How often do you sharpen to the 'extreme?'

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wvdavidr

Joined
Mar 21, 2007
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370
Hello all,
There are lots of videos and postings of people using the Wicked Edge, Edge Pro, and freehanding with strops, tapes, etc.. The goal is to produce a hair-whittling edge or being able to cut a piece of paper into layers (cut the print off of the paper without going through). I have experimented with this some, but don't think it's a good use of time for anything but a showpiece. I'll go through a few stones or use the paper wheels for a really good edge that I'll use. I actually don't want to use the knife after putting an hour or more into producing an edge with strops and tapes- I'd rather use a factory edge for every day use.

My questions: Do you go through the stages to produce extremely refined edges (WEPS with the strops, EP with tapes, etc.)? If so, how often? Do you use the knives after doing that?

Good sharpening,
Dave
 
If I could quickly have a mirrored edge, I would opt for it more often.
Lately I just want to have a sharp knife, so I have been sharpening with my 325grit DMT and stropping. Quick, easy and reasonably aggressive.
 
wvdavidr said:
I'll use the paper wheels for a really good edge that I'll use. I actually don't want to use the knife after putting an hour or more into producing an edge with strops and tapes- My questions: Do you go through the stages to produce extremely refined edges (WEPS with the strops, EP with tapes, etc.)? If so, how often? Do you use the knives after doing that?
Good sharpening,
Dave
Click to expand...

I took the liberty to edit your question to basically answer with your words, my feelings and how I normally sharpen MY knives that I am going to use myself. I have done some "novelty" edges and have been hesitant to actually use the knife afterwards. I sharpen my knives with my paper wheels, and can shave hair, push cut phone book paper in both directions, and use them on whatever I need to for every day use. I then tune them back up with the slotted wheel to their previous state, and ready to use again, sharp as a tack. Five or six minutes tops spent on sharpening, including the next tune up.

I enjoy sharpening knives, but I don't have to spend two hours on each one to enjoy the act of sharpening them. I get my enjoyment on how easy and trouble free it is to sharpen and maintain that edge with very little time spent on each one. Easy, effective, enjoyable!

Blessings,

Omar
 
I went to the extreme for a short period but eventually got tired of going through all the steps. In testing I found such a marginal difference between 1000 grit and 100,000 grit or even 8000 grit that I started going back to a more practical and balanced edge that was related to the types of cutting I did.

Having such great levels of sharpness at hand can be impressive at times and a little fun but it does nothing for real world cutting.
 
wvdavidr, i know a lot of guys get some sort of relaxation and enjoyment out of sharpening by hand but i feel the same way as you. i think its a waste of time to spend hours or days to sharpen a knife when you can put a quick edge on a knife by not going so fine in grit in a few minutes that will do a good job and give you more time to do other things well worth the time saved by a quick sharpening job. i started this thread a while back. check it out. http://www.bladeforums.com/forums/showthread.php?t=819683

have you ever used your slotted wheel to maintain your edges instead of working up a new burr each time?
 
I'll typically spend about two or three hours putting an acute (10 degree per side bevel) on a new knife. After that I can maintain an edge using high grit (sub 7 or so micron) stones. You should only need to go back through to the lower grit sizes for repair or if you need to thin the bevel again.

Some people prefer coarser edges for utility, but since I like sharpening so much I take it further than most--again, primarily for my own amusement.
 
"Extreme" for me is about a minute on a bare leather strop. My Worksharp makes even S125V almost insultingly easy to sharpen(the bigger concern is grinding too much metal off). With typical sharpening I go through 180MX, 240MX, 400MX, and a Mother's Mag polish loaded belt, 5 strokes per side each. 5 minutes, and I can whittle hair. An extra minute on the bare leather strop, and the edge will pop hairs off my legs without touching the skin at all.

And people say laziness is a bad thing:rolleyes:.
 
I keep my knives extremely sharp. I put all of them on the EdgePro at least 3-4 times a year. At that point, kitchen knives that get used get touched up weekly on a SharpMaker, and 'steeled' on a borocillicate glass rod before each use. My EDC gets stropped if it gets used, about 10-15 strokes on a bare horse hide strop. Any fixed blade knife that gets used outdoors gets a quick touch-up on a water stone if needed. I like my knives too much to sharpen them every day or every week. I have the first 'good' pocket knife, a Buck 'Stockman,' that I got when I was 23. (43 years ago.) I thought I was supposed to sharpen it every week, so I did. In just a few years, half of the blade had been ground away. Still works, but these days I know better...

