sharpen your knives

J

jester9099

Joined
Jan 24, 2010
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85
ok, so i know that i can probably google this question and get a good answer anytime but i needed something to post about :D. im about to get my first 1095 carbon steel knife in a day or two and was wondering how you really sharpen it. i mean, i know the gist of things but since all my knives are stainless they dont really sharpen that well with a sharpening stone.

(( rules violation ))

first thing is first, i was wondering if you guys could recommend a good stone set, or if you prefer diamond stones. i dont own a set, i normally just borrow a friends but i think i will buy one when i get my new knife.

next, is it good to sharpen you knives while the stone is wet or dry, and if you use oil, what kind?

finally, the problem i have always encountered is that in the process of sharpening a knife, i always scratch the knife up, is this because my angle is bad? i mean, should i sharpen it at almost a 180 degrees, or should it be more like 145? if you wonder what i mean by this -180 degrees would be whole width of blade parallel with the stone, where as 90 degrees would be sharp edge of blade perpendicular with the stone.

i appreciate your guys' help and i am sorry if i sound ignorant by not knowing anything about sharpening knives. i always used those crap V shaped sharpeners with the coarse side and the fine side. thanks, and God bless!

Jester
 
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no one ever explains it. people who ask just get really basic half assed responses almost always that ive seen. youre shit outa luck. ill tell you what i know later if i have time but i dont know much anyways. it can be complex and hard to find good literature anyways. i would actually just recomend and actual class or dvd. or just get a cheapo knife and dull and resharpen it for hours on end. gettin an edge is really easy but its the bur or wire edge that always gives me trouble. if you dont remove it properly it will break off and leave you with a snagled crap edge.
 
hi and welcome to the forum.

i sharpen my knives with a mousepad and wet dry sandpaper stroping it on the sandpaper away from the edge. there are numerous videos on youtube showing you how. after i get it pretty sharp i just touch it up on a ceramic rod to put the razor edge on it. if your marking up the side of the blade your holding it too flat to the stone look at the angle of the edge and try to match that angle to the stone, if thats what your using. there are alot of kits that set the edge angle for you but i learned freehand.

take it easy
cricket
 
kkj87a said:
no one ever explains it. people who ask just get really basic half assed responses almost always that ive seen. youre shit outa luck. ill tell you what i know later if i have time but i dont know much anyways. it can be complex and hard to find good literature anyways. i would actually just recomend and actual class or dvd. or just get a cheapo knife and dull and resharpen it for hours on end. gettin an edge is really easy but its the bur or wire edge that always gives me trouble. if you dont remove it properly it will break off and leave you with a snagled crap edge.
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Wow man...have you not seen the maintenance and tinkering forum on this very website? All you'll need to know about sharpening, and then some, is all right there. When I joined this site I had never even attempted to sharpen a knife, and after reading the forum for a few weeks and then practicing what I read for a few months, I could shave my face with my pocket knives if I felt so inclined. That's a pretty rude post considering we have many members who watch that forum regularly just to help out people new to sharpening get a hold of the basics.


Jester: http://www.bladeforums.com/forums/forumdisplay.php?f=794
 
Vivi, i really appreciate your help, i didnt think about checking that part of the forum. it seems that nobody seems to be able to explain things really well, but i will definitely check out that thread. thank you.

jester
 
jester9099 said:
Vivi, i really appreciate your help, i didnt think about checking that part of the forum. it seems that nobody seems to be able to explain things really well, but i will definitely check out that thread. thank you.

jester
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Some of the concepts behind sharpening can be difficult to word well. Best advice I can give you is read some in the forum I linked you to, check out some youtube videos, and practice. Also, if you have any questions, feel free to ask here or there. We all started from scratch at some point, and we're all still learning. :)
 
iam getting the spiderco sharpmaker and a strop. a guy at a local knife store demo'd them for me, and they worked great. iam all thumb's so it look's like the best solution for me. i've also been watching a lot of youtube vid's on sharpening, and they helped me with my decision. iam still going to try other methods with my cheap knives for the hell of it, just for the learning experience.
 
There are many videos of many techniques on youtube. I reccomend watching and listening to a few of those and testing what you've learned on a Mora knife.

"cheap" toy knives won't sharpen properly and you'll probably get frustrated...

Ragweedforge.com has cheap (but quality steel) moras and cheap (but effective) sharpening supplies.
 
I think some of us in the Maintenence and Sharpening section should get together and do a sticky on the basics of knife sharpening, covering freehand and the more popular sharpening systems. In the meantime, the YouTube videos should give an idea of how sharpening works.
 
