How do you all sharpen your knives?

[OldNavy]

For garden tools, and major repairs/re-profiling I use a Belt Grinder with a VFD.

For kitchen knives & better folders I use water stones

 

[22-rimfire]

I mostly free hand on a Norton oil stone or DMT diamond stones of a couple different grit sizes. I have a Ken Onion Work Sharp, but have yet to use it. Funny... I was excited about getting one after watching demonstrations at Blade a couple of years ago. I haven't even taken it out of the box.

 

[jc57]

Freehand mostly. Different stones/hones/plates/strops for different needs. Sharpmaker sometimes for touchups.

 

[afishhunter]

If they need it, I'll free hand on a stone, or use a Smith's rod-guided set, depending on the knife.
But, roughly 98.89% of the time, a strop is all I need to keep them arm hair shaving sharp.
No modern "super steels", just 440A, and 425HC, 4116 Krupp class stainless and 1065 and 1095 carbon steel, for the most part.
The only "super steel" knife I have is a Sarge BSA Barlow with 440C blades.

 

[Lapedog]

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.

You know there are two slots on the bottom of the Sharpmaker so you can use two rods flat as a stone. However the black sharpmaker box can make this position tricky to use in some cases.

So here's a life hack. Use rubber bands to bundle three Sharpmaker rods together in this configuration. Imagine you are looking at the Sharpmaker rods from the end on. AVA the two A's are sharpmaker rods viewed from the end with their corners turned up. The V in the middle is a third rod viewed end on with its flat side up. Now you have a self standing bundle and can use the flat of the "V" stone.

 

[TheEdge01]

You know there are two slots on the bottom of the Sharpmaker so you can use two rods flat as a stone. However the black sharpmaker box can make this position tricky to use in some cases.

So here's a life hack. Use rubber bands to bundle three Sharpmaker rods together in this configuration. Imagine you are looking at the Sharpmaker rods from the end on. AVA the two A's are sharpmaker rods viewed from the end with their corners turned up. The V in the middle is a third rod viewed end on with its flat side up. Now you have a self standing bundle and can use the flat of the "V" stone.

Cool!!! Thats a neat idea, I'll give it a try.

 

[PNWhovian]

DMT bench stones(blue and red), the duo fold sets from x-coarse to xx-fine(black, blue, red, green, tan) and a large knivesshipfree double sided paddle strop with black/green preloaded sides.
On the go I take the blue/red DMT duofold and a either small preloaded paddle strop or a rolled belt strop.

 

[SV-97]

My journey through different sharpening equipment has been as follows:
Sharpmaker(with ultra fines) which is a great system but always felt like more of a touchup system rather than something to actually sharpen with.
But still, the sharpmaker got me hooked on the show game, so I got some naniwa stones(professional 800 and 10k) to freehand with. The 10k stone really made me experience new levels of sharpness. Amazed with the quality of an edge a waterstone gets you I wanted to get some more grits and thought to myself why not do so with a fixed angle system.
An Edgepro clone was the next acquisition. It worked great but I found it too tiring too use for reprofiling especially with wear resistant steels(at this point I really started to hate D2 ) So guess what: another system incoming.
A Worksharp(KO) was what I decided on but I quickly found it to be not for me and that I'd stick with manual systems; the Worksharp just didn't offer the precision I desired.

So after some searching around and not wanting to do it I finally got a wicked edge with the 1200/1600k and 0,5micron ceramics and haven't looked back since. At this point my sharpening skills were already at a rather high level(or so I'd say) and so I set basic angles with the WE and finished everything free hand. Fast forward some time and I have knives too small to put on the wicked edge.
Tormach had the solution for that and I could sharpen most stuff with the WE. After getting a 3D printer I further accessorised the WE to be able to do offset blades and had a friend make me a strop(yep just at the very end I got a strop as I just didn't need it with the 10k stone)

So after this journey this is where I'm at. Put everything on the WE in some way or another, except for straight razors which are freehand exclusive and stuff I want convex which goes sandpaper ->waterstones. With this setup I'm fairly confident to be able to sharpen everything you throw at me to a mirror

tl/dr naniwa professional 800 and 10k grit and a wicked edge with all kinds of attachments

 

[Comeuppance]

I went from sharpening freehand to using smith kit that I later found out was basically a clone of the sharpmaker, then a KME sharpening system that I was overall displeased with, and, penultimately, I was using a Wicked Edge that took absolutely freaking forever to set up.

So I sold my WE and bought a Ken Onion Work Sharp and the blade grinder attachment. I just sharpened six knives back to a shaving edge from too-dull-to-cut-tape in about half an hour. It may not be the most elegant or perfect system in the world, but it's effective and considerably more time-efficient than anything else I've used.

I liked putting mirror edges on things with the WE, but, honestly, I could spend a half hour (or more) making it glisten or I could spend 5 minutes just making it sharp - and the edge will last just as long either way.

 

[emjay4248]

Touch ups on the Sharpmaker. I use KME sharpener with diamond stones up to 1500 grit and Strop with 5 micron CBN solution for working edge. For a polished edge I don,t Strop and I continue polishing with Wet/Dry sandpaper (3M Black) starting at 400 grit to 5,000 grit for polished edge and and continue to 12,000 grit for a show edge. I use the sandpaper because it is much cheaper than Lapping tape. I also don't lap because my5 Micron CBN solution is only equivalent to 4,500 grit. You can find a conversion chart on line, it will take the guesswork out of trying to figure out the Micron = Grit problem. Eventually I plan on getting a Tormek machine and cut sharpening time to 20 minutes.
Have fun

 

[RadialBladeworks]

Soooo getting into sharpening, I first busted out the Edge Pro with stock, then eventually Shapton Glass stones.

