How do you all sharpen your knives?

PS: turns out to answer your questions took a small novella. Brace yourself.

How do you guys and gals sharpen your knives? If you free hand on a stone, why?
I usually touch up a knife that is near sharp (cuts but won't shave) using a ceramic Ultra Fine triangle or 8,000 small hand held water stone; (4,000 if needed first). They are usually old Norton water stones. For my woodworking hand plane blades I ALWAYS touch up in a jig because I need precise control of the edge geometry and they have more wear by the time I sharpen (see bellow).
Why sharpen the knives hand held with a very small stone ? It is simpler than getting out the guided system and for the knives it only takes a few light strokes in the right place and we are whittling hair again.

Or if you use a guided system, why?
I ALWAYS use a guided system for major sharpening; especially reprofiling and when polishing the whole main edge bevel so it looks flat and precise (I like the way it looks). Doesn't mean I might not knock the corner off the transition between the main surface of the side of the knife and the bevel as I go along.
Why ? Because when it comes to metal working, machine guided is more precise and more brainless than screwing up my eyes and holding my tongue just right for long periods to hand sharpen my way through several grits to reprofile and polish a bevel.

If you have water stones, do you have a diamond stone to help with dull super steels?
Yes I have a couple of very coarse diamond plates ten inches long and hand bevel the super steels on those reprofile only. Sounds contradictory to what I just wrote about the guided system. I only have two S110V knives and only one needed to be reprofiled on the diamond plate. I have a full set of smaller DMT "Aligner" stones that I can fudge into my Edge Pro for those two knives but light hand held touch up is mostly what they need now. I just bought a 940 with S90V but have done no reprofiling to it and only light work with the finest two diamond plates. I don't plan on ever reprofiling the 940 due to the cool guy dull gray coating that is on it.
So really at this stage I don't need proper diamond stones for the Edge Pro. Maybe some day I will get them but the more I work with the slightly lesser "Super steels" like M390 and M4 the more I like those and can use my Shapton Glass Edge Pro stones for those. So far anyway.

Or just a bit more time spent on your water stones?
I have found it to be a mistake to sharpen S110V on anything but diamond. The results were very sharp but also VERY short lived. DIAMOND IS THE WAY TO GO WITH THAT STEEL.

How often do you true your stones back?
For large woodworking hand plane blades quite often; after every ten blades or so for Shapton Pros some what more often for softer water stones.
For the pocket knives I run them over a diamond plate when I can no longer get the surface clean using a nagura stone. I use a nagura stone any time I am working with the finer stones but only to clean them not make slurry.

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.
I always use full size stones while standing up, whether hand sharpening or using a jig (for the woodworking tools).
Occasionally I will use the triangle rod or small hand held stones while sitting down.

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.

I find recurves very easy to sharpen hand held using round or very narrow (1/2" wide) water stones. Though I don't have but a couple of those blades. And I don't go for the high polish on those just a shave sharp usable edge.

Mostly it boils down to how much metal do I have to move and how many things do I need to sharpen in one sitting. For instance if I have one drill bit that is not too beat up I will busss out the little diamond paddles and free hand it. If I have several bits or if they are just really beat up I will unbox my Drill Doctor bit sharpener and have fun with that (diamond coated barrel in it). Some of the bits are cobalt so I use diamond and do not go for any kind of mirror ha, ha, ha.
 
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I am not very good at sharpening on my diamond stone, I keep scratching up the sides of my knives and making them look crap, I am looking at sharpening clip on guides, I read a few reviews on Amazon one reviewer said the guide he bought left a lot of scratch marks on his knife and posted a photo which looked quite bad.
 
So I started on an arkansas stone many moons ago... went to a sharpmaker.... then japanese water stones... then I came to this site and was introduced to richardj's posts. It has never been sharper, and never been quicker. Wish I did this years ago.

 
Started sharpmaker, then DMT duosharps. Experimenting with Norton economy and FortyTwoBlades Arctic fox stone as I'm frustrated with the limitations of the interrupted surface DMT. I cannot get consistent feedback, especially during the scrubbing/shaping phase of sharpening, and often the tips of small knives get caught in the holes. I get so distracted by the uneven feeling of the blade moving over the hole-filled steel plate and the stone, and worrying about not hooking the knife tip in a hole, it makes it hard to pay attention to good sharpening form which, right now, is the number 1 thing I need to focus on.

Seriously considered guided system such as WE, and understand why some folks use them. But after talking with folks here, I decided to stay away for these reasons:
  • Complexity. Too many gadgets to setup and fuss with (and potentially, break), too many moving parts, too many add-ons to buy to get it just right.
  • Expense. I can afford one of these systems personally, so that wasn't the deciding factor for me. But I care about VALUE, and these systems are really spendy when you get all the add-ons and etc. There are few solutions I know of that are totally free (unless you're sharpening on a good rock or the bottom of a coffee mug), so if somebody makes that counterpoint, I agree. But there are definitely some minimalist stone setups you can get into that will do an awesome job and are a lot less than the guided systems with a full array of grits and add-ons.
  • Lack of portability. I want to have the skill to freehand sharpen when I'm backpacking, and if I don't sharpen that way at home, learned hand-eye skills like freehand sharpening will deteriorate. I try to backpack light, and something like a Sharpmaker is WAY to bulky and heavy to lug along with a full backpacking loadout. You generally wouldn't want anything larger than say a small 2-sided stone.
  • For me, a guided system takes all the fun and most of the skill out of it. I'm not sharpening professionally, so I'm not in a hurry. This is like a diversion from my day job, I want to learn the skill of sharpening freehand, versus using some gadget that has every detail locked down and preset.
I'm not opposed to the sharpening gadgets and get why people use them in some cases. Commercial sharpeners for example, need to sharpen fast and at high volume to make a profit, and they need to get highly consistent cosmetically perfect edges, so I get why a lot of them use guided systems or belt grinders, etc. And I may eventually have to get something like an EP or WE myself, for health reasons, as I have a form of hereditary neuropathy and pressure palsy that is degrading the feeling in my hands. But as long as I'm able to freehand sharpen, that's really the approach I enjoy.

