I **SUCK** at Sharpening! Dammit!

T

TheHorta

Joined
Aug 19, 2013
Messages
25
I've read instructions, and watched YouTube videos on every conceivable sharpening method in the known universe. I've purchased various grit King Japanese wet stones all the way up to 8000. I've purchased a nice, new JRE Strop Bat. I've purchase a "Work Sharp" sharpener (best results yet, but I even eff'd that up... DAMMIT!) with different belts.

WHAT THE FRIGGIN' HELL AM I DOING WRONG?!?!

I swear, I must be the only one in the universe that can actually DULL a damn blade by stropping it. Black, Green, Pink, Plain -- using different methods and different blade types. I've spent hours upon hours trying to "master" what to most people seems to be a simple task, and my knives are starting to laugh at me.

I feel like slitting my damn wrists, but my frickin' knives are not sharp enough to do it! :mad:

What gives?
 
TheHorta said:
I've read instructions, and watched YouTube videos on every conceivable sharpening method in the known universe. I've purchased various grit King Japanese wet stones all the way up to 8000. I've purchased a nice, new JRE Strop Bat. I've purchase a "Work Sharp" sharpener (best results yet, but I even eff'd that up... DAMMIT!) with different belts.

WHAT THE FRIGGIN' HELL AM I DOING WRONG?!?! Cussing too much??????

I swear, I must be the only one in the universe that can actually DULL a damn blade by stropping it. Black, Green, Pink, Plain -- using different methods and different blade types. I've spent hours upon hours trying to "master" what to most people seems to be a simple task, and my knives are starting to laugh at me.

I feel like slitting my damn wrists, but my frickin' knives are not sharp enough to do it! :mad:

What gives?
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Check with the guys in the "Maintenance, Tinkering & Embellishment " forum. They'll straighten you out and put you on the right track.
 
Your not the only one, I have a sharp maker and a wicked edge, I was doing the same thing with my strops 3.5 n 5 micron. I would have a decent edge then after I would strop, they get dull.
Got very frustrated last night, I think I sharpened my sebenza 25 four times and xm 18 the same. I was stroping to hard for to long. I am getting them to cut phone book paper, o.k. Not razor sharp but good enough for now.
1) my wicked edge stones are new so they are still breaking in, wasn't raising a burr on all the different stones.
I use a maker sometimes to make sure I'm reaching the apex. As I'm polishing I make sure I'm not putting to much pressure on them.
 
I joined this forum about a year ago and was in the same boat. Stick with it, read the posts you search and watch the videos. Eventually it will click. You will be happy with persistence. I snapped a spyderco in half one day because I couldn't get it right. Now it feels good to push cut phone book paper(of course with a different knife :confused:)
 
I have an XM24 and a large Sebby, but I decided to try my hand on my "lower-end" knives first -- namely my ZT 0560 (Elmax) and Spyderco Gayle Bradley (CPM-M4). The GB didn't need to be sharpened, as it was still sharp enough to shave with, so I figured I would turn it into an atom-splitter by stropping it on my new JRE Bat. Well, I can no longer shave with it, and it has all it can handle to slice paper. Out of the box, my GB was what I considered to be "scary sharp." One wrong move, and you were on your way to the ER for stitches.

My ZT was never really "hair whittling" sharp, though I could get it to cut arm hair, just not smoothly. It seemed to be yearning for a real edge, so the moment I received my Work Sharp sharpener from Amazon, I put the 80-grit belt in it and went to town.

...someone just read this and lost consciousness.

But wait... it gets better! I used the 40-inclusive "wedge" guide and seemingly reprofiled my brand new Elmax ZT, and that quite badly. Once I realized what I had done, I switched guides to the 50-inclusive (still 80-grit) and hogged more Elmax into a small pile of powder on my desk. My wife walked in and asked me if there was supposed to be that much dust floating all over the place. I told her "Woman! This is man's work. Of course it's supposed to do this."

Anyone want a good deal on a 0560?
 
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I use a wicked edge. Very pricey, but very worth it. I havnt had a bad edge come off of this thing ever. Edge pros are nice, but I have a hard time patting my head and rubbing my belly, so a fixed clameped system is what I went with.
 
Krav said:
1) my wicked edge stones are new so they are still breaking in, wasn't raising a burr on all the different stones.
I use a maker sometimes to make sure I'm reaching the apex. As I'm polishing I make sure I'm not putting to much pressure on them.
Click to expand...
- My Wicked Edge stones were broken in after about 10 knives. I'm able to get my knives to be very sharp, very quickly now.
 
I was in this same situation with my Edge Pro (not enough money for a Wicked Edge). It really just took me time and patience to figure it out. I haven't used a Work Sharp and I suck horribly at free-hand, so no help there
 
TheHorta said:
I've read instructions, and watched YouTube videos on every conceivable sharpening method in the known universe. I've purchased various grit King Japanese wet stones all the way up to 8000. I've purchased a nice, new JRE Strop Bat. I've purchase a "Work Sharp" sharpener (best results yet, but I even eff'd that up... DAMMIT!) with different belts.

WHAT THE FRIGGIN' HELL AM I DOING WRONG?!?!

