Sharpening Advice

[Page01]

I'm looking to get a set of 3 stones. They will be used on a variety of knives from kitchen to hunting to utility. Blade material varies from some type of stainless to 1095 to hand forged damascus. I have been reading quite a bit and am a bit overwhelmed. Would like to stay under $200 if I can...any and all suggestions welcome
Thanks!

 

[strategy9]

What type of stainless do you have?
Basic entry level stuff, or high carbide stuff?
*do you plan on getting into the higher end higher carbide stuff at some point?

The Norton waterstone starter kit (2 combo stones) will handle most if not all your needs with ease if you don't have the high vanadium stuff. And even works on most of your upper end stuff, just takes a lot of patience...

A strop (and compound) for continued maintenance is also great to have; strop more and sharpen less. (Since stropping doesn't remove metal the way sharpening does)...

That is IMO the best, low cost, way to start sharpening with bench stones...

A medium/fine diamond stone is nice to have next for reprofiling and setting new bevels on basic steels with ease, and even touching up an edge on the higher end stuff, if a touch up is all you need...

That's a good 3 stone set up to start with for all your basic (non fancy) steels, and even early maintenance of higher end stuff...

As you go you can add a coarse diamond and very fine diamond (if you venture into higher end stainlesses) for reprofiling and finer edges; (DMT strop paste also)

Or if you stick to more basic steels, you can add a higher grit 10k+ even shapeton glass Stones if you want more polished edges...

A fine ceramic honing rod is also nice for your kitchen knives, (MAC Black is supposed to be great... I currently have a cheaper one by messermeister).

 

[Skimo]

Hardware store combination stone. $5 workhorse stones will work on anything.
Find something like 600 grit stone.

For most knives 600 is a good balance between toothy and fine edge.

Add a strop with Chromium oxide and you can do anything but smoothly shave. Might be $100 if you don't shop smart.

 

[Page01]

Thank you for the advice so far. A good strop is in the plans for sure but not included in the $200 budget. Just checked the kitchen knives and they are 1.4116X50 Cr MoV15...whatever the heck that is. The only other stainless knives I currently have a cheap Bucks and a small Case skinner. I have no plans of buying any more "cheap" knives as I have figured out you get what you pay for. Have been considering some w 01 tool steal blades if that makes a difference. Thanks Again, tons of info here to sort through

 

[jugornot]

If you are proficient at hand sharpening, stop reading now. I am not proficient. At certain times I could get a blade to shave arm hair but not consistently. I treated my self to some good knives with good steel and a KME sharpener. With just the barest trace of patience I have been able to get all the knives I have used it on to very sharp status. Better than I have ever done before. And they have gorgeous geometry. The kit being sold now comes with 4 diamond stones, 140, 300, 600,1500. It also includes the base. All for the price of $205. If you think you can sharpen by hand, buy one the $5-10 bench stones annd try it on your old knives. Then decide if you have the patience and skill for freehand sharpening. As far as portability the KME set comes in a very nice plastic case and is almost break proof. Many will chime in on the side of hand sharpening and it is a skill I wish I had, but I will put my edges up against the best freehand I know, Laverne. It also comes with the sharpie that lets you find the original grind angle and save loads of time. If you are pretty sure you will have the ability to freehand you should have stopped reading long ago and you have my admiration.

 

[Obsessed with Edges]

Thank you for the advice so far. A good strop is in the plans for sure but not included in the $200 budget. Just checked the kitchen knives and they are 1.4116X50 Cr MoV15...whatever the heck that is. The only other stainless knives I currently have a cheap Bucks and a small Case skinner. I have no plans of buying any more "cheap" knives as I have figured out you get what you pay for. Have been considering some w 01 tool steal blades if that makes a difference. Thanks Again, tons of info here to sort through

That would be the same stuff Victorinox uses in their stainless blades (ALL of them), including SAKs and their kitchen knives. It's a German steel; I think Wusthof may also use it in their kitchen cutlery. The Buck knives likely use 420HC (if knife is American made); or a slightly lesser grade if they're part of Buck's imported line. If the Case is stainless, it's also 420HC; if it's a CV blade, that's essentially a modified 1095 with a little bit of chrome and vanadium added.