One other comment, slightly tangential from the rest of my post: I'm interested with the creative use of the Sharpmaker system that a couple folks in the thread have discussed. I still plan to focus on learning on my new stones, and getting good at those. But I'll probably never get rid of my sharpmaker, it's a really handy system for fast touch-ups especially on nice folders where there's no edge damage, and it's also handy for my wife to use. Even beyond that, it's interesting to see folks adapting Sharpmaker to use it in some freehand approaches, I had never tried that.
 
I freehand on a variety of waterstones and diamond plates (mostly just for personal pleasure anymore unless it is a japanese style knife), I also sharpen on a belt grinder ( don't freak out I do a good job), and I have a 8 inch bench grinder with a wolverine jig system for major repair work. I am looking at getting a twice as sharp for scissors and shears, a tormek t8 to do woodworking tools, and a oregon lawnmower blade sharpener for doing lawnmower blades. Also will end up getting a chainsaw sharpener just haven't decided which one I want yet. I know you asked just about knIves but I like to sharpen anything.
 
I currently use a set of arkansas pocket stones (soft, hard, surgical black) for most knives. I use a triangular shaped portable lansky brand stone for serrated edges. I use a cheap mystery brand stone for major reprofiling of damaged edges. I use a piece of scrap leather with some simichrome polish as a strop to get a really fine edge. In addition to these I have ordered a 1 by 30 to see about developing a faster technique.
The one by 30 came in and I have only used a leather belt with white compound so far, works great.
 
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I do all my sharpening by hand on stones. SiC, India & diamond. I have several different leather strops loaded with slurry. I work to remove
the burr on the final stone. DM
 
New guy here with, what may be a stupid question.
Is it possible to reprofile and sharpen S110V on a Ken Onion Worksharp carbide belt?
Thanks
 
New guy here with, what may be a stupid question.
Is it possible to reprofile and sharpen S110V on a Ken Onion Worksharp carbide belt?
Thanks
I believe you should open a new thread with this question but to answer but my guess is yes, you can.
Is not the system that prevents you to perform a efficient sharpening. Are the abrasives.
There is a thread here that title is something like: “can I sharpen S30V, S110V... on ceramic stones?” My guess is yes buuuuuut... you will wear out the abrasive more than blade.
If you put two metals in friction for a year, by the end of the year the harder will have worn out less but both will have wear.
I work with alcohol industry and is what we see in mechanichal parts.
The bagasse of sugar cane puts a mirrored finish on a piece of raw stainless steel, but by the half/end of a year.
I'm sorry for the subject that has nothing to do, but it was just to illustrate.
 
I have a wicked edge that I have been using for re profiling and edge maintenance , but I just purchased a sharpmaker so I can put a microbevel on and use it for faster touchups. Anyone else use this combo?
 
I believe you should open a new thread with this question but to answer but my guess is yes, you can.
Is not the system that prevents you to perform a efficient sharpening. Are the abrasives.
There is a thread here that title is something like: “can I sharpen S30V, S110V... on ceramic stones?” My guess is yes buuuuuut... you will wear out the abrasive more than blade.
If you put two metals in friction for a year, by the end of the year the harder will have worn out less but both will have wear.
I work with alcohol industry and is what we see in mechanichal parts.
The bagasse of sugar cane puts a mirrored finish on a piece of raw stainless steel, but by the half/end of a year.
I'm sorry for the subject that has nothing to do, but it was just to illustrate.

Thanks Brasileiro, I will.
 
I am no professional sharpener. Usually I prefer to avoid any major reprofiling myself. If an edge is truly poor enough that it needs to be reprofiled I will often have that professionally done, especially on harder steels. Even with my sharpmaker diamond rods I find it very hard to reprofile.

Other than that I just use my sharpmaker stones freehand to touch up the edge. I hold the knife in one hand and the sharpmaker rod in the other. This is so I can match the angle of the edge. I prefer this to being able to only do 30 or 40 deg inclusive with the sharpmaker jig. As long as I keep touching up the edge it lasts and lasts and lasts.
 
I started with a sharpmaker a few years ago when I got my first "good" knife. Found it only seemed to work to maintain a sharp edge which was fine since I lived less than a mile from a good knife shop I could have sharpen for me when they got where I couldn't get them back with the sharpmaker. I didn't really have much interest in learning myself.
Fast forward to now, I live in the middle of nowhere and decided I was going to learn to sharpen. I learned how affordable a power system like a paper wheel setup could be. Got a harbor freight buffer and paper wheels a month or so ago. Before that I had never experienced a really sharp knife it turns out. Love the wheels for the knives that are not too bad.
Since I'm a bit obsessed now I did just pick up a harbor freight 1x30 belt sander for regrinds and reprofiling. Waiting on belts to arrive tomorrow.
For some reason using stones and sharpening by hand has no appeal to me.
 
I was born with 10 or 11 thumbs and use my EdgePro with Chosera stones.

I'm jealous watching gods like Michael Christy on YT. He makes it look so easy, but I don't think I could ever attain that level of skill.
 
I use a Russian jig type sharpener called the TS-Prof K-02. I also use occasionally my Spyderco sharpmaker for touch-ups and to maintain my kitchen knives. I love my Sharp maker, but since I got the TS-Prof K-02, it is by far my favorite sharpening tool.
 
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