How do you all sharpen your knives?

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bobshoy

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Jul 22, 2017
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How do you guys and gals sharpen your knives? If you free hand on a stone, why? Or if you use a guided system, why? If you have water stones, do you have a diamond stone to help with dull super steels? Or just a bit more time spent on your water stones? How often do you true your stones back?

I really enjoy using my stones. Something relaxing about sitting down with half a dozen knives when they need a sharpen. Something that feels romantic and old school about it.

Although sometimes I do wish I had bought a guided sharpening system, easier to use, harder to make a mistake and can sharpen knives with a recurve edge a lot easier.

Here is my setup thus far.

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I freehand sharpen on a few basic old school double sided stones and keep my edges honed on the bottom of a coffee mug as needed.

The double sided stones are inexpensive and they work, I love low cost high value knives with non fancy steels that suit my needs just fine and are easy to sharpen and maintain on these inexpensive stones.

I can understand wanting an expensive sharpening system, but I just don't need one.
 
Spyderco Sharpmaker with a few levels of coarse stones from Congress Tools and the extra fine set from Spyderco.

It is simple to use, keeps all my blades consistent, and my wife can (and does) use it too, so I don't have to touch up knives quite as often.

I recently used my Sharpmaker when visiting my aunt and uncle to reprofile and sharpen almost ALL of their kitchen knives. It took several hours spaced over a few days (mostly while chatting and catching up), but a visiting professional chef had no complaints when I was done with them. Since a few of the blades had no edge when I started (they looked like dull butter knives), I can say it exceeded expectations.... Which reminds me : I need to send a Sharpmaker to them as a gift. :)

I admit, I do have some DMT DuoSharp stones and a simple whetstone too, but I rarely use them anymore.

Enjoy.
 
I love the SharpMaker too. It comes with medium and fine rods, I added the extra fine and CBN rods. It does a lovely job, and it handles those recurves just fine
 
Love my Shapton Kuromaku waterstones, challenging at first but finally got the knack for the feel and sound. I use the 1000, 2000 and 5000 most. The 3 step system is surprisingly fast with just a few min on each stone vs a double sided one with grits a little too far apart. I agree, something is very serene and fulfilling about getting to that wicked sharp edge. I also have a DMT extra coarse that I use for damaged knives and lapping.
 
On my lower end knives I can be lazy and use a coffee cup. Actually can get a razor edge on my Vics and Cases. For my Trestle Pines I have a Smith's guided system, kind of like Lansky but sold by big box.
 
I sharpen my blades by using freehand method, using three different local whetstones I have.
I actually don't use assisted sharpener because of the budget but after I know how to sharpen them freehand, I don't find any reason to buy assisted sharpener system anymore.
 
I have used spyderco ceramic whet stones for a while now. I really dig them. I like to sharpen free hand and I like to be able to easily reprofile edges and do little tweaks. I would also see it as better option for large outdoors knives.

As for the ceramic, I like the casual style as you can start sharpening with them instantly without any preparation. I think I want to get traditional water stones some day however.. but for now, they work really well for me.
 
I use an 6" 600/1200 diamond stone, and DMT 325/600 fold sharpener for touch-ups, And cardboard to strop, I need a leather belt or strop.
 
Sharpening steel, whetstone, diamond stick, strop (actually belt as areal strop costs $150).
 
I sharpen freehand on a Norton India stone and DMT duosharp and I have a Hapstone guided sharpener that I'll use when I have 10 or more knives at a time to sharpen. I find the guided system to be much faster when I have a lot do do.
 
I freehand with a Norton Combination stone if it really needs sharpening. Normally I use 400, 600, 1000, 1500 grit emory on a paint stirrer. Works very well and gets my blades very, very sharp. I also have a ceramic 1000 grit bench stone which I like very much. Easier to keep a sharp knife sharp than to sharpen a really dull blade.

Rich
 
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I use the Spyderco Sharpmaker, but I don't use the 30 and 40 degree slots. I find it easier and get better results using the slot at the end of the case that is meant for scissor sharpening. It's sort of like sharpening free hand.
 
For powered sharpening, I use a Work Sharp Ken Onion with optional blade grinding attachment. For guided manual sharpening, I use either an Edge Pro Apex or a KME (different knives are easier for me to do on one or the other). For freehand sharpening, I have a plastic tub with a few different random water stones with a stone holder and flattening plate from sharpeningsupplies.com. I've gotten rid of my old oil stones, just because the water stones are so much less messy. For touch ups, I generally use either a Sharpmaker or a Lansky Master's Edge crock stick system, depending upon the angle I need, though I also have a couple homemade strops with some white Matchless compound on them. I think I have all possible sharpening situations covered at this point. :D:thumbsup:
 
Free hand with a couple different stones and finish or touch up with a coarse and fine Diafold. I tried a Work Sharp and did not care for it for a couple of reason. I will use it without a guide for axes and hatchets.--KV
 
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