Sharpening equipment question

N

nhyrum

Joined
Jun 28, 2016
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So I'm getting into sharpening, all I have right now is one of those Smith" pull through sharpeners that is completely toast...

Now I need/want to get a decent set up. I'd prefer free hand. I'm looking at a set of king Stones 1&6k. Will that be coarse enough to reprofile an edge, and fine enough to get it razor sharp? Will I need Stones on before the 1k, before the 6k and after the 6k? Or will those two be good enough. Maybe a few Arkansas Stones? I'm on a bit of a budget, around 50 bucks, maybe more



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You can get those king stones for Penny's!

$34 for both!
 
Buy a coarse stone first. Atoma 140 would be ideal and likely needed to repair the edges that have been chewed up by the pull through.

Save money to buy better waterstones, Shapton would be my recommendation.




But.... before all of that, what are you sharpening? (steel types and knife/tool types would help)
 
Jason B. said:
Buy a coarse stone first. Atoma 140 would be ideal and likely needed to repair the edges that have been chewed up by the pull through.
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that was one of my questions, thanks. wasnt sure of the 1k would do that job.

Jason B. said:
But.... before all of that, what are you sharpening? (steel types and knife/tool types would help)
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right now, just plain ol steel. gonna sharpen my NRA SAK and some other cheap knives. my nice knife, a BM grip, i send back to the factory for sharpening, since a laser will do a better job then i can. I dont have any other fancy or expensive knives, so I dont see having an issue running into hard steel.
 
I'd get a coarse stone to start but a good one.
Can't reprofile with a 1000 unless you can move your arms as fast as a jig saw and have all day. Perhaps I exaggerate but still . . .

Forget the 6000 for now unless you come into extra cash. I love and use fine stones everyday but they are the most expensive and not really critical for to produce edges for cutting everyday stuff.

The coarse stone does most of the work of sharpening. You could get a strop to use after the coarse stone. I don't use them much any more but they got me started. You will get lots of help here on how to use them and they are fairly inexpensive along with a stick of abrasive to rub on the leather and or cloth. You could even make your own strops. I have made several for my self and for at work.

No . . . really . . . save yourself a bunch of time and FRUSTRATION and learn to use a coarse stone first. What is a coarse stone? To me that means a Shapton 120. You could get any good quality stone from that up to 350 or so. Avoid the Norton 220 grey stone like the plague it is too soft as are some of the cheep gray stones at the big box stores. Get a Shapton.

Here are recent photos of mine from another thread.

Forget the Arkansas stones unless you have old style carbon steel (1095) blades and just need to touch them up. Then those are perfect.



 
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DMT Extra coarse 6" $30

King 1k $14

And a King 6k $20

Will get the job done


Use the diamond plate for repairs and stone flattening.

Watch Murray Carter Sharpen.

Construct your own sink bridge with a 2x4.

Read more here about sharpening.
 
ok, looks like im steering away from the kings and going towards shapton's.

this may be a dumb question. but what makes the pull through type sharpeners so awful? they see to get the blade "sharp"
 
nhyrum said:
ok, looks like im steering away from the kings and going towards shapton's.

this may be a dumb question. but what makes the pull through type sharpeners so awful? they see to get the blade "sharp"
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Right on, gunna cost more then $50 though haha
 
Yes buy piece by piece.

I've been building a Naniwa Professional stone collection that way.

But still love my kings haha.

Soft stones have a place too.

It wouldn't go to waste
 
Right on, gunna cost more then $50 though haha
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Very good point.
I had no idea the Kings were still so cheep. I think I paid $22 for my 1200 thirty years ago.

It was my first water stone. Not fast enough though for fixing beat on edges.

Kings are good though.

The brick red stone here is my King 1200 along with some strops. The one that looks like a stone is a maple wood strop with diamond paste on it.

 
I am kind of in the same boat though for freehand sharpening I have been using a two-sided extra coarse/coarse $10 stone and a two-sided king 1k/6k. They are mainly used for sharpening kitchen knives. For folders I have been using a Lansky 5-stone set, plus DMT diamond paste (6micron/3micron/1micron). Overall I have been pretty happy with the results.

Now I am thinking about upgrading my sharpening gears, hence looking mainly at: DMT 8" Diasharp 4-stone set (extra coarse, coarse, fine, extra fine), Spyderco Fine ceramic bench stone and ultra ceramic bench stone, and then finishing with the DMT diamond paste. Will this be a complete and reasonably good set? Or should I stick in a Shapton glass stone before the diamond paste?

