sharpen advice

[klunter]

i am looking for advice on which path to take sharpening.

i have a sharpmaker with all the rods (diamond, UF) and i am somewhat dissatisfied with it.

so i was looking into getting a edge pro apex, but i have always had a fascination with free hand sharpening. (never tried it though)

so for the 200+ i was going to spend on the edge pro, should i go with that?

or get some DMT or Norton stones and a strop?

-kyle

 

[nate1714]

i have a lansky pro and I love it...really the best sharpener is one you like and find easy to use... I like to free hand sharp but find it a bit easier to use my lansky...when Im in the woods I have a small ark stone with me...

 

[knarfeng]

I recently bought DMT stones because I wanted to try some of the steels with sizable amounts of Vanadium carbide.

I found that to get the edge I wanted, I needed X-tra coarse, coarse, fine, and extra fine. In a 6" x 2" size, that ran close to $100.

 

[dalefuller]

Since you already have a very good system with the Sharpmaker (even though you're not really fond of it), you might want to try to learn freehand sharpening just to give yourself a different view of sharpening. If you find that you like it, it's very therapeutic. It's also the easiest and handiest way to sharpen (IMAO) if you learn to get the results you want.