Hi guys,new to the forum but have browser for a long time before joining. So my question is about sharpening! I've tried freehand and just plain suck. For a few years now I've been using a lanskey basic system with decent results. But now I'm looking to change or upgrade. My problem is that I find it hard to justify spending tons of money on crazy systems that cost 200 plus. Most of my blades are 3-5" folders and fixed that I use for edc and game processing. I would love to hear suggestions, or what you guys use. Maybe just upgrade the lanskey? I'm not sure what route to take. Thanks in advance for the replies!
Hi,
try freehand again,
its kinda like learning to tie your shoes,
it takes a few tries until you get it,
just have to adjust little by little,
so like deadboxhero says grab the marker,
and set aside 5-15 minutes
to sharpen one knife a 1-3 times
use the marker to find the angle, paint edge
scrub blade on stone a little,
watch where the marker is removed,
if youre on the shoulder behind the edge bevel, you're too low, increase angle
blade will feel wobbly on the shoulder
if youre in front of the edge bevel grinding on the apex, you're too high , lower angle a little
blade will bite/snag into the stone when too high
if you're removing marker on edge bevel and apex, thats the position, remember it
it should feel stable, if you're watching the stone/blade contact point there should be no shadow beneath blade, or no light showing , depending on what side you're looking
once you find angle, keep scrubbing blade on stone until you raise a burr
should take about 1-5 minutes of scrubbing and you'll get there,
under 300 strokes, even if really wobbly
then flip sides and do the same, find the angle with marker,
do matching amount of strokes if you counted
or just scrub until the burr flips again
dont go past 5 minutes even if really wobbly 5 minutes should be enough
now that you've raised burr on both sides
double the angle,
do 40 degrees per side,
and do 1-2 real light alternating edge leading passes to cut the burr off,
as long as you made contact with the stone
it should now slice paper/newspaper real well , maybe a bit noisy
it should also shave
following that back down to not-double angle ,
and do alternating edge leading single passes
do five of them per side, then check slicing paper,
when it stops being so noisy stop, you're done,
dont go too much past 10 passes per side,
you might need to deburr again
all the things to learn after that are small improvements to efficiency and cosmetics
yes systems can help with that, but cosmetics don't affect performance, so save the cash for stones
