How did YOU learn to sharpen a knife?

I think it all started for me when I was... Eleven I believe. My first "real" knife was a buck prince; a small lockback knife similar to the 110. I tried sharpening it on one of those smith's combination carbide pull though and whetstone device, it is like this one: http://smithsedge.com/products/product.asp?id=67&cid=4 but with an arkansas stone.

Needless to say, I had no clue what I was doing. I would lay it at an angle and stroke in circles.

I also used a smith's two step pull through carbide/ceramic sharpener that finally ruined the edge on that buck.

After that I got the smith's knock off of the lansky. It worked pretty well for me and I got shaving sharp edges. The stones wore out extremely quickly and became useless.I also made a strop using some cheap leather and wood from AC moore and got some red compound in shop class. That was the first time I've ever seen hair fly like that! Btw I sharpened a S &W swat knife (spray painted it then ruined it on paper wheels, threw out. I actually believed this was the knife SWAT teams used) , Gerber ripstop (took to shop class and tried to sharpen on belt grinder, edge looked good, but i ruined the tip. Sold it to some kid for $10) , gerber ar 3.0 w/ a serrated edge (same as the s&w swat) , s&w bullseye extreme ops (gave it to my brother, this was my first "tactical" knife if you don't count the Swat. I loved the thing)

After that, I got a standard sharpmaker thinking it would be a god send, but turned out to be not so great. I couldn't get a good edge on anything except serrated knives.

I then got the paper wheels and sharpened everything in the house. I've ruined a bunch of knives with this thing so I decided to try something else.

I got 2 6"x2" DMT diasharp combination stones. These are what taught me to freehand. I could never seem to get a very good polished edge, but they were definitely sharp. It still wasn't enough though!

Then came the dmt aligner; probably the best clamp guided sharpener you can buy. I got some great polished edges from this, but they really just didn't do it for me. I never got a mirror finish with this.

Lately, I've been using an edge pro apex. It definitely has a learning curve, but it really is great. I got mine used so I didn't pay as much. I still haven't gotten the perfect mirror finish yet, but I'm confident I'll be able to do so!
 
MrLuluapples said:
I researched sharpening techniques and found the best method for home to be the bottom of a porcelain cup, plate or bowl. I have a mish mash of cups so I have some course and some fine, to varying degrees. I can get my knives razor sharp using this method.
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I remember hearing that it was a common practice in the N.Y. deli shops to rub their knives around and around the inside of their 5 gal ceramic pickle jugs. The curvature of the jug was just right to hold the edge to the correct angle! My father used to use the bottom of dinner plates to touch up the edge of his carving knife before slicing up a rib roast.

With MrLuluapple's mention of different grits from different cups, I begin to wonder... Is there a new branch to our hobby? Starting with sharpening on the bottom of a coarse ceramic coffee mug from a greasy-spoon diner, moving on to typical restaurant coffee cup, followed by blue Wedgewood coffee cup, then a Rosenthal China fine china coffee cup, then a Japanese Celadon cup, followed by a Chinese Tang Dynasty porcelain cup, and finally doing the finishing polishing on a delicate Ming Dynasty translucent eggshell porcelain tea bowl. :D

For those of us who have already bought every stone, every guide system, every device, etc., etc., etc., made specifically for, and not so specifically for, sharpening, perhaps this is a brand new way to waste our money playing with knives searching for the perfect edge!! :thumbup:


Stitchawl
 
zyhano said:
Nah, it'll be the paperwheels first :p
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Hey, lets be fair. If knifeknut1013 ever finds himself in the position where he needs to sharpen dozens and dozens of knives every day, day after day, week after week, cranking them out as fast as possible, doing mass production work instead of sharpening as a hobby, I'm sure he would pick some powered system, perhaps even the paper wheels. After all, they are effective for mass production work. :)

If you had to sharpen all day long, every day of the week, and had to crank out good edges to satisfy the general public who aren't all that fussy about what an edge looks like, but still need to be able to cut well, I think you'd go to the paper wheels too. After all, isn't that why the big companies use powered systems too? They are concerned with cranking out knife after knife after knife after knife, rather than putting on a perfect edge. That's why we knife crazies spend so much time re-doing factory edges, right?

