Poll - Freehand or Guided?

Do you usually sharpen freehand or use a guided sharpener?

  • Freehand

    Votes: 47 56.6%

  • Guided

    Votes: 36 43.4%
  • Total voters
    83
J

jeffbird

Gold Member
Joined
Feb 3, 2011
Messages
658
Reading posts in this subforum seems like guided sharpeners are becoming used more and more. So thought a quick poll might be interesting to see if they now are used more often than freehand.

Pick the one you use most of the time.
 
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I have yet to fine a guided sharpening system that works with the Buck 305 , and since I currently have 7 which all get used my sharpening method of choice revolves around them.
 
Guided for the mechanical precision ..
Yes , there is a certain amount of satisfaction hand sharpening !
But , performance trumps feelings !
And there is a certain level of satisfaction in a edge that stays sharp longer .
So if edge retention matters ? ( But that's just me )
 
Hickory n steel said:
I have yet to fine a guided sharpening system that works with the Buck 305 , and since I currently have 7 which all get used my sharpening method of choice revolves around them.
Click to expand...
The Hapstone V8 modified for small blades worked to sharpen mine.
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I'm not saying that's how you should sharpen yours. Just that it works for me.

O.B.
 
I suspect, among those whom are enthused enough about sharpening itself as a hobby and intellectual pursuit, and with the $$$ to spend freely on such things, maybe the guided systems are attracting more. But among the rest of the world in general, for those who just want to keep their working knives working, I've no doubt some form of freehand sharpening continues to dominate by a colossal margin. And judging by what seems to be more heavily stocked in stores these days, I'm sad to assume many others are using pull-throughs for quick & dirty sharpening and don't know any better, or don't care. Nothing quite so depressing as looking at the vast arrays of pull-through sharpeners in stores these days, with a minimum of decent, simple sharpening stones to choose from.

For myself, I trained my hands and approach for the fundametals using a guided system, with the eventual goal being to wean myself from that and do everything freehand on stones. I've accomplished that goal as of several years ago. I've never regretted it and I'll never look back.

I can see the value in a guided setup as a means to set up optimal geometry for the first time on blades that sorely need it. But once that's set, all the maintenance can more easily and quickly be done freehand, with the good geometry creating bevels that serve very well as guides themselves. That's how I trained my hands while using the guided system, by setting up the new edge with clean & flat bevels using the guide and then doing all of the touch-up sharpening freehand, after the fact. Good foundation geometry naturally lends itself to much simpler freehand maintenance sharpening going forward.
 
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I always free hand UNTIL I went to a deer expo, saw a guy with a knife in his pocket that I recognized. He whipped it out and it had a beautiful mirror edge with this fat wide bevel, I'd never seen one before. Asked him how he did it and I was hooked. Guided system for me from here on out.
 
I use both. I do OK freehand, and that's what I typically do for a quick touchup. There is still room for improvement on my technique, though. My KME system works great, and I get a clean, sharp edge with it, even before moving over to a strop. But the KME is a little limiting, in that, it's not great for very small blades (say, smaller than a SAK), or very large ones (tough to use on my chef's knife, or similar). In the mid range ( 3" to 6"), it's wonderful.
 
I usually do machetes freehand and expensive blades with a guided sharpener such as TSProf or Hapstone. For kitchen knives, I use a Work Sharp Ken Onion, which is not freehand, but also not nearly as guided as TSProf and Hapstone. There are still other devices in between freehand and fully guided, such as the Spyderco Sharpmaker.
 
I also use both methods. I am relatively new to freehand sharpening.

I believe the two methods complement each other.
 
Freehand for me. I don't always have a lot of knife work to do, but when I do it's almost always on a job. A pocket stone in my bag keeps knives cutting, and with machetes I just use a flat file and clean the edge up with scythe stones when I get home.
 
Freehand.
I’ve used a friend’s $2000 WickedEdge setup on 6-8 knives and yes the results are great it’s just not for me.
 
Hickory n steel said:
I have yet to fine a guided sharpening system that works with the Buck 305 , and since I currently have 7 which all get used my sharpening method of choice revolves around them.
Click to expand...
Many guided systems work on a Buck 305. Either magnetic platform based, or ones with 2 clamps.

Smaller clamps (Hapstone Lite, TSProf Blitz or Pioneer etc. as an example) work best on a small blade like the 305, using one clamp on the tang and the second clamp close to the front of the nail nick. Even one clamp alone on the tang works, as long as you don't sharpen with excessive pressure.
 
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