Need help with WorkSharp wtkts

[Scott J.]

Hey guys I'm looking for a little advice. I've always had my hunting buddy sharpen my knives for me, sometimes the guy at Bass Pro because I was never any good at it. Lately I've been buying a lot of knives and just purchased the Work sharp wtkts.
It has two knife guides. They recommend the 25 (per side) for "pocket knives" and the 20 degree for kitchen knives.
My knives are mostly Buck folding knives for hunting and my new addiction has me buying traditional folders like Case, Boker and SAK's
It seems like all of these recommend 20 deg or even 15-17 even though they're all "pocket knives"
Should I just use the 20 deg kitchen guide?
Would I Need to reproduce my knives to match this with the coarse belt? Right now even my dullest knife could still gut and skin a deer so I woulndt want to use the coarse if I didn't have too.
Thanks, and sorry for the very uneducated post, but I can't find consistent advice anywhere else.

 

[cudgee]

Hey guys I'm looking for a little advice. I've always had my hunting buddy sharpen my knives for me, sometimes the guy at Bass Pro because I was never any good at it. Lately I've been buying a lot of knives and just purchased the Work sharp wtkts.
It has two knife guides. They recommend the 25 (per side) for "pocket knives" and the 20 degree for kitchen knives.
My knives are mostly Buck folding knives for hunting and my new addiction has me buying traditional folders like Case, Boker and SAK's
It seems like all of these recommend 20 deg or even 15-17 even though they're all "pocket knives"
Should I just use the 20 deg kitchen guide?
Would I Need to reproduce my knives to match this with the coarse belt? Right now even my dullest knife could still gut and skin a deer so I woulndt want to use the coarse if I didn't have too.
Thanks, and sorry for the very uneducated post, but I can't find consistent advice anywhere else.

Look at Lansky crock sticks on youtube. I have one and it works really well on pocket knives with 20deg and 25 deg angles and 600grit-1200grit rods. There is good info on youtube on this system. Also look at the Idahone sharpener, they have 15 and 22.5 deg angles with 220grit and 1500grit rods, look up there website and look at learning centre. I see you have purchased a sharpening kit, but these clips i mentioned my be able to help you with the system you have purchased.

 

[bucketstove]

Hey guys I'm looking for a little advice. I've always had my hunting buddy sharpen my knives for me, sometimes the guy at Bass Pro because I was never any good at it. Lately I've been buying a lot of knives and just purchased the Work sharp wtkts.
It has two knife guides. They recommend the 25 (per side) for "pocket knives" and the 20 degree for kitchen knives.
My knives are mostly Buck folding knives for hunting and my new addiction has me buying traditional folders like Case, Boker and SAK's
It seems like all of these recommend 20 deg or even 15-17 even though they're all "pocket knives"
Should I just use the 20 deg kitchen guide?
Would I Need to reproduce my knives to match this with the coarse belt?
Right now even my dullest knife could still gut and skin a deer so I woulndt want to use the coarse if I didn't have too.
Thanks, and sorry for the very uneducated post, but I can't find consistent advice anywhere else.

Hi,

If 25 degrees per side works for you , stick with it
If 20 dps works better for you, go for it

Will using the P80 GREEN belt save you time over the P220 belt?
It depends on how much metal there is to remove.

To find out
grab a paring knife (practice knife)
use magic marker/sharpie to paint the edge,
take one pass on the P220 RED belt with 20dps guides,
and look at how much marker is left at the front of the edge
mark edge again
and take another pass
and look at how much marker is left
..
10 passes total (5 per side) as per wsktsuserguide.pdf

Have you raised a burr by now? Is all the marker gone?
Or is there still millimeter+ marker left on the front of the edge untouched?
Is your hand steady?

You ought to get an idea by now
how many more passes you need to do with with the P220 belt
If there are still 2+mm worth of marker left,
paint the edge again,
and take one pass with the P80 belt
...
dont take it all the way to raising a burr with P80 grit
keep going until there is less than 1mm of marker left
then switch to P220 belt




Is 20dps better than 25dps?
Is 15dps better than 20dps?
Is 10dps better than 15dps?
What is the angle that matters to you?
Well take 2-3 paring knives (as in $1-$6 dollar knives)
regrind them using P80 then sharpen with P220
then cut up a bunch of stuff side by side by side by side so you can feel the difference


Only got one knife?
Define the hardest task the knife has to perform,
Then perform said task (cut stuff, hundreds of cuts)
If edge gets deformed, increase angle
If edge not deformed, lower angle
Repeat
Repeat
Repeat

The more minutes of cutting you do at a time (hundreds of cuts), the more you will appreciate lower angles.


Got calipers?
With calipers you can measure and check against the list of ranges of thicknesses/angles for various cutting tasks/steels in whats-the-lowest-functionable-angle-by-steel-type.1587190/#post-18129004


My one dollar paring knives, I regrind to 10degrees per side,
then use 15-25 dps microbevel to maintain,
the 15 dps for not cutting on plates
the 20-25 dps for cutting on plates

A dollar knife at 7dps does not like metal/plate contact much
But it does much better on fruit than one at 15dps