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I want to learn how to hone or sharpen knives on a stone but is it ok to do this on the Sharpmaker stones, or should I go out and buy some separate stones?
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Is it ok to hone knives on the Sharpmaker stones?
- Thread starter sunandsteel
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How much do you know about sharpening? What kind of experience do you have? What kinds of knives are you planning to sharpen on the Sharpmaker? The Sharpmaker is a good sharpening method for knives with normal straight bevels. For convex edges, there are better choices. If you knives have a straight edge bevel like most pocket knives, it will work fine. You'll get good results fairly quickly and they'll get better with experience. Everything has a learning curve, but the Sharpmaker's is not as steep as some others. Just make sure you get the instructional DVD with the Sharpmaker and watch it two or three times before using the Sharpmaker.
If you want to learn to sharpen freehand (which I recommend you do), you can still start with the Sharpmaker to get good usable edges on your users knives, and then get some inexpensive stones and a couple of cheap beater knives to practice freehand sharpening. You can cmpare your freehand results with the edges you get from the Sharpmaker. When your freehand edges rival the Sharpmaker's edges, you're ready to move to freehand sharpening as your main method.
More advice: If you don't have a lot of experience with sharpening, I'd suggest getting a good read or two on the basics of knife edges and how to maintain and repair them. For years, the standard read was John Juranitch's The Razor Edge Book of Sharpening. In there he explains how edges work, what you do to maintain and repair them, and talks about things like edge angles, stones, and oils. Going to work on an edge is all well and good, but it helps to have some idea of the theory of how and why edges work, and what kinds of edges work well in specific situations. Juranich's book helps provide that.
If you want to learn to sharpen freehand (which I recommend you do), you can still start with the Sharpmaker to get good usable edges on your users knives, and then get some inexpensive stones and a couple of cheap beater knives to practice freehand sharpening. You can cmpare your freehand results with the edges you get from the Sharpmaker. When your freehand edges rival the Sharpmaker's edges, you're ready to move to freehand sharpening as your main method.
More advice: If you don't have a lot of experience with sharpening, I'd suggest getting a good read or two on the basics of knife edges and how to maintain and repair them. For years, the standard read was John Juranitch's The Razor Edge Book of Sharpening. In there he explains how edges work, what you do to maintain and repair them, and talks about things like edge angles, stones, and oils. Going to work on an edge is all well and good, but it helps to have some idea of the theory of how and why edges work, and what kinds of edges work well in specific situations. Juranich's book helps provide that.