instead of buying that next slippy

J

Jigged Bone

Joined
Jun 26, 2009
Messages
62
buy yourself a sharpening system and learn how to sharpen your knives. too many guys on these boards live in dread of the day their knife goes dull. if you want to take the enjoyment of your hobby to the next level, nothing beats having total confidence in your ability to sharpen your knives . you made have heard it before but go ahead and learn on a sharpmaker. it is the perfect teaching tool. sal glesser will mentor you through it and i promise you will come out knowing how to put a scary sharp edge on your knife. you will feel proud of yourself. all this nonesense about dull factory edges on queens will disolve like smoke. heck you will buy queens just for the chance to sharpen them. once you learn on the sharpmaker, you can go traditional on an stone like grandpa. go ahead! it beats buying one knife after another! its fun!
 
Jigged Bone said:
buy yourself a sharpening system and learn how to sharpen your knives. too many guys on these boards live in dread of the day their knife goes dull. if you want to take the enjoyment of your hobby to the next level, nothing beats having total confidence in your ability to sharpen your knives . you made have heard it before but go ahead and learn on a sharpmaker. it is the perfect teaching tool. sal glesser will mentor you through it and i promise you will come out knowing how to put a scary sharp edge on your knife. you will feel proud of yourself. all this nonesense about dull factory edges on queens will disolve like smoke. heck you will buy queens just for the chance to sharpen them. once you learn on the sharpmaker, you can go traditional on an stone like grandpa. go ahead! it beats buying one knife after another! its fun!
Click to expand...


So...you're hear to tell us to learn to sharpen our knives? I'm pretty sure most in this particular forum are more than comfortable taking care of their knives. ;)
 
Jigged Bone,

Many of us on this forum are very competent knife sharpeners. And I don't at all mind sharpening my knives as needed. (Either freehand or with the assistance of a "system".)

That notwithstanding, I personally don't like having to put on the edge that the manufacturer or custom knife maker should have taken care of before proclaiming it "ready".

So, despite the fact that I have sharpened countless Queen's (amongst others)...I don't relish the fact that I'll probably have to do so upon receipt.

You know what they say about making assumptions...
 
I thought i could sharpen a knife pretty well. I spent 30 minutes on the phone with duckman and it has changed my whole outlook on sharpness.
 
Okay well I'm be honest I hate the thought of my knife going dull because I can't use a wet stone. I don't know how! :(:confused:
 
rickmenefee said:
I thought i could sharpen a knife pretty well. I spent 30 minutes on the phone with duckman and it has changed my whole outlook on sharpness.
Click to expand...

Sounds like we could really use a tutorial from duckman. I have learned to never stop learning is the key to being good at something.

Blues,

We all feel your pain about Queens. But I haven't yet gotten a production slippie that has met my standards of "sharp" right out of the box.

God Bless
 
kidwholaughs said:
Blues,
We all feel your pain about Queens. But I haven't yet gotten a production slippie that has met my standards of "sharp" right out of the box.
God Bless
Click to expand...

Exactly.

Which is why most of us here are old hands at sharpening our knives. (Though I have seen an anomaly or two over the years.)

And why there is no excuse for delivering a dull knife to begin with. If we can sharpen them...they can sharpen them. It ain't magic. ;)

Edited To Add:

Attempting to reprofile and sharpen a dull D2 blade (as many or most Queen's require) on a Spyderco Sharpmaker is an exercise which should only be undertaken by those with the patience of a saint. The Sharpmaker is a great tool for maintaining an already properly profiled knife, however. For the grunt work you should really consider much coarser hones.
 
Last edited:
The better I got at sharpening, the more I realized even sharp knives benefit from a customized edge. For example, put a razor edge on the spey blade, an obtuse edge on the sheepsfoot, and a good working toothy edge on the clip blade, and your stockman will give you tremendous versatility.

For the newbies who aren't as experienced, we also have a forum on Maintenance, Tinkering & Embellishment at http://www.bladeforums.com/forums/forumdisplay.php?f=794 -- Your how-to area for discussion on sharpeners, rust prevention, alteration & more.

