Knife Sharpening Systems?

Before I started making knives, I bought an Edge Pro with all the extras.

It's a good system, but it's time consuming and I would always get scratches on my blades unless I taped them heavily.

Now I do basic sharpening on my grinder at low speed with a mister. I just free hand it.

I then finish the edge off on ceramic, diamond or water stones followed by a quick strop.
 
I use a guided system I made myself that uses the lanksy stones but I have much more flexibility with angles and it locks in the angle. It's a rednecked version of all those expensive guided sharpening systems like edge pro or that russian one that Wranglestar made famous on youtube.

With a little farting around in the shop I think anybody can make one. Mine isn't perfect but it works! I use a homemade bench strop afterwards of course though. I switched to that system after I read Larrin's article and freaked out about over tempering the edge since my grinder is not variable speed.

I truly admire guys like @DeadboxHero that can freehand their edges but I am just not good at it at all. I can get it done but the knife's finish usually suffers at some point. Rather than ruin every knife I make at the final stage (sharpening) I choose to use a system that works for me and is consistent. :) Deadbox is a beast though... one should really watch him sharpening a ceramic knife lol... truly impressive!
 
J. Keeton said:
I've used my grinder, but I get a better edge with my knock off edge pro and diamond stones. I don't like how it handles moving towards the tip... The angle of the bevel varies slightly as you move to the tip on most knife geometries.. That Tormek T-8 in the article looks amazing...
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I do have the tormek T-8. Used it a couple nights ago to bring three of my kitchen knives back up to snuff (so to speak). About 10 minutes on the T-8 , then each knife got about 2 strokes per side on waterstones, and they were all back up to highly sharp. I really, really like the T-8...
 
Cushing H. said:
I do have the tormek T-8. Used it a couple nights ago to bring three of my kitchen knives back up to snuff (so to speak). About 10 minutes on the T-8 , then each knife got about 2 strokes per side on waterstones, and they were all back up to highly sharp. I really, really like the T-8...
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Very #jealous!
 
J. Keeton said:
Very #jealous!
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I know the T-8 is expensive - getting one was more or less an act of desperation, especially after my experiences with the japanese steels (esp. White paper, and blue paper) I just wanted folks to know the system really performs (if you can, ahhhh, "steel" yourself to get one)....
 
J. Keeton said:
Shots fired!?!11
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If it works reasonably well it is worth taking a close look at. One of the thing that separated the T-8 from its little brother (T-4) is continuous duty cycle, do you know whether this unit has any duty cycle limitation? The old adage “you get what you pay for” however comes to mind .... is there a catch???
 
More like "Shit Fired"

Wen is a hit and miss, you can get thing out of alignment and wobbly wheels.
 
Reading though the reviews it sounds like the wheel needs to be dressed, but after that it seems to work well. I'll probably fall on this testing grenade
 
I have a knock off of the Tormek and really like it, but doesn’t come with any attachments so i got the Tormek knife jigs, dressing stone and angle finder separately.
 
J. Keeton said:
Reading though the reviews it sounds like the wheel needs to be dressed, but after that it seems to work well. I'll probably fall on this testing grenade
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Look at the variable torque model and check out the review videos before you buy.
 
Nathan the Machinist said:
If you have a knife grinder it is tough to beat a hanging parallelogram and waterproof belts for a relatively fast very high quality edge.

obviously free hand is nice for your own knives, but when you're making them for someone else some people might expect a little bit more consistent than most free hand sharpener can achieve. In a production setting it is helpful to constrain that angle.
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can you elaborate on the hanging parallelogram and how it works?

I set my edge on the grinder then go to a big diamond stone to get it more uniform so the customer is not fighting to be able to sharpen the knife down the road(all free hand) but it is time consuming and a pain in the butt!
 
If I had to go with one expensive system I'd pick the T8 and get CBN wheels in something like 220-300 and 1000 grit. No dressing and changing diameter. Price would be a little bit more than a Wicked Edge Pro, but no hand cranking.
 
Scaniaman said:
If I had to go with one expensive system I'd pick the T8 and get CBN wheels in something like 220-300 and 1000 grit. No dressing and changing diameter. Price would be a little bit more than a Wicked Edge Pro, but no hand cranking.
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tormek also has the blackstone silicone wheel, which i have found really is necessary for the harder steels - say rockwell 62 and up. I have even used it todo a rather significant re-edging on a ceramic knife from my sons apartment that developed a bad chip ... now cant even see that the thing was ever chipped!
 
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