I swear, I must be the only one in the universe that can actually DULL a damn blade by stropping it. Black, Green, Pink, Plain -- using different methods and different blade types. I've spent hours upon hours trying to "master" what to most people seems to be a simple task, and my knives are starting to laugh at me.

I feel like slitting my damn wrists, but my frickin' knives are not sharp enough to do it! :mad:

What gives?
Click to expand...
At this point, posting in the wrong forum for starters:
http://www.bladeforums.com/forums/forumdisplay.php/794-Maintenance-Tinkering-amp-Embellishment
 
Modoc ED said:
Check with the guys in the "Maintenance, Tinkering & Embellishment " forum. They'll straighten you out and put you on the right track.
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^^this. I've been hangin out there a couple of months and I'm finally getting some really good results. I used to think my factory edges were sharp! ;).

Btw, I just about peed my pants laughing reading the whole "woman, this is mans work..." post! Hehehe.
 
My bad. I looked for an appropriate forum and thought there would be one called "Sharpening..." something or other and didn't see it. Go ahead and move it if you can / want (not that you need my permission) :)
 
Surfingringo said:
^^this. I've been hangin out there a couple of months and I'm finally getting some really good results. I used to think my factory edges were sharp! ;).

Btw, I just about peed my pants laughing reading the whole "woman, this is mans work..." post! Hehehe.
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She just did her usual eye-roll and went back to more important things than listening to me swear at a knife.

I'll be vacationing in the Maintenance forum for a while. Ironically, the more hooked I get into something the more lingerie my wife uses to pull me away. It's a bigtime win-win for me :thumbup:
 
To start, king waterstones on any of the steels you listed will have very little effect. Good for basic carbon steels and most kitchen knives but that's about it.

Next, STOP using the work sharp for the love of gawd!

Lastly, buy a coarse/fine DMT diamond hone and call it a day.
 
TheHorta said:
Alabama... but if you drive really, really fast you can make it in a day :)
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Well, this answers a lot of questions! Go DAWGS!

Seriously though, just slow down and think things out. You are trying to get the two sides of your beveled edge to meet at an apex. (the very top of the edge for Alabamians) You do this by very gently grinding down each side of the bevel, again gently so as to not remove too much steel. quote: "My wife walked in and asked me if there was supposed to be that much dust floating all over the place. I told her "Woman! This is man's work. Of course it's supposed to do this."

Really, though your wife was right. (the gulp sound is him swallowing hard) You want to remove only enough to make a small burr (it will feel like a ridge) all along the edge of your blade. (formally referred to as the apex) When you obtain this small ridge, you have succeeded in the proper sharpening of your knife. Now you need to finish the job by carefully removing the burr. Drag the edge of your knife through the edge of a piece of soft pine lumber, and then with caution, slowly and with very light pressure strop with some of the green compound on one side of your strop. The idea is to polish lightly at the same or slightly less of an angle than you ground the blade in the first step. OLA! You should be able to shave hair and push cut paper. Do not over strop. Just a few swipes on both sides of the blade will do it. ( a few being 6 or 8 swipes per side ) Good luck and remember practice makes perfect. You can do this!!

Blessings

Omar
 
Horta, you are a funny guy! I was dying laughing, reading your post. Take it easy, mad guys don't make good smooth decisions. This is a very simple lesson in geometry. They have that in Alabama right??? First off, sell a bunch of the stuff you've bought, and recoup some of your dough. Go get a couple of things; like a DMT (Dia-sharp) 8'' coarse stone, 6 or 8'', DMT fine stone (these are both diamond stones), and a Spyderco Sharpmaker (buy the additional diamond rods for it). Lock stock and barrel, you are talking about roughly 200 bones. There isn't a knife made, that you can't sharpen to whatever level you wish, with this gear.

On to the work. What you do to one side of the blade, you need to do to the other. Consistancy is king here, no exceptions. You use your coarse diamond stone, to reprofile (thin down the edge), of your blades. If you do this righter than right, it'll shave then. Then you go to the Sharpmaker. You can use your diamond stones to straighten out the bevel, to 30 degrees. when this is done, you are close. You can then go through your stone progression, and polish this bevel (back bevel), or leave it toothy. Either way, when you are done, move to the 40 degree setting. You use your brown rods, to make a little secondary bevel (micro bevel). Again, you can do the white rods after, or leave it at brown.

I hope at least some of this makes sense. It is actually very easy, really it is. It sucks that you have had a crapload of badness, and burned up knives. There is actually no reason that I need power to sharpen anything, you probably dont either. Feel free to ask away. There are some really good guys in here, and some of them are really smart at what they do.
 
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knifenut1013 said:
To start, king waterstones on any of the steels you listed will have very little effect. Good for basic carbon steels and most kitchen knives but that's about it.

Next, STOP using the work sharp for the love of gawd!

Lastly, buy a coarse/fine DMT diamond hone and call it a day.
Click to expand...
+1
I think people tend to over complicate things when all that's really needed is a coarse/fine diamond hone and a strop. Ill also add that TheHorta should goto the 99cent store and buy a whole bunch of cheap knives and practice for a few weeks. Sharpening is not something that most people get right the first time so don't get discouraged. Happy sharpening :)
 
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