Newbie here have sharpening questions

C

Cuttie

Joined
Dec 26, 2016
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2
Hi new to site . My name is Mike.

I am a proud owner of a barrage mini. I want to keep it sharp and have been looking through the site. There is tons of info but wondering what you'd recommend for a newbie.

Now I have a cheap stone from no idea where. I use for skinning knife. I realize how wrong I've been when using the stone.

I see that Dmt is recommended alot and there is as many varieties as well. I'm not needing a huge set up like the wiced edge. However that is a nice setup. Thanks for all your help and info.

Mike
 
If you're looking for a sharpening system my default suggestion is the Spyderco Sharpmaker. Very easy to use, gets reliable results and works on almost everything. If that's a bit spendy for you, take a look at the Lansky Turn Box.
 
recommend touching up with a leather strop on wood and compound. if thats too costly, get some balsa wood and strop compound. you can get 3 compounds and 3 strips of balsa wood, start out with the highest grit and goto the lowest grit. dont mix the grits on the same strop.

touch up the blade after each use.

you probably wont need anything else if you just do that.

sharpmaker is good as suggested above for if you need to do more than touching up... however if you are doing any re-profiling i would suggest low grit diamond stones.

i would suggest if you are going to sharpen often to get a guided system like KME or EdgePro... especially if you dont like sharpening on bench stones.
 
I've become a fan of WorkSharp's Guided Sharpening System...

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... (picture mostly 'cause some read 'WorkSharp' and assume it's the power sharpener being talked about).

It's a nice little system... with the upgrade kit you have everything you need, (although even the base kit will do the job), and can usually be found well under MSRP. Has guides avail. if you're learning to freehand, take them off if you don't need them. Stones decent enough size to get the job done. I also like the fact it has a decent base that's solid and heavy enough that it won't slide around.

Use mine all the time, (and I have several sharpeners to pick from). :thumbup:
 
The WSGS is awesome, I really enjoy mine, wish they had them when I was learning.
 
Welcome to the Forum Mike!
For your first sharpening set up I think a sharpmaker is definitely the way to go. It is not as flexible but has a really short learning curve and will get nice results.
It would be a good idea to take the ideas you gather and watch some videos of the sharpeners in action:thumbup:
 
Thank you everyone for all the help and advice. I'll look into the sharpeners recommend and I'll post which one I get.

Mike
 
DMT is hard to beat on the upkeep of folding knives... especially those with high alloy content.

I prefer the Coarse and Fine DMT stones with a balsa strop coated in 1 micron diamond. With a good understanding of sharpening these three items will provide all the sharpness ever needed and sharpen anything you put in front of them.

If your budget is tight then the next step down IMO is the Norton India or Crystolon combo stones. Cheap but high quality stones that work well.
 
Jason B. said:
DMT is hard to beat on the upkeep of folding knives... especially those with high alloy content.

I prefer the Coarse and Fine DMT stones with a balsa strop coated in 1 micron diamond. With a good understanding of sharpening these three items will provide all the sharpness ever needed and sharpen anything you put in front of them.

If your budget is tight then the next step down IMO is the Norton India or Crystolon combo stones. Cheap but high quality stones that work well.
Click to expand...

+1. A DMT coarse/fine can handle anything. It's a great place to start, and you might decide that it's all you need.
 
Hey everyone. I'm new to the sharpening world as well. I'm looking into all of the ways to sharpen and as you can imagine, it's quite overwhelming. I'm just getting into knives that aren't cheaply made and want to maintain them properly. So far I've been looking at the dmt and the lansky turn box. The dmt seems nicer but on the high end of my current budget. Any other thoughts would be greatly appreciated. Also I'm confused a bit as to if I will need a honing rod plus strop with one of these kits or just a kit?
 
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