On a scale of 1-5 where would you rate your sharpening ability?

On a scale of 1 to 5 where would you rate your sharpening skills?

  • 1: Able to blunt a perfectly sharp knife

    Votes: 0 0.0%

  • 2: Able to put scratch marks on the side of the blade, and sometimes I'm lucky and get a decent edg

    Votes: 0 0.0%

  • 3: Able to put a decent edge on carbon steel , but need help to make it shaving sharp.

    Votes: 0 0.0%

  • Able to sharpen the harder steels,(ATS34, D2, CMP30, ect...), but not without a rig,(Harpmaker, Lann

    Votes: 0 0.0%

  • 5: Able to sharpen anything to a scary sharp hair poppin' edge

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • Total voters
    0
French Kiss, ch-po, welcome new and old alike, we don't judge here, no wait maybe we do, no matter, we are a collection of strange birds to say the least.:D
 
I'll give myself a conditional 5, as I can sharpen what I want with a stone and an old leather belt for stroping, but I never sharpened high tech steels (never had to yet)

NsB
 
Posted by Keith Montgomery:

Actually, Cliff is really good at sharpening knives. (I know, I know, shut the .... up!)
Click to expand...


LOL

When I was writing that. . .I thought. . .someone is going to make a Cliff joke out of it.

Then I thought. . .nahhhh. . .but if someone does. . .it would never be Keith.

Thanks for proving me wrong. :p ;) :D
 
Btw, you should add a level 6 "Mon, I can sharpen Rostafrei blades"... Now that's sharpening!!! :D :D :D

NsB
 
Originally posted by Tracer-san
Btw, you should add a level 6 "Mon, I can sharpen Rostafrei blades"... Now that's sharpening!!! :D :D :D

NsB
Click to expand...

PLEASE EXPLAIN!

The knife I metioned in this thread...the first knife I have ever sharpened..happens to say ROSTFREI on the blade.

What can you tell me about Rostfrei????
 
Originally posted by ch-po

What can you tell me about Rostfrei????
Click to expand...

Okay... a quick search, and I know that rostfrie means rust free in German. SO...I am still lost on the signifigance of Tracer-san's post.
 
5.

I've obsessed over this for the last few years until I developed my skills.

When I'm done sharpening/stropping, I fish one of my girlfriends long hairs out of her hairbrush in her bathroom. I suspend it between two fingers from the folicle end and swipe at it with my knife. If I can half it 2-4 times I'm happy.
 
4
Never even tried a jig/device/fixture.
Last month I sharpened a new CS Bolo that I bought my friend for Christmas.
12" File
Coarse/fine india combo stone
Stropped on cardboard box.

He was cutting 1L water filled soda bottles in half.
Reduced him to smiles and grunts.
:D
 
I have no idea how good i am at sharpening...been using a DMT sharpener with that thingy to hold the angle...used it for my other cheaper knives like the Buck 110. Turned out shaving sharp. Then the other day i finally realised i needed to sharpen my BM721. So for the first time i tried it. Didn't turn out as sharp as i expected. So i got fed up and sharpened it free hand on a DMT Diafold Fine/X FIne. Shaving sharp again. But i don't know whether i've destroyed the edge or not. It doesn't look as nice as when i first got it.

I've been thinking that if i'm out and about the diafold would be the most useful thing to have. So i'm gonna master sharpening with it first.

Anyway...i guess i'm a 2
 
I'm an erratic 2+/- at the moment.
With Pendentive's emailed help, I actually once got one of my blades to shaving-sharpness along one small section of the blade, but my efforts to get the rest of the blade to that stage have only served to blunt the sharp part again.

There's hope: Pen's sending me a whole CD of info to get my skills up.:)
 
I know this thread was intended as a poll, and not a thread for newbie questions...but I will risk it anyway.

First...I'm not getting anywhere with a search on this at the moment...so I apologize in advance.

I have now sharpened TWO knives. Here is what I did. Smith Precision Sharpening System. First I did course at 20 degrees (Smith system has only 20 and 25 degrees, I think!). Did that until bur...then repeated on other side until bur. Then went to medium at 25 degrees (attempt at two stage sharpening or whatever its called). Did that on each side until bur. Then went to fine for each side just about 20-25 light strokes on each. That's it. That's all I know how to do. The blades seem sharp, and seem to do okay on the fingernail test. Definitely not shaving sharp though.

SO...hep me refine this. And...Is it possible to get shaving sharp without using steel or a strop. BTW, I have no idea how to strop a knife yet.

Thanks for the pointers.
 
Hey who here is the closest to Massachusetts? My Gerber could use a good sharpening :D

As for my skill level: I turn spearpoints into tantos.
 
ch-po, a strop should help you a lot. www.handamerican.com has excellent instructions on how to use one. You can substitute the cardboard backing of a notebook for a leather strop, the result will be similar. If you want to further polish the edge, get some green metal polishing compound at a hardware store. Lowe's carries several grades of polish that come in sticks, like large crayons. Rub the compound into the cardboard and follow Handamerican's directions and you should be able to get a good shaving edge as long as you're sharpening a quality blade. I used this technique on a Buck Special last night and it is easily one of the sharpest knives I've ever sharpened freehand. Good luck and feel free to e-mail me with any other questions.
 
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