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How Sharps Your Knife?

oXide said:
Mine aren't very sharp atm because all I have to sharpen them is a $5 hand held ceramic rod sharpener set at about 30*, I'll fix this issue when I get more funds, but for now mine just have a workable edge, not paper safe.
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Ox, If you can find some old leather and some polishing paste I suggest you make yourself a strop, It makes an amazing difference! Just gotta lean how much pressure you should put on it and at what angle :).
 
TwinStick said:
Most of mine will cut paper & shave arm/leg hair. A knife should be able to be brought back to that state after batoning, with just one swipe on each side of the blade, on a butchers steel or ceramic stick. Beckers will.
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I once tried to chip and break (within reason, I was just kept batoning wood and throwing it around) my BK-14 (the main reason for this was to see if the epoxy and my methods of making scales were tough enough) and was actually very suprised to find it could still do wave cuts through magazine paper and shave hair hahaha!
 
I can't really get the flat part of my BK2 very sharp :/ but the whole of my BK9 is quite often scary sharp- however it doesn't see nearly as much use. Regardless, the BK2 does all my cutting jobs just fine.
 
My Remora can split atoms. Everything else is pretty damn sharp. Dull knives are useless. I use the 2x8 lansky diamond stones in about every grit. Sharpening is a skill that takes a little bit to learn and I refuse to use power tools to sharpen my knives. I like the one on one connection with them that sharpening brings.
 
Skystorm said:
My Remora can split atoms. Everything else is pretty damn sharp. Dull knives are useless. I use the 2x8 lansky diamond stones in about every grit. Sharpening is a skill that takes a little bit to learn and I refuse to use power tools to sharpen my knives. I like the one on one connection with them that sharpening brings.
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Yeah, imo I dont think you'll ever get as good of an edge if you use a machine.
 
Doogoon said:
I can't really get the flat part of my BK2 very sharp :/ but the whole of my BK9 is quite often scary sharp- however it doesn't see nearly as much use. Regardless, the BK2 does all my cutting jobs just fine.
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Yeah, I've found that the tip and belly become sharper first when sharpening and the same applies to when I'm convexing, the tip and belly are the first to change.
 
Everything except a large double bit axe are hair popping sharp,that includes tomahawks,large/thick kukris and all the thick knifes,the sharpest however are my kitchen knives,got 2 cuts yesterday as i was trying to see if they would pop hairs,they dug into my forearm leaving some nice cuts,they push cut soft tomatoes.I use Japanese water stones,rough/medium/fine/very fine and then strop on newspaper,1 fine and 1 laminated(not sure the term,but the extremely smooth one).I only put the crazy sharp edge on the kitchen knives however,the use isnt anywhere near as intense as my field/work knives so the edge doesnt see any abuse.I dont think its necessary to have such a scary sharp edge on most knives,i think its just my OCD kicking in when i combine a knife and a stone.
 
I suggest that everyone who is into knives get or at least try a HF 1"x30" belt sander on something that is as dull as dull can be. It just saves you soooo much time when removing nicks in the blade or evening out the grind or changing the edge profile & convexing. They just happen to be on sale now too, & don't forget the 20% off coupon on top of the sale price. They are avail in just about any "guy" magazine.

I was the same way. Power tools for sharpening---EEEK ! I have never/would never use them. But when my blade collection started growing & i damn near wore out a course diamond sharpening stone in my Gatco kit, i said there has GOT to be a better way. How long would it take you to hand sharpen a cheap $16 Cold Steel Kukri machete that had NO edge at all ? I did 3 of them in 15 minutes & they were all shaving paper. Get the burr, then a couple swipes on the butchers steel & a couple swipes on the Bubba Stick ceramic stick. The key is to go slow & practice on things that are cheap, at first, until you get the hang of it.

I have almost every sharpening devise known to man kind. They all work, to varying degrees. I can free hand sharpen on a stone, or convex on abrasive paper & even made my own convexing stick w/mousepad. I do not have a hand strop yet. I will someday. I do have a leather belt for my 1"x30" belt sander. It works, but i am not a big fan yet. Still learning. For me, if it shaves arm/leg hair & shaves paper, then it is sharp enough for me. My blades are users, so i don't need it to be perfect under a microscope. I have been checking out the wicked edge system though.
 
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I just recently got to a point where I can split hairs with a stropped edge, green compound on a bench strop.

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My larger knives, like the BK-9, I keep shaving sharp. My trail hawk is shaving sharp as well.

I keep my Eskabar a little sharper. It can easily slice phone book paper.
 
Between my Spyderco Sharpmaker for dull knives and strop w/green compound for touching up, everything stays sharp. Sometimes I just wish I had more dull blades around, because I enjoy sitting down with the strop and getting that awesome mirrored edge on it.
 
JustAFleshWound said:
The part near the tip, there is a flat spot that I can not grind out with my course stone.
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Have you tried coloring the edge with a sharpie to see exactly how your stone is hitting that spot when you use it? It might be a good place to start. A course stone should take a flat spot out pretty quickly, as long as you have your angle right.
 
erik7181 said:
You can shave with all mine, Thats just my thing if i cant shave hair with a knife i wont use it.
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I am glad to see I am not the only one that thinks like that. I make knife sharpners. my first one is what I sharpen my leek with. I have been doing this for around 10 years or better and at the gun and knifes shows I sell the hell of them for $12.00 each. I have yet had one person come back and tell me they was no good. instead they come back with there friends to buy more of them
 
I guess everyone develops their own favorite sharpening method depending on what works for each individual. I do have the HF 1 x 30 and have raised the convex profile on my hudson bay, boomslang and outcast with no problem - I first convexed the outcast by hand, sandpaper on leather, and let me tell you, that d2 is one tuff mutha, so I was really glad when I raised the bevel on the belt sander. Still, my favorite sequence (if it's really dull) is coarse, medium and fine diamond, fine stone and 2-strap (black and white compound) strop, but most of my knives only need a couple swipes on the strop as I keep them sharp.

My favorite sharp test is curling paper edges.
 
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