Knife Maintenance

C

Chris LaGrutta

Joined
Aug 15, 2020
Messages
22
Hi All. New to the knife collecting world. Quickly getting sucked in. So far I've only purchased three knives, but Id like to have the means to maintain them. Just to give you some context, I have Kershaw Filter as a beater knife. I also picked up a Spyderco Stretch 2 V-Toku2 with SUS410 and a Benchmade Arcane with S90V.

What do you all recommend in terms of sharpening? I'm sure ill want to learn all there is, but what's a good starting point to keep my blades maintained? They likely wont see much heavy use. I work from home. Have a small garden I maintain and dabble in some wood working - those would be the heaviest use scenarios, likely reserved for the Kershaw or Spyderco. Reserving my benchmade as a gentlemans carry.

How often do you all sharpen your knifes? How about lubrication and cleaning? Any products you can recommend. I did pick up some lock tite for disassembling and Benchmade blue lube already.

Thanks guys! Looking forward to connecting with some of you.
 
There are probably thousands of sharpening threads on this forum. I would just start reading them.
 
There most certainly are. To be honest its a bit overwhelming. Was hoping to be directed to a good place to start. Thanks for your reply.
 
You could use the search function also. Sometimes I just scroll down the threads looking for stuff. If you find an older thread that you want to be able to go back to, you can click, "watch thread" that is at the top right of the thread.
Relax and enjoy yourself and learn, you'll catch on. It took me a while to learn how to get around. And don't be afraid to ask for help. Many people here are eager to help.
 
000Robert said:
You're welcome. I have been a member since March of this year and I have still just barely scratched the surface of the good info that is available here at BF.
Click to expand...

I can’t believe how much information there is here. It’s funny, this all started because I decided to pick up an every day carry. I used to buy cheap Walmart/costco blades years ago, but it’s been a while since I’ve carried. I ended up stumbling on this forum and just got sucked in. 3 knives later and I can’t get enough. Still learning what I need to learn if that makes sense. But It’s been fun so far... are you new to the hobby or just the forum?
 
I have always loved knives but just got more into them recently. I cannot afford to be a collector so my knives will be users, even the new Carothers DEK1 that I preordered. The search function really helps to save time if you are looking for something in particular.
 
Knife maintenance and sharpening is simple once you train your hands. It's just that there are so many ways and methods. For stupid hard steels diamonds are your friend. I find for most uses a toothy working edge works fine. Although I do like to refine edges. More for sport than real utility.
 
To start with you don't need anything extravagant. I got overwhelmed looking at all the options, but finally found a system that works for me. Sharpal coarse/extra fine diamond stone. It is basically all you need. If you have to do heavy reprofling I would add a Norton Crystolon. Very affordable and will eat pretty much anything for breakfast. If you want more refinment I would add Spyderco's medium and fine stones. After that, a strop with some diamond paste (still waiting on my paste, stupid usps...) should get you fixed up.

All told, under $150 and I can cover any steel. I also have a Sharpmaker to do serrations and recurves, although the only serrated knife I own are my bread knives!

If you want to disassemble and clean your knives, you'll need some torx bits. Wiha and Wera are good brands. I've had good luck with Lenox and Husky (cheap yes, but they work and I haven't stripped a screw or bit yet). Blue loctite for your screws. Some oil for your pivot (I use KPL, you can choose whatever you like).

Hope that helps.
 
soc_monki said:
To start with you don't need anything extravagant. I got overwhelmed looking at all the options, but finally found a system that works for me. Sharpal coarse/extra fine diamond stone. It is basically all you need. If you have to do heavy reprofling I would add a Norton Crystolon. Very affordable and will eat pretty much anything for breakfast. If you want more refinment I would add Spyderco's medium and fine stones. After that, a strop with some diamond paste (still waiting on my paste, stupid usps...) should get you fixed up.

All told, under $150 and I can cover any steel. I also have a Sharpmaker to do serrations and recurves, although the only serrated knife I own are my bread knives!

If you want to disassemble and clean your knives, you'll need some torx bits. Wiha and Wera are good brands. I've had good luck with Lenox and Husky (cheap yes, but they work and I haven't stripped a screw or bit yet). Blue loctite for your screws. Some oil for your pivot (I use KPL, you can choose whatever you like).

Hope that helps.
Click to expand...
This was awesome! Exactly what I was looking for. Many thanks.
 
000Robert said:
I have always loved knives but just got more into them recently. I cannot afford to be a collector so my knives will be users, even the new Carothers DEK1 that I preordered. The search function really helps to save time if you are looking for something in particular.
Click to expand...
I hear you. I can see this hobby getting expensive fast. Alas, the knives were built to cut right- might as well make use of it. I don’t foresee myself having many safe queens- I enjoy having the additional utility on my person and tend to overuse my carry. Ie Opening things by slicing them, is just way more satisfying. I’m sure there will be some lesser used knives, but I intend to put them all to use!
 