I recommend the SharpMaker for beginners myself. Putting together a good strop system is a big step also. (I started with an old belt and toothpaste :eek: )
 
I don't know.

Something about sharpening an old slippy on a whiz bang gizmo seems so...for lack of a better word...wrong.

Old grey carbon steel, dented coffee pot on the stove, a little dram of something in a glass to go with the coffee. Then use a gizmo fixture. No, just something wrong there. Please forgive me if I pass. So far in the 68 years I've wandered around on this earth, a stone in hand always seemed to work great. Okay, I admit for the past decade I've been using a diamind 'stone', but it fits in my wallet, and I can sharpen anywhere. Out on the river bank fishing, off in the woods on a camping trip, over somebodys house who needs a knife touched up. Hey, what are friends for?

Somehow I guess I mange with a hand held hone, and the back of my belt. But then so did my dad and his dad, and so on.
 
:D:thumbup:
Blues said:
Attempting to reprofile and sharpen a dull D2 blade (as many or most Queen's require) on a Spyderco Sharpmaker is an exercise which should only be undertaken by those with the patience of a saint. The Sharpmaker is a great tool for maintaining an already properly profiled knife, however. For the grunt work you should really consider much coarser hones.
Click to expand...
 
I stopped using jigs and angles sharpeners years ago when I kept finding the edge angles never really met up with the angles on the sharpeners. I have a couple of Sharpmaker stones that I broke in half to make them smaller, and use those along with a couple of different diamond stones, as well as a couple short lengths of leather belt. I've been finding most of my sharpening and touch-ups can be handled with the fine ceramic hone and a quick stropping on the belt. No need for the fancy jigs and high tech gizmos..
 
Well, nuts. Here I am halfway through shaving my head with my knife and my wife calls me down to look at this. Now I'm sitting here with a half shaved head and what I previously thought was a sharp knife. Now I know it isn't sharp, so I can't possibly be shaving my head with it, and I now know that I'm scared to learn how to sharpen it. I'd feel like an idiot continuing with a dull knife, but I'm not sure I'd feel any smarter walking around with a half-shaved head. I don't mind finding out (again) that I'm an idiot, but the timing could have been a lot better.
 
Knife Crazied said:
Okay well I'm be honest I hate the thought of my knife going dull because I can't use a wet stone. I don't know how! :(:confused:
Click to expand...


blues and the others who feel im talking down to them, and even jackknife who feels a sharpmaker is out of place, this is the kind of poster who im writing to hopefully benefit. you have to start somewhere and there are plenty of traditional knife buffs who are coming into it without the benifit of somebody to teach and show the basics. a sharpmaker is older than any spyderco knife. its almost traditional because its based on sharpening off a crock pot. it is an extremely fool proof way to get a great understanding of sharpening through the tutelage of sal glesser via the included dvd. we fans of traditional knives should want to welcome all comers. if there is a way to help fellas who havent had the benefit of a dad or grandpa to show them how, i think this suggestion can help get the job done instill confidence, and open the way to learning more traditional methods. but for the guy above, he has to start somewhere.
 
There is no shortage of information, primers and "how-to's" regarding how to properly profile, sharpen and maintain a knife in the "Maintenance" forum.
(Which is one of the main areas that the forum was set up to address.)

With that said, we're going to move this thread over to that forum and leave a link in "Traditional" for those who wish to follow it.
 
Jigged Bone said:
second thread i opened here in traditional that got kicked out. guess im not welcome.
Click to expand...

It's not that you're not welcome. You most certainly are. When a thread focuses on sharpening methods or methodology it is going to get moved to the Maintenance forum. You shouldn't take it personal. Stick around....
 
Jigged Bone said:
second thread i opened here in traditional that got kicked out. guess im not welcome.
Click to expand...

Take a few minutes to read the "guidelines" for the Traditional Forum. They are posted in a sticky at the top of the forum's main page.

If you have any questions after doing so, feel free to contact the moderators by either PM or email.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top