instead of buying that next slippy

[nff]

i was never taught how to sharpen a knife. but by god i learned. i found an old heavily worn sharpening stone in the basement and i had my crappy 1.99 slippy and by trial and error i figured out how to sharpen on a stone with no aids what so ever i was 11. as of now (20) i can put a decently wicked edge on any knife given enough patience and theirs some stone left. im still not great i can fudge angles but everyone dose every so often.... but yea i just feel comfortable with a stone on my lap and a cup of water. plus it gives me something to do for hours on end.

 

[rifon2]

There is absolutely nothing wrong with using a Sharpmaker to sharpen a slipjoint pocketknife.

Of course there's nothing "wrong" with it.

It just takes longer than some other methods if you're sharpening a slipjoint with obtuse edges and hard steel. (As already noted.)

 

[stevekt]

Of course there's nothing "wrong" with it.

It just takes longer than some other methods if you're sharpening a slipjoint with obtuse edges and hard steel. (As already noted.)

Longer than some and quicker than others. No method or piece of equipment is suitable for all blades but the Sharpmaker does a pretty good job of covering most of the bases.

 

[keithcarter]

Got to side with Bone on this one. I was over 50 years old before I learned how to get a knife real sharp. I though I'd never learn how. All those wasted years.

A Lansky system was my breakthrough, then on to diamond hones, etc. Now I reshape blades, recut sharpening angles, etc. I even sharpened a knife I'd had that had been unsharp for 40 years.

I don't understand the criticism of Bone. He hit the nail on the head for me.

 

[Chewy1]

Wow, well I'm about to be the odd man out on this thread, but I appreciated the sentiment of the original post. I'm only somewhat of a newbie. I've got less than 25 knives, and I definitely enjoy buying them. I was putting a very shave-worth convex edge on everything that I bought, until I ran into my Queen Congress in D2. It beat me.

So, I bought a nice DMT Aligner. I got that knife so sharp, with a nice edge, that I redid most of my other knives to boot. My Native got hair-whittling sharp! I've never attained that with convex, and I thought I was pretty good at it.

And the best part was that I didn't hardly have to try. Just get a burr, and work through the grits. Strop and .... wow!

So, I did take the money that would have gone to another slippy and bought a system and am very glad that I did. Guess this thread really resonated with me, albeit a couple months late.

 

[T. Erdelyi]

Well said, jackknife, I agree, I've been sharpening my own knives for 30+ years and for me it's a form of relaxation and sense of accomplishment.

Practice, practice, practice, with this ya develop muscle memory which aids in maintainin' edge angle.

My Oldman used to tell me, if ya can't maintain yer own tools maybe ya shouldn't be usin' 'em, learn to sharpen freehand and you'll always have a sharp knife, if not you'll wind up with a large collection of dull knives.