How to make a knife razor sharp with what I have?

M

Manuele92m

Joined
Dec 5, 2013
Messages
3
Hey I'm new in the knife game and I just bought a CS RECON 1 plain edge tanto and I want it to be razor sharp all I have though is a belt and a little smiths abrasives sharpener. On one side it says fine-ceramic and on the other side it says carbide-coarse I have no clue at all how knife sharpeners work and when I first got the knife I tried to strop it on a leather belt but I think I made it duller, forgive my ignorance I'm just looking to learn I really don't have a lot of uses for knives to be honest I just appreciate and like them a lot so can someone help?
 
I hate those Smith's "sharpeners" if you can call them that. All you do is pull the knife through the carbide about 5-10 times with very light pressure, then do the same on the ceramic side. I wouldn't even use the belt. Belts aren't the best for stropping, generally speaking. Oh and since it's a tanto, run the long edge and stop before you get to the little "corner" where the point starts. Then do the point separately.
 
The ceramic side is for refining the edge. As for a "razor sharp" blade.. Do you mean as sharp as humanly possible or just "shaving sharp"?
 
As sharp as humanly possible but if I can't then I can settle for it being sharp enough to shave with
 
You need to get a better sharpener. Maybe a guided system like the Lasnky or Spyderco Sharpmaker. Or if you are interested in putting in some time and effort Norton India stones or Crystolon stones are both good inexpensive options.
 
Once you have a decent edge on CS AUS-8A, bring out the strop with green compound, with a bit of work and a careful touch you can get the edge to hair-whittling without too much trouble. I did this with a Recon-1, an XL Voyager, and an OSS. Give it a try!
 
I don't know where you are, but get to a hardware store and grab a norton stone, watch YouTube videos and practice.

Pull through sharpeners are a last resort for me, so much so that I haven't purchased one, you will not get a razor sharp edge, you will get a ripped up, torn up, scraggly edge that will barely cut before it dulls again.


What the heck, it's Christmas, if you live in the USA, I'll put a good edge on it for you. Just post in this thread or in my visitor messages and we can get this taken care of.
 
throw that pull through crap away first off, I rarely use coarse stones unless I'm reprofiling an edge, But when you do haft to go coarse IMO it is the most time consuming and important step, this is when you are going to "build your edge" and everything after that should just be refinement. The reason I rarely use my coarser stone is I will touch my edge up all the time, Use a marker and mark your bevel and make sure your taking all the marker off the bevel or your angle is wrong. Of course this means nothing unless you have some stones. If you want to just try to free hand on the cheap get some wet dry sandpaper in as many grits possible and mount it on a flat surface, or a flat surface with a mousepad or rubber backing to give some give so that it will be for forgiving if you go over or under your angle. To be honest with you when your free handing it is more important to keep a consistent angle than it is to try to keep the factory angle. 20 degrees per side is a good angle to learn and to help keep that angle put 2 quarters on a flat surface and place the spine of the knife on the quarters , bevel on flat surface or whatever your going to sharpen on , that is roughly 20 degrees, Lock your wrists at that angle , and move your shoulders or body, this will aid in maintaining your angle. Your first attempts your probably not going to get a hair popping edge, or you may , just depends , just be patient, let the stones do the work , and believe it or not watch some youtube videos of people like virtuovice, or some others , put I suggest not trying Japanese sharpening (back and forth) until you get good with the western stroke( one stroke on the stone one way),
 
Anything more than shaving sharp will leave you with a delicate edge. I like usin the Lansky Blade Medic (not the pull through part but the ceramic and diamond rod) the angle is set for you on the rods. If you place the sharpener on your desk and make your blade parallel to your desk, all you have to do is pass the knife edge forward from bottom to top of the ceramic rod, similar to a Spyderco Sharpmaker except this would be sideways.

Best of luck!
 
Shaving sharp is highly over rated unless of course, you are shaving. Working sharp is better for most purposes, will take more abuse, stay sharp longer and is easier to bring back to life. I can put a scalpel like edge on a RR spike, but whats the purpose.
 
Fred.Rowe said:
Shaving sharp is highly over rated unless of course, you are shaving. Working sharp is better for most purposes, will take more abuse, stay sharp longer and is easier to bring back to life. I can put a scalpel like edge on a RR spike, but whats the purpose.
Click to expand...

To show that u can if course post pics when your done !lol
 
I gotta agree with Fred, you can make almost any steel razor sharp, the problem is it won't stay that way very long if it's a soft steel, it don't take much to put a razor's edge on any knife but crappy steel will dull quickly, ever cut your self with a piece of sheet metal? Working sharp sometimes is easy better than razor sharp, razor sharp edges are usually fragile.

As far as pull through sharpeners go, (carbide) they have their place. The right tool for the right job
 
I like this discussion because shaving sharp to one guy means it will pop a few hairs off on his arm and to a razor enthusiast it means a highly refined edge that will pass the HHT all along the blade.

I think for the OP, he means something closer to the first example, popping a few arm hairs. Define what a good EDC edge is, I know guys who stay 220 and 320 grit for their edges, some 400-600, some polished like a razor at 25,000 grit... all for different EDC tasks. Guys use different steels,blade geometry and edge angles too on top of what grit they sharpen at.:)
 
Skimo said:
I like this discussion because shaving sharp to one guy means it will pop a few hairs off on his arm and to a razor enthusiast it means a highly refined edge that will pass the HHT all along the blade.

I think for the OP, he means something closer to the first example, popping a few arm hairs. Define what a good EDC edge is, I know guys who stay 220 and 320 grit for their edges, some 400-600, some polished like a razor at 25,000 grit... all for different EDC tasks. Guys use different steels,blade geometry and edge angles too on top of what grit they sharpen at.:)
Click to expand...
I was going to say the same thing about shaving sharp meaning different things to different people because there's a big difference between comfortably shaving your face and shaving a few hairs off your arm. When I say shaving sharp I just use it as a general term meaning sharp enough to cut arm hair which isn't really that sharp but its something that most people will understand. When I sharpening I use phone book paper to check my edge, if it can cut an s-curve in phone book paper its sharp enough for me.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top