So lets not condemn paper wheels out of hand. They do have a place. After all, not everyone wants a perfect edge.


Stitchawl
 
i sharpen knives since i have knives. and i've ad my first at 12yo. my father is a butcher, he told me the basics on oil stones and steel and later on a grinder. but i really learned a lot during my first training period (as a pro cook) with a japanese chef.

since then i've been sharpening almost daily, both my kitchen and pocket knives, sometimes with no real reason other than as a hobby. the only way i'm not really comfortable with is convex, i feel like i lose control on the edge geometry, it's certainly not true but i've never really tried to master it. i prefer convexing on stones ala japanese with 2 or more bevels blended together then polished.
 
My grandfather started and my dad bought me my first set of stones (arkansas) and gave me more info. From there it was practice. For years I used my grandfather's 3" x 0.75" x 3/8" pocket stone for everything. Its a wonder I ever got anywhere with just that. Oh to have the free time I had when I was 10.
 
My dad gave me my first knife at 7 (Case folder), and showed me how to use the soft Arkansas bench stone, which is still around today. It's only ever been that and the Sharpmaker for me.
 
Apparently I am still learning.
Growing up on a farm a knife was essential to daily activities, cutting twine off of bails of hay, cleaning out horses hooves, trimming said hooves, castrating calves in the spring, etc. My first real knife, to me, was a Buck 301 Stockman, which , along with the knife I also purchased a Buck honing kit, which consisted of a soft and hard Arkansas stone and honing oil. My father and brother did their best to teach me the proper way to hold the knife, slice into the stone and be consistent was the order of the day. I was 10 at the time and it wasn't until we went to my Grandparents house for Christmas the following year that I happened onto a Translucent Arkansas stone(I didn't know what that was at the time) in my Grandfathers Gun room. I remember how it felt, like glass, but smoother, almost powder like. I remember putting some honing oil on the stone and sitting in that room for most of the afternoon, patiently working on my knife. That was when it happened, I had never been able to actually shave hair off of my arm, I had heard that it could be done, I hadn't seen it before, didn't think I could do it. When I went upstairs i was on cloud nine, I let my father, brother and grandfather inspect the blade and then I showed them where there once had been hair on my arm. I was hooked. Just this past year I purchased a 3.5'' X 12'' Translucent Arkansas stone to pay homage to the little 1''X3'' stone I happened upon so many years ago in my Grandfather's gun room. I happily use this stone today as part of my gradation in the diamond stones.
 
I have always carried knives, but went through the same progressions as everyone else.

1)Use a knife forever, just because you don't really know what it SHOULD be.

2)Try to sharpen, then start taking them to someone else. That is when I started carrying two, one to work with, and one to keep sharp.

3)Learn to sharpen somewhat, and carry a knife that is somewhat sharp, but with an edge that doesn't last very long, or work very well. Factory edges are still the ne plus ultra.

4)Learn from someone whatever it is that you hadn't been getting, and start getting sharp knives. In my case, I was finally getting decent at freehand sharpening, though I didn't know enough to understand what was going on when things went wrong. Nevertheless, my edges were fairly close to factory sharpness, so I was happy, though sometimes, with limited equipment and knowledge, sharpening sessions were looooong.

5)Get into a set of diamond stones, strops, etc, and then start talking to knifenut, stitchawl, unit, and others around here and start getting crazy sharp edges that do all the things you didn't think were really possible with an edge. Then, instead of spending forever because you don't understand what is happening, you can spend forever going back to the white compound on maple after you polished over the edge with the green compound on leather... again. :D

Edited to add: I guess there are still a couple steps left to go, but I am not real anxious to start sharpening on cups and telling stories about the old days just yet, and if I get an Edge Pro I sure won't be talking about it in public. :p
 
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stitchawl said:
Hey, lets be fair.

