I need a system that does NOT sharpen my knife

C

cutitout

Joined
Aug 12, 2012
Messages
135
So I now have two ZT 350's, one black one unfinished and a ZT 560. Not sure I want to invest hundreds of dollars for a sharpening system. The only one I would probably consider is the Wicked Edge, but it is very pricy and my 350's have recurves, so not sure if this would even be the right system for me. Since I will have plenty of spare knives, and it doesn't cost anything (beside shipping one way), I will probably just send my knives in to Kershaw for sharpening from time to time.

My question then is, what do I use to maintain my blades in between sharpening? A round honing rod? if so, should it be ceramic or steel? I don't want to take a lot of steel off my blade, just tune it up a bit between sharpening. I have a leather strop, but truthfully, it seems to dull the blade slightly rather than make it feel sharper. I am not sure about pushing my knife across a bench stone, I don't want to change the angle of the edge and I have no experience with stones.

What might you suggest to get to the most out of my blades?

Thanks
 
Strop... strops are made for this exact purpose.

Get a Strop Bat

stropbats.JPG
 
A strop it to finish a edge and typically is not very effective on a coarse factory edge.

Buy a stone and learn to sharpen, its part of the responsibility of owning a knife.
 
I would suggest a Spyderco Sharpmaker. Its not expensive, around $50-$60, and it wont take off alot of metal but its good for touch ups. I use it on my ZT0350SW, Kershaw Speed Bump, Spyderco Zulu.. and all my straight edge (non recurve) knives. It works great for touch ups and fine tuning the edge. I also purchased the Ultra Fine rods which give the blade extra sharpness and a near mirror polish, but is not a necessity. Good luck with your decision!
 
knifenut1013 said:
A strop it to finish a edge and typically is not very effective on a coarse factory edge.

Buy a stone and learn to sharpen, its part of the responsibility of owning a knife.
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Ares1307 said:
I would suggest a Spyderco Sharpmaker. Its not expensive, around $50-$60, and it wont take off alot of metal but its good for touch ups. I use it on my ZT0350SW, Kershaw Speed Bump, Spyderco Zulu.. and all my straight edge (non recurve) knives. It works great for touch ups and fine tuning the edge. I also purchased the Ultra Fine rods which give the blade extra sharpness and a near mirror polish, but is not a necessity. Good luck with your decision!
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Both excellent suggestions. You really need to learn to sharpen your own knives. As knifenut1013 said, its part of the responsibility of owning knives. Besides, do you really want some guy at the factory taking a belt sander to your blade, removing more material than necessary, leaving a coarse finish, and yet not getting your knife anywhere near as sharp as you could yourself with the proper equipment and some practice. You don't need expensive equipment, heck, you can get hair whittling edges off of sand paper if you know what you're doing. I personally recommend you learn to freehand, it is just far more satisfying than any sort of angle guide or jig system. To begin with, pick up a sharpmaker to learn the basics of sharpening (burs, apexing an edge, microbevels, etc.) and a dmt diasharp diamond benchstone (you can get a coarse/fine double sided 2"x6" for around $50)for more major reprofiling work. With the dmt and the sharpmaker you have the equipment to tackle just about any blade you run across for about $100. After you learn the basics you can move on to ceramic benchstones and Japanese water stones. Or as I said earlier, wet/dry sandpaper in various grits and a sheet of glass for backing (or a mouse pad if you're going after a convex edge) will do you just fine and do so very cheaply.
 
With the right technique, you can strop a recurve blade and get the results you're looking for. A SM with UF rods and a decent strop should work fine for you. I've had a couple of 350s and that's how I kept them sharp without doing a lot of metal removal. Some of the balsa wood blocks have slightly rounded edges and work very well on the recurve section of a blade. I use 1 micron diamond spray on mine and then finish off with a hard piece of bare leather for a couple of strokes.
 
mkjellgren said:
You really need to learn to sharpen your own knives. Besides, do you really want some guy at the factory taking a belt sander to your blade, removing more material than necessary, leaving a coarse finish, and yet not getting your knife anywhere near as sharp as you could yourself with the proper equipment and some practice.
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These words really struck home. I have reconsidered and so now I am going to look for a great sharpening system. I expect (but don't know yet) it will probably be the wicked edge from what I have read here in other posts. But i'll have to do a bit of research. Honestly, I would rather use whetstones, but don't want to ruin my knives while learning. Could I just pull some junk dinner knives out which have practically no edge and sharpen them for practice if that were the way I decided to go?

I like the idea of a guided system like WE, but don't I need a round surfaced sharpening stick for recurred blades like the 350's? It seems the cheaper systems are either limited to certain angels or just not as accurate or the clamp part is weak.

Lots to learn before I commit. Thanks for all your suggestions.
 
Look at the paper wheels thread for a great sharpening system. :)

Thats what I'm doing next... and for far less than I have invested in diamond stones, hones, abrasive grit papers, films, and water stones... Plus what looks to be a shorter learning curve.

