I suck at sharpening

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RancidSumo

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Let's get this out of the way right off the bat, I suck at sharpening. That needs to change.

As of now, I own a Smith's Tri-stone as my only sharpening method. Is this a good set of stones? If not, are there any good stones on the not too expensive side of things?

Using the stones that I have, I was able to get a somewhat decent edge back on the Emerson that I chipped but it won't shave or anything of the sort. I am a bit aprehensive about doing to much work on any of my knives since I don't want to destroy any of them.

I am willing to put in the time to get decent with free hand sharpening so I am not looking for a quick fix here but does anyone know of something or have any tips to help me improve my sharpening skills to am acceptable level? Do I need different equipment or just a lot of practice?
 
Try coloring your blade with a marker, and then hone. It will tell you what parts of the blade you are sharpening. My guess is that you're not hitting the edge.
 
You might also have a "super burr" flopping about - a situation mre likely to occur with stainless steels.

Have you tried to catch the edge with a fingernail - edge perpendicular to fingernail, sliding nail tip to edge, etc. to feel the edge better.
 
I have not been able to feel a burr on any of my knives. Not now and not immediately after "sharpening". I'll try the marker trick today and let you all know how it goes.

Any word on the stones?
 
As long as your keeping the angle right you shouldnt have a problem.
Diamonds stones are the best IMO.
If you are having a problem with the angle the DMT aligner is great for getting razor edges.
Also try stropping with some good compound and you should knock off any burr thats left.
 
One of your problems is that the 154cm steel used in a emerson is almost too hard/wear resistant to be used with a arkansas stone. The other problem may be that you are just not sharpening long enough, because of the slow cutting pace of the arkansas stones its going to take some time. If you have yet to obtain a burr then you probably have not met your angles at the edge. Start with the sharpie on the edge to see if you are getting their and then think about some new sharpening tools.

154cm is actually the steel that made me stop using arkansas stones and switch to spyderco ceramics, then S30V and S90V made me advance to diamond hones. Guess what sharpening stones work best ;) :cool:
 
You cannot destroy a knife on sharpening stones. Try the coarse, you should be able to shave arm hair off of that stone.
 
RancidSumo said:
Should I start on the coarse or medium stone?
Click to expand...

Start with your coarse stone and grind until the scratch pattern is even and a burr has formed to the side without a bevel. Using the fine stone you can lightly remove the burr from the unbeveled side with one or two passes. Repeat the process with all stones until complete and remember when you are finishing up on your finest stone make you last 10 strokes light as a feather, this helps reduce the formation of the burr.
 
I have been going at the coarse stone since my last post and found something interesting. During my previous attempts at sharpening I put a very uneven edge on the knife so that when I colored the edge, all of it came off except for a spot in the middle of the edge. It has taken me almost 20min to get the edge even enough to remove the color from that part of the blade. I also found that I was putting far less pressure towards the end of the edge than at its beginning.

I've got a burr going and am just trying to remove that last bit of marker from the edge. If I fuck it up too badly, I can always send it out to be fixed/sharpened by someone who knows what they are doing.


ETA-I just realized why that part of the blade was so much lower than the rest, it is where I chipped it when I dropped it edge first on a concrete floor.

ETA #2- I also just found out that I have been using too shallow of an angle.
 
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One more tip, when following the curve of the edge you do not use a slicing motion like you are cutting you just simply lift the handle. If you hold the knife on the stone and lift the handle without moving down the stone you can see and feel how you should be moving the blade down the stone.
 
Do NOT try and sharpen the main edge and tip at the same time, do them like two separate blades.
 
RancidSumo said:
Let's get this out of the way right off the bat, I suck at sharpening. That needs to change.

As of now, I own a Smith's Tri-stone as my only sharpening method. Is this a good set of stones? If not, are there any good stones on the not too expensive side of things?

Using the stones that I have, I was able to get a somewhat decent edge back on the Emerson that I chipped but it won't shave or anything of the sort. I am a bit aprehensive about doing to much work on any of my knives since I don't want to destroy any of them.

I am willing to put in the time to get decent with free hand sharpening so I am not looking for a quick fix here but does anyone know of something or have any tips to help me improve my sharpening skills to am acceptable level? Do I need different equipment or just a lot of practice?
Click to expand...


Yup and +1.
 
I got the main edge sharp enough to shave for the first time since I chipped it! Not I just need to do the same thing for the other edge.

Thanks for all the tips so far. The marker one really helped to identify what I have been doing wrong.
 
After an hour and a half to two hours of sharpening, I now have a sharp Emerson and a sharp Benchmade, two things that I haven't had in months. I think my main problem was not sticking to long enough to sharpen the harder blades on my Arkansas stones.

Thanks for all the help. I am sure they still aren't up to par for most people here but they're good enough for the girls I go with.
 
Because now they are sharp and I don't have to buy anything else :D(right now)!

I think the next knife related things I will be buying (after my next knife) are a set of diamond stones and the materials to make a couple of strops.

ETA- Could someone please explain what the polishing tapes on their site are for? Do you need one of their systems to use them or just the blank and the tape?
 
:D Nahhh! I can tell from your posts that you're "hooked" on sharp, high quality knives.

You'll have an EP eventually. It's only a matter of time. I fought off the impulse to buy one for a couple of years, but when you're hooked, you're hooked! :p
 
While we are at it, what diamond stones would all of you experts recommend?

And your right, I will probably get an edge pro eventually.
 
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