ALL of these steels are very easy to sharpen with almost anything, ranging from natural (Arkansas) stones, to a simple hardware-store stone in SiC (silicon carbide); think of Norton's 'Economy' stone in what they call 'Crystolon', which is their trade name for SiC. Diamond hones aren't necessary for any of them, but can work great with these steels (most often what I've used, out of convenience, and diamond leaves a very wicked-sharp toothy edge, even in finer grit). O1 blades should also be as easy, with any of these options.

Stropping with green compound on leather works especially well, with these simpler steels. Very seldom need anything more aggressive than that.

If picking a good stone for a stepping-off point into sharpening, I'd likely first consider the Norton Economy stone. It can do an awful lot for very little money (about $7 at Home Depot). Between the stone, a bar of green compound, and an old leather belt, you may not need to spend more than $15-$20 tops to do everything any of these steels might need. All of them SCREAM 'Simple is Better' for the tools used to sharpen them, and they respond well to such simple means.


David

 

[Tim the Wizard]

You could buy the edgepro stonekit for less than your budget and just sharpen free hand on them.

But they are very narrow.

Fallkniven has a diamond/ceramic two sided stone which I used to fix up a blade earlier this week. It was robust enough to slice paper and cut paracord but not super refined.

 

[bgentry]

I think diamond plates are a great medium to sharpen on. They will sharpen absolutely any type of steel about as easily as it is possible to sharpen that steel. So they are good insurance for future steel purchases. They are NOT necessary, but they are a really nice tool to have. The down sides are cost and potential longevity. They cost more than some stones at roughly $50 each for the 8" x 3" DMT Diasharp continuous surface plates. They aren't exactly fragile, but if you press down fairly hard, you will break the diamonds loose and lessen their lifetime significantly. I think I have a spot or two on my DMT C that has diamonds missing because I'm not always the softest touch.

David (OWE) is offering another alternative that I mostly agree with, but I have to disagree on the details. Norton's Crystolon (silicon carbide) and India (Aluminum Oxide) stones are HIGHLY regarded by just about everyone. They will cut almost any steel fairly rapidly. If you're going to buy crystolon though, I think you're wasting your money buying the economy stone. It's a fine product. But for just a little bit more, you get their premium stone in a larger format. David likes small stones and likes to hold them in his hand. He seems to be really good with small stones. I think most people lack his skill though. I like as bigger stone though like the 8x2 Norton or 8x3 diamond. I don't like hand holding stones. I like to set them on a bench (or table top) and use both hands on the knife at the same time for more control. More stone means faster grinding. More stone means an easier time with longer blades.

If I were doing it all over again today, I'd buy all diamond, or perhaps a combination of crystolon for low grit and Spyderco ceramic for higher grit. Either way, I'd make sure of three things:

1. Large stones at least 8" long.
2. A coarse enough stone to do repairs, reprofiles, and bevel setting. A minimum of around 200 grit, but lower is better.
3. A fine enough stone to go as high as I want. In my experience, I love the finish from the Spyderco Medium ceramic, so I might stop there. The DMT EF is very similar and also a fantastic fine stone.

Brian.

 

[HeavyHanded]

I'm looking to get a set of 3 stones. They will be used on a variety of knives from kitchen to hunting to utility. Blade material varies from some type of stainless to 1095 to hand forged damascus. I have been reading quite a bit and am a bit overwhelmed. Would like to stay under $200 if I can...any and all suggestions welcome
Thanks!

You might take a look at the sharpening block I make, linked through my signature below. It is not a traditional three stone set though can be used as one and is also an extremely effective finish strop/hone. Normally it uses silicon carbide wet/dry sandpaper and finishes with nothing more than some copy paper and honing compound developed just for the application.

Should you get some of the more wear resistant steels in the future, it also works very well with diamond lapping film and will tackle any steel out there. It provides a continuity of technique from start to finish, so relatively easy to learn. It comes in way under your budget.

