One of the things I never thought of when people ask me how I learned to get them so sharp is how I got to the point that I can freehand even the super steels/alloys?
I started sharpening on high carbon steel blades and spent 10-15 years on knives like Case’s CV or CS’s Carbon V and softer steels than most knives are made of today.
15 years of repetition, developing muscle memory and learning to maintain the appropriate angle.
Hundreds of $ on sharpening systems. I had them all, tri hones, tri stones, clamped jigs platters, V sticks, diamond, ceramic, water stones, I finally stopped after buying an EdgePro and realizing I tended to freehand for 99% of my sharpening.
That’s not to say that all the systems don’t have their place.
The Sharpmaker sees most use in the kitchen on the kitchen knives plus it was easy to teach the spouse and kids to properly use it and achieve a great edge.
The Lansky/Gatco clamp style are in the tool box for my work knives which are mostly straight edge blades like sheepsfoot and warncliffe which the clamp style sharpeners are better suited.
Pocket homes, stones go in portable PSKs, packs, BOBs and attached to sheaths for field expedient touch ups.
The EdgePro was for resetting the primary bevel of a severely abused edge.
All that being said my advice is to buy the best 8” bench stones/hones you can afford. Buy a few stones covering from coarse to fine and remember if you use the proper grit you shouldn’t have to push hard to get your edge back.
Invest in some decent optics like a 10X jewelers loupe and learn what a sharp edge looks like. I see so many people investing money, energy and time into gettin ‘ a sharp edge yet they’ve never seen what one actually looks like up close. Get a loupe and find a knife you consider to be sharp and look at the edge under a good light. See what a sharp edge looks like and you’ll have a reference.
Lastly when using bench stones/hones learn to use your whole body to maintain your angle and follow through on the stones/hones and strops. Don’t lift the knife till the edge is past the end of your s/h & s. Most people tend to rotate their wrists as the lift the edge from the sharpening surface and drag the apex of their freshly attained edge.
Easiest way to avoid that is just follow through past the edge before lifting the blade. Patience is a must and practice mandatory. I sharpen every day for hours sometimes, I find it almost as soothing as ridin’my bike.
Last piece of advice I’ll give you is that most people who do their own sharpening tend to be so obsessed with a razor sharp edge they tend toward over sharpening. Why drag out the rig and remove copious amounts of steel to get that razor edge when all the edge needed was a stropping.
Nothing beats a freehand edge when it comes to ease and portability providing you have the right skills and tools. A sharp edge isn’t about how you get there as much as the final result before you declare the edge sharp.