Recruves are my favourite blade shape, and the paper wheels are cheap so you can have one with a curved surface for recurves too... :)
 
cutitout said:
These words really struck home. I have reconsidered and so now I am going to look for a great sharpening system. I expect (but don't know yet) it will probably be the wicked edge from what I have read here in other posts. But i'll have to do a bit of research. Honestly, I would rather use whetstones, but don't want to ruin my knives while learning. Could I just pull some junk dinner knives out which have practically no edge and sharpen them for practice if that were the way I decided to go?

I like the idea of a guided system like WE, but don't I need a round surfaced sharpening stick for recurred blades like the 350's? It seems the cheaper systems are either limited to certain angels or just not as accurate or the clamp part is weak.

Lots to learn before I commit. Thanks for all your suggestions.
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The wicked edge is an excellent system, but is costly, especially by the time you get all of the extras. And speaking of extras, wicked edge sells curved stones specifically designed for recurves and hawkbills, so if that's the route you go you won't have any problems.

As for practicing on cheapo kitchen knives, absolutely you should!!!! I would venture to guess that many if not most of us learned the basics of sharpening on cheapos before attempting our more expensive blades. Even if you decide on the wicked edge, I would advise the first few s you sharpen not be your good ones.
 
Plus one to practicing sharpening on less expensive knives. The Sharpmaker is the most bang for your buck. It will sharpen straight knives, hawkbills, recurved blades, serrated edges, even scissors. Before you strop again read and absorb the sticky at the top of the Maintenance, Tinkering and Embellishment subforum about strops and the interaction between angle and pressure.
 
Edge pro, .5" stones, ceramic hone and a couple blanks for making strops.
 
I second the sharpmaker! Great product! Quick, easy, great results in literally 5 minutes. Maintnence in under a minute. And nice clean job. Only downside is reprofiling an edge is just about impossible
 
I just bought a bunch of kitchen knives and they particularly abused by the previous owner. I used a fine bastard file, then my coarse dmt stone and then a sharp maker to sharpen them. It took a bout an hour to go from completely dull to shaving sharp on 5 knives. And it was the first time I had actually sharpened a knife that was so unbelievably dull. if you looked at them on edge you could actually see a flat spot where the edge was supposed to be.

In my opinion, you should definitely learn how to maintain your knives. If you pick up nothing but a sharpmaker you'll do just fine. But I like having a fine file and a coarse stone to repair damage on a knife.
And once you get proficient at maintaining your knives, you'll probably want to see just how sharp you can get a knife, so you'll have to start looking at extra fine stones and strops etc.
 
I was also afraid of sharpening my blades and had only ever run them over the bottom of a teacup as a chef showed me once.

I read a begginers post on here by mangnaimus G about his experience with sharpening seen here http://www.bladeforums.com/forums/s...advice-for-newbie-knife-sharpeners-(freehand) . Watched some of those videos and bought Carter Cutlery knife sharpening basics (awesome video) and watched it 3 times. Bought a 400/1200 and a 1000/6000 king stone, in hindsight I would have got the 1000/6000 and a 220 but they are both good.

First day sharpening today and I fixed up all my paring and kitchen knives and fixed up a factory edge on a santoku knife I just bought. I was learning as I went and the angles and technique just started to make sense as I went.Feels good to be able to do some basic sharpening on your own even though I won't touch my more expensive knives until I feel that I have enough practice. A few years back I broke a Global Cooks Knifeon a coconut (I know, I know) and tossed it, but now I would just have a go at reprofiling it.
 
I wanted to learn how to sharpen my knives without destroying them aswell.. I did what others suggest.. I used cheap knives I had around the house and I bought myself a cheap little recurve from the bay, ALL of my knives at the time were recurves, and went to work.. I tried the cheap pull through things, and really messed up my knife. I ended up with a Sharpmaker because I heard they were the best for recurves without spending $100+ and it really worked. So after using this for a while and getting used to it and finally using it on one of my babies I got quite good at it. In fact someone heard from a friend that I make my knives razors and asked me to "touch up" his 12" bowie.. I agreed, but when I actually took a look at it I saw multiple deep chips. Fixing and reprofiling on a Sharpmaker can be done, but it can take hours. So I bought a fine/corse stone for $2 at my gun shop and learned how to fix the chips. I recently order a Lansky Diamond Deluxe system + the stand and a very fine yellow hone and the super sapphire hone. I bought this system for fixing and reprofiling my knives, well mostly my families knives as I try not to abuse mine. I tried to sharpen my Kershaw Speed Bump with the Lansky, it was a bit awkward at first, but I got the feel for it and got it done. I had a bit of trouble with polishing the inside of the recurve.. I finished that off with the Sharpmakers UltraFine rods. That was the only knife I had any trouble with on that system though, my ZT0350SW was done without pause. Now they look nice and sexy.

I have to admit though, when I started using a real sharpener and realized how to make an edge sharp... I saw the damage I had been doing with the cheap pull through p.o.s. Some of the knives I damaged I couldnt bring back with the SM so I used the Lansky and made them like new again. I will NEVER let any of my friends or family buy another pull through system again! Which is why they all ask me to sharpen their knives.

Well I just thought I would share my experience.. one newbie to another. And yes I am still a newbie, only been at it for a couple of months.
 
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