Many of the techniques I cover in the vids I did for Derrick work fine on v-grinds. Check out the link in my sig. I agree that a lot of sharpening instruction is hard to follow -- I tried to explain mine a little better than I'd seen elsewhere.
 
the basics of sharpening are really easy. i think others would agree that getting an edge is easy... its properly honing and refining that edge to last and actually work after the first few cuts thats the hard part... and this i would call advanced sharpening. this is what is really needed cuz learning to put on an edge is very simple.
 
removing the burr can be a pain. that's where a light touch is really important. using a fine stone and a light touch you should be able to get rid of it. a lot of times, i finish sharpening using a bit of cardboard, just moving away from the spine instead of towards it. denim works pretty good too.
a lot of people use a sharpie to paint the bevel before sharpening, that way they know if they're maintaining the right angle for the knife. you might give that a try.

i use diamond stones for almost everything. i do use the sandpaper/mousepad method on my izula, there are some good tutorials in the maintance/tinkering section.
 
I use the sharpmaker and finish with the ultra fine rods .
Works great , shaving sharp
 
the great thing about 1095 is that it is IMHO very forgiving to learn to sharpen on, yeah you might scratch it all up, but if its a user, thats not a problem. I find that it doesn't take long for problems in your technique to show up, but unless you insist on doing things wrong, you arn't far away from fixing what you've done. It's also quite rewarding, once you get a good edge, you'll know it. And again, feel free to fire questions at the maintenance and tinkering forum, lots of really helpful guys there.
 
I found this site a while ago and found it pretty straight forward and clearly explained. I picked up a Lansky sharpening kit with stones of varying grit and guide rods off of Amazon and went to work. I showed some of my friends at work the edges I was getting, and they all started bringing me their hunting knives before moose season.

http://www.ebladestore.com/sharpening_tips.shtml
 
Sharpening is so easy it only took me 18 years to figure it out...... actually sharpening is a never ending learning process that can only be truly learned through time spent doing it. The concept is simple, use a abrasive to cut two angles until they reach a apex. Beyond that its all technique and choice of tools, What ever way your choose to sharpen your knife stick with it until you have mastered it and don't mix to many different stones into your process it only complicates things.
 
I'd like to see stickies in both V and Convex grinds as I have knives that have both edges.
 
ok , its pretty simple ... the goal of sharpening is to have a work able edge... right. well think of how long knives have been out, how many people. and how many working edges are out. think of all the ways we have come up with. best advice ... read some... and try many sharpening systems over a period of time. people have differnt systems that do differnt things or work for them. and frankly the act of sharpening is extreamly straight forward. the thing is training your muscles and brain to work togeather to provide that work. which takes practice.

My advice is simple, buy as many cheap gas station knives as you can get reasonably. then take said sharpening system or systems you wish to try. get refernce material espeicaly if it pertains to the system your using. like free stones or lansky or spyderco. and practice , practice , practice....

http://www.knifekits.com/vcom/product_info.php?cPath=59_38&products_id=240

or find a local knife sharpener and watch him work and if hes in a good mood ask him for some tips. take him a few knives to sharpen

once you pick up the feel and how to work the material to get the result you want you will refine it more , try new edges , etc. i have a use for scandi to convex grinds and all the way in between... of course you will learn that many other tools benifit from a proper honing and shrapening ... i have even "sharpened" things like screw drivers.
 
kkj87a said:
no one ever explains it. people who ask just get really basic half assed responses almost always that ive seen. youre shit outa luck. ill tell you what i know later if i have time but i dont know much anyways. it can be complex and hard to find good literature anyways. i would actually just recomend and actual class or dvd. or just get a cheapo knife and dull and resharpen it for hours on end. gettin an edge is really easy but its the bur or wire edge that always gives me trouble. if you dont remove it properly it will break off and leave you with a snagled crap edge.
Click to expand...

I'm not sure if'n you where having a bad day or maybe you feel people owe you something; but this type of approach won't get you what your looking for.
There are a ton of folks ready to help out newer members on these forums.

To the OP.I'm no expert by far, but I may be able to share some knowledge and start you on your journey.
There is a lot of sage advice here aleady. Remember that sharpening is a lost art and skill. Most people will throw away knives when they are dull instead of sharpening them. The only way to get the hang of it is to practice on a cheap Mora then figure out which method you want to use. The 3 most common are:
V-Grind, Convex, and Scandi.
All 3 require slightly different techniques. With the V-grind, I suggest getting a system like the Spyderco sharpmaker to learn with. It's very nice and gets your knives very sharp. It comes with a instructional DVD too, which is an added bonus.
Next is convex and uses sandpaper and a mousepad. It takes some getting used too and requires muscle memory to maintain the correct pressure.
Finally, the scandi requires you to maintain the angle that is already established on the blade and you can use a hard surface (glass or wood) for a base plate, with sandpaper on top.

With all of these techniques, your final stages should be to strop the edge with a leather strop. That "feathers" out the wire edge and gets your knives shaving sharp.
 
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