Got great results, but ultimately sharpening folders and small knives proved to be quite frustrating with blade rocking (even with a neodymium magnet installed--although that upgrade does work like magic) and tip-widening.

I graduated to the Tech Studio K02. Here I learned two things: I will never use anything but electroplated diamond hones of equal thickness, and I will never use a jig sharpener to take anything past about a 1200 grit edge.

The first was because I hated the constant measuring and remeasuring of the angle. Fidget factor was through the roof

The second was because even with an incredibly premium system like the K02, small imprecisions resulted in the extreme difficulty of maintaining the exact same angle. My measuring equipment was accurate to a hundreth of a degree, but even that wasn't enough when you took something up to 8k or 16k. Essentially, even with a rather sophisticated jamb that I invented which allowed for infinite adjustment, I would always end up hitting either the shoulder of the bevel or the very apex, thereby functionally sharpening my knife, but also dividing my bevel (an aesthetics complaint).

Perhaps the WE is even sturdier, but I still can't stand angle measuring and the fidgeting of actually locking the blade in.

With this extensive knowledge of apex creation and refinement, I decided Japanese waterstones were the way to go. With hundreds of hours of practice, I am quite proficient. It is now the fastest and easiest way for me to slap any edge I need on a blade. Technically speaking it is also the cheapest too.

I used to be obsessed with mirror-edged hair whittlers, but now for daily use, I'll set a bevel with a DMT EC and refine it to 1k, then strop on a hard surface with Tormek 8k paste (literally just Autosol but more expensive) for a toothy laser of an edge.

 

[Ace Rimmer]

Always done freehand ever since my father taught me as a young boy. I wasn't always very good at it (I don't think he was either) but I've improved a lot over the years -- I think. Used a Buck Washita stone for a long time and an EZ-LAP diamond rod occasionally. Recently tried a Lansky Turnbox and it seems good but I still prefer freehand. I'm getting more comfortable with diamond "stones" and recently bought an EZ-LAP 1200-grit one that seems to do a nice job for edge maintenance, followed with a fine ceramic rod, a Vic or Opinel mini-steel, and/or a home-made leather strop glued to a board. Frankly, the more I learn about sharpening the simpler it seems to get. I'm not dealing with fancy steels and have mostly Case, Schrade (USA) and Rough Rider traditionals.

 

[RadialBladeworks]

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.

Honestly man, leather is overrated. I strop on a marble tile with hockey tape as my compound substrate. I spent a lot of money on leather strops and I personally don't really see any better performance

 

[GJJGrappler]

Just got a Work Sharp Ken Onion Edition a few days and love it. Sharpened a boat load of knives and scissors in no time at all. Hair popping sharp. There is something "romantic" about sharpening freehand and I still plan on touching up my knives with stones but for really dull blades the Work Sharp is a real time saver.

 

[W. Anderson]

Sharpmaker rods freehand. Like em better than flat stones. I hold the knife in one hand and the rod in the other.

Same here, those corners make sharpening hawksbills a breeze.

 

[ATJ999]

I freehand most of the time

For a complete resharpening I use my " The Sharp machine"(if you ever think about getting one, don't use the website, thesharpshoponline dot com, that is a distributor that no longer works with them). It is an incredible sharpener! I can get any knife, any steel, hair popping in less than 10 minutes, usually less than 5 for smaller knives. You could open a sharpening business with this thing it is SO easy. Downside, it is expensive, but some of the manual guided sharpeners are up there in price too. I only wish I would have found out about it early on! I have gone through tons of sharpeners, used a lot of money finding a good one.

When I do freehand, I use Sharpmaker tri stones freehand, along with some diamond stones and a strop. Arkansas stones get in the mix too.

 

[Velitrius]

I got all kinds of stuff... Sharpmaker, WorkSharp machine, hell even some old Carborundum stones in the vintage cardboard.

My favorite? Some VG-10, AUS-8, 1095 or 420HC on the bottom of a coffee mug, stropped with newspaper for the finish.

Dang but I enjoy that.

 

[BenjaminRush]

KME or Shapmaker for me... I'm terrible at freehand and don't have the patience to learn

 

[Lapedog]

Same here, those corners make sharpening hawksbills a breeze.

I actually sharpen inside curves with the flat sides of the rods. This way the two corners of the flat are in contact woth two seperate points on the hooked or recurved edge. First of all it gives more contact area so it is easier to feel when my edge kinda went "click" as it laid flat againt the corners of the flat side of the rod.

It took some time to become decent at sharpening double freehand like that, rod in one hand and blade in the other. I am no expert sharpener, but I can keep my knives that have decent edge profiles set sharp again and again with touchups. Reprofiles and regrinds go to the local Japanese knife sharpener.

The thing is it took me FOREVER to fix a chip on my small 21 s35vn using the sharpmaker medium rods. I want to get some better sharpening medium for jobs that require more metal removal. Until recently I hadn't considered diamond systems viable because of bad experience with the Spyderco diamond rods. I have been told finer diamond grit will make the stones far more user friendly compared to the overly coarse spydie rods. I also have heard good things about the Shapton stones.

So here are my questions for those of you who skipped to the bottom:

1. Is the Shapton glass stone the same asnthe shapton more loosely sintered ceramics?

2. Shapton stones vs diamond systems for removing more material than sharpmaker medium rods for reprofiling and fixing chips etc.

 

[Aldebaran]

FYI, I just watched a video where the owner of the company Edge Pro said that diamonds should never be used to sharpen knives.......