I can sharpen knives!

I

ICCW

Joined
Aug 6, 2010
Messages
46
Hi folks,

I'm a middle-aged knife lover and collector, and for years the ability to sharpen a knife has always eluded me. I've watched an embarrasing number of friends bring a blade to admiral sharpness with only a single whetstone, but until I joined BladeForums and asked for help, my ability to sharpen a blade has always eluded me.

With the help of a number of archived posts on BladeForums and several recent recent responses to my specific question about stropping a blade, my "sharpening disability" is now cured and I can now get an excellent edge on my Spyderco and Kershaw knives. Thanks to several BladeForum regulars who were kind enough to answer questions from a newbie like me, I've been able to get a hair-popping edge on my knives. I never woiuld have learned this skill without the help of BladeForum regulars.

Although I'm sure that manyof you with decades of experience probably get tired of seeing the hundredth question about sharpening a blade (or the latest "what knife should I buy?") post (heck, I'm already getting tired of seeing that question myself!), but please know that your expertise and patience really have an enormous effect on those of us who are beginners ito the knife world and who will contribute to the knife community in general for many years.

My sincere thanks,

ICCW
 
I second this!

This forum has been, and still is, a huge source of information and knowledge. The Bladeforums community does a great job at keeping the dying arts alive :)
 
i learned to freehand through this forum. now my knife can split a hair strand on either direction.
 
Spend more time here than anywhere else on the internet. Have learned a ton of info from this site also, and met some great people!
 
still a skill I need to work on myself. I can sharpen them on the sharpmaker but stropping or any other way of sharpening is beyond my knowledge at the moment.
 
I'll chime in to say, I would also like to thank all the edgophiles who have given so much advice. I also can sharpen much better than ever before. The only thing holding me back now is a lack of patience.
 
ICCW said:
Hi folks,

I'm a middle-aged knife lover and collector, and for years the ability to sharpen a knife has always eluded me. I've watched an embarrasing number of friends bring a blade to admiral sharpness with only a single whetstone, but until I joined BladeForums and asked for help, my ability to sharpen a blade has always eluded me.

With the help of a number of archived posts on BladeForums and several recent recent responses to my specific question about stropping a blade, my "sharpening disability" is now cured and I can now get an excellent edge on my Spyderco and Kershaw knives. Thanks to several BladeForum regulars who were kind enough to answer questions from a newbie like me, I've been able to get a hair-popping edge on my knives. I never woiuld have learned this skill without the help of BladeForum regulars.

Although I'm sure that manyof you with decades of experience probably get tired of seeing the hundredth question about sharpening a blade (or the latest "what knife should I buy?") post (heck, I'm already getting tired of seeing that question myself!), but please know that your expertise and patience really have an enormous effect on those of us who are beginners ito the knife world and who will contribute to the knife community in general for many years.

My sincere thanks,

ICCW
Click to expand...
what kind of edge are you getting? ( paper slicing , shaving , phone book paper, hair whittiling ? ) and what is your setup?

i have found i can maintain a good factory edge but re-profiling and major edge damage has been a struggle for me too!
 
Great thread! I, too, have made significant progress based upon information I've obtained on BladeForums but I still have a lot to learn.
 
knowing how to make a hair whittler is like learning to do magic. is that what you guys are trying to say? it feels that way with me. :)
 
Japanese water stones 220>1000>4000>8000/10000/12000>strop>micron paper will get you hair whittling edges,that is of coarse with practice and not all knives will be able to get that sharp.
 
I can achieve hair whittiling with spyderco med, fine , 306 ultra-fine, and knives plus strop and a lot of practice. The best stone to learn on is the 306uf, it doesn't cut fast it gives great feedback, if you are going to shallow or steep of an angle it will let you know with an awful sound. I f you want to learn freehand I really recommend this stone I wish I would have bought it when I was first learning next up I think I,m gonna pick up some DMT's or japanese water stones for my coarser grits. I also want to add that I knew nothing about sharpening a year ago but with the help of this forum and Youtube I have proggresed greatly though I am nothing compared to some of the sharpening guru's here. Time practice and patience are all part of it. No one can just start sharpening and be good at it, its a learned art with many different methods one has to find what works best for them
 
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