So lets not condemn paper wheels out of hand. They do have a place. After all, not everyone wants a perfect edge.
Stitchawl
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So you're saying that the edge isn't perfect with the wheels.:p lol, just kidding. I agree with you 100%. It is just that I have to laugh every time the wheels come up, it's wired in my brain because of "the sharpening wars" going on :D
I think i"ll have to try them out too. Bought a cheap grinder 2 months ago to do some practicing. My CS kukri and lots of metal strips saw it up close and it works great to set a bevel. Must be almost the same technique for the paper wheels i guess. Machining is fun 2

Any Cal. said:
if I get an Edge Pro I sure won't be talking about it in public. :p
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Lol!
Is that because you would feel that you are 'cheating' somehow? That is how i feel...must be some sort of achievement drive I/we have..
It is some sort of quest for me to be able to do it with the least amount of help possible.. But then diamond stones are fabricated, so that does not count, waterstones the same..
But if you continue that train of thought, i will be sharpening on rocks i gathered myself...but that is not how far i want to go though ;)

So in the end, we are using all the help technology and artificial/man made abrasives give us. I guess the edge pro is very much allowed then..

Grrrr, i just reasoned myself one step closer to the EP :D
 
Any Cal. said:
...[SNIP of a good post just for space]... and if I get an Edge Pro I sure won't be talking about it in public. :p
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Wanna bet? :)

You will be sooo stoked about the edge and how ridiculously quick and easy it was to get that you will want to tell the world.

Just like we do! :D


Stitchawl
 
Originally Posted by stitchawl View Post
Hey, lets be fair. So lets not condemn paper wheels out of hand. They do have a place. After all, not everyone wants a perfect edge. Stitchawl
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zyhano said:
So you're saying that the edge isn't perfect with the wheels.:p lol, just kidding. I agree with you 100%.
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I hear ya! :) It's true. Paper wheels do give a good edge. No question about that. They just don't give a perfect edge. It takes a LOT of skill to hold a perfect bevel all along the edge when using powered sharpeners without platens or guides, and a whole lot more skill to keep that bevel uniform going around a curved edge. Without that skill the resulting edge may be quite sharp, but it looks messy and could well be made sharper. But, as I said before, it you have dozens and dozens of knives to sharpen every day, day after day, for people who aren't as discerning as most knife collectors but still require a functional sharp knife, paper wheels work very, very well!

I think i"ll have to try them out too. Bought a cheap grinder 2 months ago to do some practicing. [SNIP] Machining is fun 2
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You should try them. And you're correct, machining IS fun (if you are doing it as a hobby and not standing at a milling machine 8 hours a day...) You'll be able to turn out some nice knives. Having knowledge of edge geometry is important when using power sharpening systems just as it is in free hand work. I shudder to think of what a newbie can do to a good blade with a grinder... I worked with paper wheels for several months back when I had a workshop set up so I could keep large power tools out all the time. They were fun, interesting, and quick, but I never really liked the edges I got. I wound up only using it for really large, heavy duty blades that didn't require any finesse. Eventually, I even stopped using it for them, switch the wheels back to grinding and buffing, and used the machine for jewelry making instead.

So in the end, we are using all the help technology and artificial/man made abrasives give us. I guess the edge pro is very much allowed then..
Grrrr, i just reasoned myself one step closer to the EP :D
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Welcome to the Dark Side, Luke. :D May the Force be with you.

Stitchawl
 
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I don't have any problems at all with an EP. If my question was "How do I get shiny V edges in the least amount of time?", I would buy one in a heartbeat. As it is, my requirements are "How can I get the sharpest knife with the least amount of components, the most versatility, in the smallest amount of space?". And I answer that question with a set of DMT stones and a few unmounted strops.

Mostly, I didn't want someone adding to my post: Step 6: Buy an EdgePro and be satisfied for the rest of your life. :D
 
8 years old with a dmt red stone, my dad showed me how basicly(hes no expert). I ruined several knives with that stone. i kept at it sharpening and doing little project with that stone. I finally made my way to youtube where i saw videos. then i found bladeforums now i have a dmt aligner. an arkansas stone, and 2 strops.
 
I started December of last year. I read these forums and bought a DMT aligner + converted a broken belt into 4 strops. Before then I didn't have much in the way of knives to sharpen (my SAK & LM Wave were my only personal knives). So I was 42 when I started, and I'm still 42.
 
stitchawl said:
I hear ya! :) It takes a LOT of skill to hold a perfect bevel all along the edge when using any sharpener without platens or guides, and a whole lot more skill to keep that bevel uniform going around a curved edge. Without that skill the resulting edge may be quite sharp, but it looks messy and could well be made sharper.
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Fixed that for ya.
 
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