Chris LaGrutta said:
I hear you. I can see this hobby getting expensive fast. Alas, the knives were built to cut right- might as well make use of it. I don’t foresee myself having many safe queens- I enjoy having the additional utility on my person and tend to overuse my carry. Ie Opening things by slicing them, is just way more satisfying. I’m sure there will be some lesser used knives, but I intend to put them all to use!
Click to expand...

I Use my little Buck 301X pocket knife for most stuff. I have many good scissors also. My EDC knife is just for self defense and emergency stuff like cutting the seat belt to save someone or something like that. I also like to keep a couple of other knives stashed for backup.
Good high quality knives that you can count on when the going gets tough, are not cheap. Less expensive knives are good enough for most everyday stuff. Just depends on your needs and wants I guess.
 
Set a budget for how much you want to spend on a sharpening system and go from there. Decide if you want to free hand sharpen or use a guided system.
There’s so many to choose from that I’m sure you’ll find something within the budget you set. A popular system is the Sharpmaker that Spyderco offers. Look at some videos and see if that’s your starting point. I’ve used a Lansky for many years before I finally moved to something else.
If whatever you choose works for you and it does what you are looking for maintaining your edges, stick with it until you master it. Then if you feel the need to go to the next level, then it will be time to upgrade.
 
With S90 steel and it's 9% Vanadium, you will certainly need diamond stones.
As for system, I prefer freehand but there are a ton of systems people like. Just make sure that you get those diamond stones regardless of method.

Non-informative, but I sharpen & oil as needed. There really is no other answer, since everybody has a different usage rate and preferred feel.
 
Welcome to the addiction, dude. Ironically, the only cure is... more knives! I've discovered that you can calm some of those less intense urges by engaging in relatively harmless knife-related activities such as sharpening, cleaning, learning by using some pretty simple methods, such as:
*Meditation (focus on your angle, light pressure & smooth strokes),
*Quiet study (Seek knowledge & understanding),
*Calm Reflection (let Sticky threads & Search guide you), and
*A good support system (the Blade Forums community is great!)

Eventually, though, you will get an itch to try something new or realize that your current collection isn't quite up to task & you will have to purchase something made of steel. You will open up your wallet & you will buy something sharp, or something pointy, or something that is FOR those sharp & pointy things. Maybe you will buy a new knife simply because it's pretty & you like it. And that's okay. It's fine. We understand, we've been there.

But your girlfriend or your wife (or both of them) may not understand, you might even be asked if maybe you didn't already have enough knives?
You'll want to look at her like maybe she's crazy, but since you're not stupid & want to live so you can enjoy your knives, not be murdered by them, you will simply look her in the eyes and, with a straight face & sincere tone reply, "Honey, don't you think you have enough shoes...?"
She'll be like :eek:? BAM! Knives are our shoes! Then the next knife you buy will be a gift for your wife/GF/both, but in the meantime you can come to BladeForums.com & tell us all about it.
 
As far as kit goes, I have a Kershaw K-Tool I use, along with a couple of other Torx bit sets in S2 steel. I try not to use CR-V or Chrome Vanadium, as it tends to want to slip & round out because it's soft compared to S2.

For oil, my go to is Blue Lube (I LOVE that stuff, it's awesome). I've used but don't recommend Hoppe's Lubricating Oil for the washers when I did a full disassembly of my 940-2, but found it seemed to attract dirt. Everything was clean when I applied a couple drops of the Hoppe's with a needle applicator & reassembled it. A couple weeks later I noticed some black residue which turned out to be the three tiny dots of Hoppe's on the liners were no longer clear, but a glassy black. So I cleaned again & this time used two drops of Blue Lube on each side. Still smooth & no dirt or anything.

Of course, I have the ubiquitous blue Lock-Tite & I wipe down my blades with a Birchwood Casey Gun & Reel Cloth does a great job keeping my blades clean & protected.

For sharpening/maintaining edges:
I've been using the Spyderco Sharpmaker & with it I purchased 2 of the Extra Fine stones. I finish with a Knives Plus Strop Block, loaded with the Green Compound.
Buying 2 individual EF stones was actually a lot cheaper than buying the "Set" of 2. I bought them at the same time that I bought the Sharpmaker System, figuring they would be a better chance that the stones were manufactured at the same time or at least from the same load/batch of substrate. Not sure if that matters or not, but I figured it best to do it that way.

I only mention that because I just bought a knife yesterday & this last weekend I went & picked up a DMT Double-Sided Diafold & am now wishing I had just bought one of the benchstones or whetstones. Holding that bastard & maintaining the angle it a bitch. I set the Whetstone side on a flat surface & hold the handle, but it only works ok.

I have a two sided whetstone I bought off of Amazon but truth be told, I am crap at freehand sharpening. I have a hard time maintaining the angle on a horizontal plane & have a tendency to use too much pressure. I will say that using the Sharpmaker system has actually helped with that some. An angle guide that slips over the knife blade really helps, but it's cumbersome & makes hitting the curve on a Clip-Point blade a pain. Plus it's like having training wheels on. Sounds ridiculous, but that's what pops into my head: training wheels.
 
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