At the minimum, there are a bunch of videos and electronic copy of the user's manual on the site that convey a lot of general information re hand sharpening, even on the above referenced Norton Econo stone (I agree with Brian, if you go that route buy the Crystalon if you plan on working off the bench).

With $200 you have a lot of options.

Martin

 

[Alberta Ed]

I've used a pair of DMT diamond bench hones (6") for a couple of decades (or more), and they cut as well as when new. Recently got the 10" fine (red)/extra fine (green) combo, works better on longer blades. Diamond works on all kinds of steel.

 

[awestib]

I'm looking to get a set of 3 stones. They will be used on a variety of knives from kitchen to hunting to utility. Blade material varies from some type of stainless to 1095 to hand forged damascus. I have been reading quite a bit and am a bit overwhelmed. Would like to stay under $200 if I can...any and all suggestions welcome
Thanks!

As I found out recently, Chefsknivestogo offers a diamond combo stone 400/1000 for unbelievable $35 in 8x2.75 inch size including a rubber base! I have not used it yet but JasonB has and his impression is good. That stone is all you need IMO, at least for most kitchen tasks. In fact I only use the (well used) DMT coarse stone (blue) without stropping for my kitchen knives with good success. If I need a more refined edge (for better push cutting) I only go one more step to my denim strop. That's it.

 

[Jason B.]

Diamond plates are good, the DMT Coarse and a strop can get you pretty far and is a combo I use for most high carbide steels. But, for carbon steels, basic stainless and especially kitchen knives I really like my waterstones.

So, for $187.46 on amazon you can get the following,

DMT XXC 8x3in.
DMT Coarse 8x3in.
DMT 1 micron Diapaste. (get some leather or balsa wood locally and make a strop. Check the link in my sig for a quick strop making method)

King 1000 grit deluxe waterstone.
King Ice Bear 4000 grit waterstone.
Powertec universal stone holder.

 

[Obsessed with Edges]

Per Brian's (BGENTRY's) mention of favoring a larger stone (for SiC), another inexpensive alternative is ACE Hardware's 8" x 2" x 1" stone in SiC (double-sided), for around $10 - $12 or so. ACE's stones seem to be very good quality for the little money invested. Brian is right, in mentioning I often favor a slightly smaller stone (6" or less), largely due to the method by which I favor using them in-hand (though I'm occasionally even doing this with 8" stones now). For the simple, relatively small & thin blades on the folding knives mentioned (Buck, Case) a 6" stone is plenty big enough to grind those simples steels very quickly. In addition to the two Norton Economy stones I've purchased, I have the larger ACE 8" stone in SiC, and also their portable/pocket-size stones in 4" (double-sided) & 3" ('Fine' single-sided), and they've all impressed me. The 4" stone is especially portable & handy, in my uses.

My larger point being, most any of the current generation of SiC stones from Norton, ACE and others seem to perform very well. That's more an attribute of, and a compliment to, the abrasive type itself and less about the size of the stone or the maker. In other words, it's unlikely you'll find a SiC stone that doesn't perform well for most uses, no matter what size is used or where you buy it. It's very hard to go wrong with them, and I've not yet found a spoiler in the 7 SiC stones I've accumulated (which is sort of why I accumulated that many, just out of intellectual curiosity in the abrasive type; I was LOOKING to find some significant differences or inconsistency in performance, but haven't yet found it).


David

 

[Shriket33]

Since I am not an accomplished freehand sharpener, I switched with great success to a Spyderco sharp sticks system.
Different grit ceramic sticks, set under an angle in a block of wood. All you need to do is move the knife in a verticle plane along the stick. Easy, even for me. After that I give it a few gentle strops on a leather/ wood strop with Bark River green compound resulting in a shaving sharp edge

 

[postoak]

Since I am not an accomplished freehand sharpener, I switched with great success to a Spyderco sharp sticks system.
Different grit ceramic sticks, set under an angle in a block of wood. All you need to do is move the knife in a verticle plane along the stick. Easy, even for me. After that I give it a few gentle strops on a leather/ wood strop with Bark River green compound resulting in a shaving sharp edge

Do you mean the Sharpmaker?