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bigredtn

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Mar 15, 2018
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I have honed straight razors for a couple years but never knives(besides just touching them up on my 800). I don't want to spend a fortune but I want to be able to keep my knife the sharpest it can be with being cheaper without loosing quality. Ill be sharpening my pocket knife and skinning knives up to 4" blade length and might sharpen a 6" here and there. I have ordered a work sharp field sharpner, which looks awesome, but would like something for home and on the bench. BTW if I can buy used, that would be even better. Thanks in advance!!
 
I use homemade strops for most of my daily maintenance. They are fairly easy to make, cheap, and there are some great threads here about how to make them. For reprofiling an edge or getting chips smoothed down I use a Spyderco Sharpmaker with satisfying results. They come up used in the Exchange here from time to time.
 
If you are looking to buy used sharpening gear, there is a subforum here that may have things sold by other members from time to time: https://www.bladeforums.com/forums/for-sale-gadgets-gear-individual.764/

If you like the Work Sharp Field Sharpener, they also sell a larger product called the "Guided Sharpening System" which may work for home use. http://www.worksharptools.com/guided-sharpening-system.html

I personally prefer to free-hand using bench stones of various kinds. The 8" Norton IB8 India stone (aluminum oxide) is a good basic bench stone and only costs about $25 or so, though the finish off of the fine side may be coarser than you want (about 400 grit).
 
If you go the Sharpmaker route, there are plenty of videos on YouTube. Might be worthwhile to view a couple.
 
OLd_gUY said:
If you go the Sharpmaker route, there are plenty of videos on YouTube. Might be worthwhile to view a couple.
Click to expand...
yeah I am not to keen on it. Seems like it will keep 'em sharp but not put a bevel on it. Ill stick to my stones and strop:)
 
You can use a lot of different honing/sharpening tools to sharpen your knives and other edged tools with>> but you just can't go wrong with Spyderco's 204 Sharpmaker kit. But there is one thing you want to do if you get one. That is to get all the extra stones/rods you can buy extra like the Ultra-Fine ( a definite MUST), the diamond rods, and the CBN rods too. Because I've used the 204 Sharpmaker since I got my first one back in the late 90s/early 2000s. And when I got the extra stones/rods it really made it a super deluxe kit for the field and home/shop use.

But if you do elect to get a 204 Sharpmaker I can't stress enough that you need to watch that instructional video at least 2 to 3 times before attempting to use it. Also it's a good idea to start out by sharpening a couple of "el-cheapo" kitchen knives before you attempt to do a premium blade like a Spyderco, Benchmade or Boker or any other top brand of knife. Practice truly does make perfect when using the 204 Sharpmaker but don't do any sharpening job in a hurry>> because sharpening is something you want to really be focused on when doing it.
 
Also with the Sharpmaker, you can attach 1 1/8 x 6 stones with binder clips for reprofiling. I have 120, 240 and 400 stones.
Here's a pic at the bottom.
Please feel free to PM me if you want more info.
 
Thanks for all the replies but I believe I am going with stones as that where I have the most experience with.
 
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