medium Arkansas stone should get you where you want to be. If it doesn't, you need to work on your technique.
 
I have the same diamond stones the red is fine, the yellow is medium, and the blue is coarse I find them very useful to reprofile a edge and the fine stone will give a good cutting edge. I would suggest spyderco ceramics i have the flat stones and the pro files the work very well and you can sharpen about anything with these two items also leather and some micro compound to finish the edge. Freehand is the way i have always done it you must feel out the edge and most important STOP at the tip to prevent rounding of the tip if you hold the knife flat to the stone and raise it slowly you will see where the edge meets the stone. use slow strokes beeing careful of your angle you can check this by looking at the grind marks you make on the edge if you see one single grind your doing good.

this might be a good choice for a new knife http://www.newgraham.com/detail.aspx?ID=5096
 
I either hold then between my middle finger and thumb or i have those silicone sticky pads from home depot. one on each corner
a arkansas stone would be ok but a ceramic will give you better results
 
Soft or medium hardness. Any size you're comfortable with.
 
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