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The BladeForums.com 2024 Traditional Knife is available! Price is $250 ea (shipped within CONUS).
Order here: https://www.bladeforums.com/help/2024-traditional/
How to...
- Thread starter kjmdrumz3
- Start date
- Joined
- Oct 20, 2004
- Messages
- 4,704
Might want to check out the maintenance sub forum as there is lots of discussion of the different tools available to sharpen knives. Do you want to do it freehand or do you want a device to help keep a constant angle? How much are you looking to spend? You can spend anywhere from a couple bucks for some wet/dry paper up to $500 for a pro model Edge Pro or you could probably spend a couple thousand on a bunch of various water stones.
For free hand sharpening I would suggest DMT diamond plates but not everyone is good at free hand and can get quite frustrated trying to get a good edge. For a jig that holds the angle the Edge pro is about the best you can get but pretty expensive (about $200 for the Apex model with the most common grit stones). For speed the paper wheels are good but they take off a little more material than a slower speed hand driven device. A good compromise is the DMT aligner which holds the angle pretty well and the diamonds should be able to make quick work of the latest steels which can have really hard carbides that softer stones don't work well on. The sharpmaker is also very popular for just touching up a blade that doesn't need a ton of work and has the correct angle for it to work well from the factory.
For free hand sharpening I would suggest DMT diamond plates but not everyone is good at free hand and can get quite frustrated trying to get a good edge. For a jig that holds the angle the Edge pro is about the best you can get but pretty expensive (about $200 for the Apex model with the most common grit stones). For speed the paper wheels are good but they take off a little more material than a slower speed hand driven device. A good compromise is the DMT aligner which holds the angle pretty well and the diamonds should be able to make quick work of the latest steels which can have really hard carbides that softer stones don't work well on. The sharpmaker is also very popular for just touching up a blade that doesn't need a ton of work and has the correct angle for it to work well from the factory.