Putting a quick edge on

I

Ironman1

Joined
Dec 23, 2013
Messages
8
Hey,
Does anyone know if there is such a thing as an electric hone for putting an edge on knife?
I'm not talking about sharpening, i know they make electric sharpeners.... my blade has roughly a .03 wide edge on it now and i just need to put the final edge on it.
I'm trying not to spend 3 hours putting the edge on one knife if at all possible:/
 
Cutting corners will get you nowhere fast in this craft. If less work is the goal it would be much cheaper to just go buy a knife out of the case at the local hardware store. When you start making knives EVERYTHING takes much longer than it should. As you progress with practice those things get faster and better. Time, practice and determination are the currency of success. Do the work however long it takes you. The pride you feel when you get it done right is worth more than the price of some gadget.
 
The above, plus putting the final edge on should take minutes, not hours.

Yes there are such machines. I have several types. The cheaper ones cost about $1200, and still require skill to operate properly. Wet lap wheels ( laps, not grinders) can speed up the edge shaping, but unless you are doing hundreds a day, they offer no real gain.
 
This is my first time putting an edge on a knife, I guess i was under the impression that it took hours to put an edge on...any suggestions for a good way/system for me to put an edge on my blade?(electric or not)

I here ya i4Marc, i don't like cutting corners either...Just didn't want to spend several hours putting an edge on my knife if there was a better way to do it... first time
 
My suggestion would be, DMT diamond stones.
Use a rough grit for putting on the edge and a fine for refining.
Maybe 15 minutes worth of work total. Then you can strop if you want to go that far.
 
Hey Ironman1, I don't want you to get the impression that I'm scolding you or something. It's just that this is a very common thing with new guys (me too). We want the shortcuts. But really, there are few shortcuts. The best way to shave massive amounts of time off your learning curve is to do exactly what you are doing right now. Ask questions here and in similar forums or talk with a bladesmith in your area in person. But the magic isn't in the asking, it's in the listening. The guys here will really help you.
 
A few minutes with a coarse DMT plate or waterstone and the edge should be completely shaped. A few more minutes with a medium stone/plate, and a final few minutes with a fine stone are all that is needed for a great edge. A few ( and only a few) strops on a charged leather strop will make it hair popping sharp.
 
Sharpening any knife takes me about literally 10 seconds. I use a harbor freight 1x30 with a 600 grit trizact belt, and a 1x30 leather belt with green chrome compound or flitz. Real fast, real clean, real sharp.
 
I use a 120 grit belt to set the primary edge, then bring it up with the 240 grit. I put the secondary edge on with 400 grit and then get rid of the burr and put a final razor edge on using ceramic V sticks. It takes only a few minutes to sharpen several knives at once.
 
There's also a whole sharpening forum if you want to ask questions there- there's a lot of expertise in this one though.
 
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