Al
I have not been on this forum for very long but during my time here i have seen many people ask about sharpening various knifes, i can see why people with no experience in sharpening are hesitant to start messing around with expensive blades due to fear of failure so sending your blade to a pro is often a good solution, If you want to learn how to do it yourself there is a few ways to go about it. First of all DO NOT buy a sharpening system, although they may work on some knifes most often they don't work very well. If you want to invest some money in something to help you out you should get a belt grinder and a bench grinder for a buffing wheel and scotchbrite wheel and such ( i will be getting back to this later), if you don't want to get into using machines there is a jungle of other stuff that works and i will try to go trough most of them and explain how they work and how to use them without making things too complicated and nerdy.
NR1: DMT sharpeners are nice tools for sharpening and maintaining both convex and v edges but the blade needs to be straight due to the flat surface on the DMT so recurves and blades like the zilla is pretty much out of the question when using flat sharpening tools. When practicing with a DMT you can use a permanent marker to color the part of the edge you want to work on and this way you can easily see what you are doing to the edge, on a v edge you color the v and on a convex edge you color all the way from the cutting part of the edge to where the main edge stops and flattens out towards the spine. If you choose to use DMT's you should get some cheap blades to practice on and after a few days of practice you should be able to master sharpening with DMT's.
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NR2: A Japanese water stone is also a great way to sharpen and i will let this video from Carter describe the technique. I have been using Japanese water stones for more than 12 years now and they are well worth learning to use, When you get the hang of using them you can make just about any knife razor sharp in minutes, the best brand i have tried so far is KASUMI, they are expensive but will last you for years. An important thing with water stones is to let them soak in water for about 30 minutes before using them.
[video=youtube;ozZF2EgnYm0]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ozZF2EgnYm0[/video]
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These smaller waterstones are great for recurves and taking care of stuff such as a sharpened svedge due to the rounded butt. when your fine waterstone gets clogged with steel you need to use a rougher waterstone to rub it out (1000 grit is great) Just rub them together with water and they will clean up nicely, this also helps to keep your stones flat.
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This 5000/10000 stone is great for getting your edge hairpopping sharp
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The natural stones below are great stones to use on most knifes but i find them to be a bit slow when used on INFI
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NR3: NR3: A leather stropp with some stropping compound is a must since this is usually all you need to get your INFI back to shaving sharp after a chopping session, just rub some compound on the leather and stropp away from the blade at a slightly flat angle at first and work your way towards the cutting edge.
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A rolled up leather belt with some compond makes for a great stropping tool when you are in the bush, just tie one end to a tree branch, tighten and stropp away.
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NR4: A small belt grinder like this one from Proxon is nifty and cheap little machine for taking care of all types of knifes, i prefer to use a bigger grinder myself but a small one like this works just fine.
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This way you can make or maintain a convex edge with the Proxon
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NR5:Some soft insulating tape from Armaflex with some 400 grit paper on top is also a great way to make or repair a convex edge
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NR6: A machine like this one from MOE & CO does the same job the leather stropp does and it takes less skill to use but you dont need one of these unless you are planning to sharpen a lot of knifes often.
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NR7: A piece of rolled up 1200 gritt paper for wet sanding is a super cheap and very easy way to sharpen your blade and it's amazing how well this works .
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If you should choose to buy a big belt grinder remember to get a lot of cheap knifes and pieces of steel to practice on, when we get new fabricators in our welding/fabricating shop we make them practice on the grinders for a few hours a day for the first month and after this month they usually grind pretty perfect.
All it takes is practice
Len