Stitchawl
 
My personal preference has changed, I originally thought the 1k stone from my EP was polished, and began liking the 600 grit stone, new to me was the changeover from the 320 to 400 grit stones that Ben Dale sells. Now 400 grit is my preferred edge for EDC work.

Novelty edges, on occasion are still fun and relaxing.
 
I sharpen quite often.
I want a semi-refined edge on my edc's, usually finishing off on a 5000 Grit Chosera.
Once a proper geometry is established on a blade, this takes but a few minutes to maintain every now and then.

For my more delicate knives I will further refine the edge, but those knives are used accordingly.
Meaning I won't cut sheets of drywall for hours on end with them.

I'd say about 90% of my sharpening\honing is done freehand.
The rest is done on a Edge-pro system.

I do love to hone steel, be it straights, Kitchen knives or folders:)






Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk 2
 
Depends on what you mean by extreme. I'm still learning sharpening, so I feel it's educational to (attempt to) produce extreme edges, but I also experiment with coarser variants. I have a pair of kurouchi carbon steel knives in the kitchen and those feel like they were made for water stone sharpening and get extremely sharp without much effort. Perhaps I should try maintaining them with a strop for a while.
 
i sharpen to the extreme. but a little differently. i go through 220- 16000 as that is what i own. i carry on me 220-8000 though. for me, as ive been freehand sharpening for ten years and it started quite obsessive. as far as user knives, my edc roles are light enough that i keep novelty edges on ost of my knives, just because it doesnt take me very long. ill sometimes sit down with my finest stone and strop and just sit and polish my edges of whatever knives im into at the time, or a large percent of my whole collection, and this doesnt even take an hour. i have my leatherman blade for scraping and edge abuse. i have a cold steel spartan for a hard use folder which still doesnt get very dull before i sharpen it. but i have a few very thinly ground knives for shaving, novelty demo, fun, that work great when i need to use them. so maybe for me its just that i dont feel time is lost because 1 it doesnt take me long, 2 it doesnt get very damaged between sharpenings 3 sharpening is fun.
 
I polish all my knives and while they are sharp enough to shave they also retain sharpness for about 32 service hours (or 4 work days) before re polishing.

After almost a decade doing sushi/kitchen I found my technique for straightrazor sharpness but durable, all I touch is a 8000 grit.
 
Most of my knives and customer knives I end off around 5-8k. But I always edc one showy blade that has been through a full progression of shaptons and polycrystalline sprays from Ken , right down to 0.025micron.
 
Skimo said:
My personal preference has changed, I originally thought the 1k stone from my EP was polished, and began liking the 600 grit stone, new to me was the changeover from the 320 to 400 grit stones that Ben Dale sells. Now 400 grit is my preferred edge for EDC work.

Novelty edges, on occasion are still fun and relaxing.
Click to expand...
I'm pretty much with you. The edge I put on a knife is dependent on what it will be used for as well as the steel. The more wear resistant the steel, the lower the grit I'll use since it can maintain that level longer. My camping/hunting knives get the 600grit EP stone on my Edge Pro at most.
Contego -- 400 grit.
Presido in M4 -- 600grit (lower HT).
950 Rift -- 600grit
581 Barrage in M390 -- 400grit.
Survive GSO-4.1 in M390 -- 400grit.
586 mini-Barrage in M390 -- 1000grit (office/church/dress).
812s-LH lefty mini-AFCK in ATS-34 -- as high as it can take. Haven't had a ton of luck sharpening it even though it's supposed to be identical to 154CM.
 
I love it when I sharpen one of my knives blistering sharp. Polished to a mirror finish, and will fillet paper. However, they don't stay that way long, when you cut a ton of cardboard and such, which I do.

I find, that once I have my bevel set, I can use my Sharpmaker, with the brown stones, and it will shave, and stays that way a bit. It touches up plenty fast as well. YMMV
 
Easy for me, I just start with the corners of the SharpMaker's brown rods (if needed) and go to the flats of the white ones. Works for me. I tried an low-angle mirror-polish bevel once and halfway through though eh, it cuts anything I can find to cut, it must be good enough :thumbup:
 
Finest i go is a fine stone. It cuts stuff and thats all i need. if i need to shave i use a gilet razor. if i need to get words off paper i use an erasor.
 
I've been nothing but impressed with the older ats34 blades from Benchmade, and from my experience generally cuts better than 154cm.

Glad to see we're in about the same boat for sharpening. :)
 
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