Lanskey at 20 degrees. Will this work?

TattooBlade

TattooBlade

Joined
Apr 4, 2009
Messages
1,347
Just acquired a Laskey kit with 4 stones and a serrated stone. I was messing with my RC-4 at 30 degrees (until I saw on the ESEE site I should be using 20 degrees) and found the most corse stone seemed to work, but the others, all the way to the fine, didn't do much. What am I doing wrong? Will using the 20 and just the corse stone give me the best edge?

Thanks
 
Use the coarse stone to get the edge back to 20, then use the progressively finer stones and finish with a strop.
 
I’ve found the Lansky to be a massive load of fail on most full flat grind blades thicker than a SAK blade.

Without having flat shoulders to clamp to, the Lansky was inconsistent in my experience.
 
I think you just have to be very careful with setting the blade in just so. I use a lansky... asked for a Sharpmaker for Christmas. I have all 3 of my RATs "shaving sharp" using the system. All on 20 degree angles. All just as sharp as i need them.

Semper is right... use the 20 angle and work them back down from coarse to fine.
 
I've been trying for hours and they still don't come close to the out of box sharpness of my F1! I'm gettin irritated! Also, my settings have 25, 22, or 19, not 20. The 25 seems to give it an edge I can at least feel. Haven't tried the others. They seem almost flat. All I know is I could barely cut through a pork chop after an hour of sharpening! My F1 went through like a laser beam. I really want to love my RATS but I can never get them to sharpen!
 
Ok, you need a Lansky (got that) and a sharpie.

Start with the coarse stone (extra coarse if you have it).

Clamp the knife on the spine, right where the little indentions are on the clamp. Make sure when you hold the knife up, the edge is centered in the clamp, then crank it down as tight as you can get it.

Take the sharpie and mark along the edge, completely blacking it out.

Take the stone and the rod, lay the rod on a flat surface, I use the kit box top. Place the stone on the rod and tighten the thumbscrew in the front. Make sure the stone and the rod are in line with one another. If the rod has some bend in it, flex it slightly until it straightens out and is perfectly in line with the stone.

Place the rod through the 19 degree (I use 25, its a good working angle)

Gently begin moving the stone back and forth moving from the ricasso to the tip. See where the sharpie is gone. If you are hitting high, you will still have sharpie on the edge. If you are hitting low, you will have sharpie on the shoulder. Adjust the angle until you are striking from the edge to the shoulder completely.

Repeat this process until you get a burr on the under side, should take about 5-6 passes. Flip the clamp over, and repeat the process until you get a burr on the under side. Once you have it, change from coarse to medium, and repeat the process, sharpie, stone, burr. Then change to the fine stone.

Repeat, sharpie, stone, burr. Once you are using the fine (extra fine) stone, continue to make passes until the burr gets smaller and smaller until you can barely feel it. Then strop it.

Stropping it is not an overly difficult process. Leather, canvas, denim will be fine. If you don't have jewelers rouge, chromium oxide, or crystylon power, use powder detergent. Rub your charge (rough, CO, or CP)into your strop until there is no sign of the charge sitting on the strop.

Start by pulling off the blade, meaning drag the spine first, and the edge must be touching the strop, at the appropriate angle. You will feel when the edge begins to grab, and thats where you want to be. Back and forth, about 10 times on each side, and you should look at the edge and see mirror. Test on hair, paper, pets, spouses, and the neighbors pets.

Let me know how it works out for you.

Moose
 
Ok, just followed your excellent instructions. The almighty sharpie has saved the day! What I found, for whatever reason is that 30 degrees was spot on for sharpie removal. The edge seems really nice now. I think part of the paper cutting challenge versus my F1 is the coating on the ESEE. Maybe it binds a hair which is why the F1 seems to glide through the paper easier. Either way, the ESEE is much sharper than it was!
 
Sounds like you figured it out.

I have about 17 years experience on a lansky.

I have reprofiled 10 inch 5/16 bowies on it. I find the most common mistake people make when going from a steeper bevel to a shallower one is that they don't spend enough time on the initiak course stone. It often will look and feel like your edge is readu to move up in grit when actually you have a small micro bevel still at that steeper angle, the , as you move up in grits really all you are doing is polishing the new shoulder, not the edge.

It is also really not an exact angle depending on the profile of the knife. If sharpening a small short blade (spine to edge height) you are at a steeper angle than you will be with a taller blade. Also one common mistake people make is where they position the clamp relative to the tip. The closer you clamp to the base, the more obtuse that edge at the base will be, and the more accute the angle out toward the tip will be, which is normally not what I like.

The longer the knife the more pronounced this effect becomes.

On short knives no real obvious issue, but on longer blades it makes a big difference.

I like to put the clamp more towards the tip on bigger knives and the middle on smaller ones.
 
TattooBlade said:
Ok, just followed your excellent instructions. The almighty sharpie has saved the day! What I found, for whatever reason is that 30 degrees was spot on for sharpie removal. The edge seems really nice now. I think part of the paper cutting challenge versus my F1 is the coating on the ESEE. Maybe it binds a hair which is why the F1 seems to glide through the paper easier. Either way, the ESEE is much sharper than it was!
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Glad I could help. With time and practice, you won't need the sharpie and it will take about 20 minutes to put a hair popping edge on any knife .25 and under, without issue.
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Yep, BK2.

Moose
 
Thanks again! Now that I have another ESEE-4 coming, I think I'll use my old beat up one as a practice tool. I'm pretty new to the whole Lansky thing. I've stropped my share of BRKT with good luck, but that's a whole nother ball game...
 
Yeah using lansky systems is an art. Not only does it have to do with getting the right edge angle (I usually do everything at 25), it also has to do with clamping the blade in correctly. I was having troubles with my BK2 the other day until i noticed it wasn't evenly clamped in.
 
I keep bending the rods that hold the stone. I'm sure I'm using too much pressure. Has anyone used that sapphire stone they're pimping?
 
slowrie said:
I keep bending the rods that hold the stone. I'm sure I'm using too much pressure. Has anyone used that sapphire stone they're pimping?
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If you are bending the rods you are using way too much pressure.

The saphire sone will indeed give you a mirror looking polish.

I have not been using my Lansky much for the past 4 years or so.

Almost all my edges get convexed and maintained with stropping and sandpaper.
 
Yeap, Lanskey at 20º. I use my Spyderco Sharpmaker at 40º (inclusive) or 20º each side. That maintains my Izula well :)
 
Well I've continued on my quest to get a serious razor edge. I think I'm almost there but it's still not as sharp as my F1. I'm using the 22 degree setting which seems to be working now for the sharpie trick. It seems though that I can do 20 passes on one side and still not feel a bead forming on the other side. Does this mean I should be using a great angle and I'm not catching the edge? When I look very closely at where the stone is passing over the edge it appears to be spot on.
 
adaman04 said:
I’ve found the Lansky to be a massive load of fail on most full flat grind blades thicker than a SAK blade.

Without having flat shoulders to clamp to, the Lansky was inconsistent in my experience.
Click to expand...

so true! its espeically hard to get those L shaped metal stone extensions perfectly 90 degrees on the hones. too much wiggling in the lansky system and the extrafine hone is only 1000 grit. ya need a 3k-6k one to get mirror action going on.
 
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