Many years ago I bought a lansky with extra stones. It did a decent job but I got tired of having to use the clamp and the mess of the oil. I then bought the Spyderco sharpmaker which I have used for about 20 years to which I recently added the CBN rods.
I got a bee in my bonnet and decide to look at freehand sharpening. After lots of agonizing I bought the IB8 Norton combo India stone figuring that it's cheap enough to see if I was able to freehand. It took some time but I seem to have got it right using small amounts of mineral oil.
I then made a couple of strops, one smooth side up and one rough side up with green compound. I was happy with the results but found the edges a little toothy. Again I agonized forever before buying the 2k Shapton Pro KO703 hoping that it was not too much of a jump from the India stone. Taking the knives from the India stone to this and then to the strop has made a huge difference to the quality of the edges.
I also recently made a huge 12" bench strop with rubber base that also made stropping easier then the paddle strop.
Thanks to all of you for your great advice.
I got a bee in my bonnet and decide to look at freehand sharpening. After lots of agonizing I bought the IB8 Norton combo India stone figuring that it's cheap enough to see if I was able to freehand. It took some time but I seem to have got it right using small amounts of mineral oil.
I then made a couple of strops, one smooth side up and one rough side up with green compound. I was happy with the results but found the edges a little toothy. Again I agonized forever before buying the 2k Shapton Pro KO703 hoping that it was not too much of a jump from the India stone. Taking the knives from the India stone to this and then to the strop has made a huge difference to the quality of the edges.
I also recently made a huge 12" bench strop with rubber base that also made stropping easier then the paddle strop.
Thanks to all of you for your great advice.