That set will cost >$300, thus making me rethink whether I should instead get a quality guided sharpening system.

Thoughts?
 
BM sharpens on a belt sander... just a normal person holding your knife and running it over a coarse sharpening belt before going to a buffing wheel to remove the burr. No Lasers involved.

Knowing a little more makes it easier to make recommendations.

First would be for the DMT Coarse stone + balsa wood strop coated in 1 micron diamond (DMT sells this too).

Second, Norton combo India or for harder steels the Combo Crystolon stone. The India stone produces a very good edge on softer steels.

Forgot the third and over budget rec :D

Atoma 140 and Shapton Glass 500
 
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sharp_edge said:
Now I am thinking about upgrading my sharpening gears, hence looking mainly at: DMT 8" Diasharp 4-stone set (extra coarse, coarse, fine, extra fine), Spyderco Fine ceramic bench stone and ultra ceramic bench stone, and then finishing with the DMT diamond paste. Will this be a complete and reasonably good set?
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It depends on what you are looking for. That's a pretty crazy progression of stones, but it might actually not get out all of the scratches from the diamonds, as the jump from DMT EF to Spyderco F is pretty large in practice. If your technique was good and you spent extra time on the Spyd F, you might get all of the scratches out.

I actually use a progression of DMT XXC, C, EF. That's right, skipping the XC, and F stones altogether. Up to EF it seems to work just fine. The edge from the EF is extremely useful for kitchen work and general purpose use. Beyond that level of refinement it becomes a question of what you're trying achieve: Mirror polished pretty bevels? Fine cutting tasks? Show off edges? Just doing it for fun? All of these are ok answers. But they will dictate to some extent what stones you will want to get.

As Jason has said many times recently, the edge from a DMT C alone, with a little bit of stropping is pretty impressive! I don't have any diamond compound, but the edge right off of my DMT C, if I do my job, will cleanly shave hair from my arm, and still has a very "grabby" edge that's good for everyday work.

Brian.
 
Jason B. said:
BM sharpens on a belt sander... just a normal person holding your knife and running it over a coarse sharpening belt before going to a buffing wheel to remove the burr. No Lasers involved.
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Hmm. Don't know where I got that notion... Sad
 
Hi,
I think its best to try sharpening first using $0-$3 worth of equipment,
try it a few times until you're able to at least cut some paper
then ask for help, describe what you're dong ....
helps you figure out where to spend your next $50
$1 stones can be plenty decent (shave/whittle beard) :D especially for simple steels like found on a swiss army knife

it doesn't take high grits or imported/expensive stones to shave some hairs
 
bucketstove said:
Hi,
I think its best to try sharpening first using $0-$3 worth of equipment,
try it a few times until you're able to at least cut some paper
then ask for help, describe what you're dong ....
helps you figure out where to spend your next $50
$1 stones can be plenty decent (shave/whittle beard) :D especially for simple steels like found on a swiss army knife

it doesn't take high grits or imported/expensive stones to shave some hairs
Click to expand...
Sounds like a deal! I'll swing by the dollar store tomorrow! See if they have any stones

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nhyrum said:
Sounds like a deal! I'll swing by the dollar store tomorrow! See if they have any stones
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Hi,
save the plastic they come in,
makes pretty a good holder for stone-in-hand sharpening,
keeps your hand dry :)
reinforce inside ... with some ducktape,
then add some soda bottle caps on bottom to raise the stone above the lip of the holder,
and jam a water bottle cap on the front and side to keep stone from wiggling/sliding inside
 
bucketstove said:
Hi,
I think its best to try sharpening first using $0-$3 worth of equipment,
try it a few times until you're able to at least cut some paper
then ask for help, describe what you're dong ....
helps you figure out where to spend your next $50
$1 stones can be plenty decent (shave/whittle beard) :D especially for simple steels like found on a swiss army knife
Click to expand...

Why is it that our experiences are so vastly different? I've tried dollar store stones. The ones I've tried are powdery, and soak up water like a sponge. They aren't proper sharpening gear in any sense of the word. Have you found some stones that are actually dense and don't suck water in like crazy? You keep repeating this advice, over and over again, and linking to posts that you made yourself saying how great they are. Quoting yourself doesn't exactly reinforce your point.

I can't imagine that you'd say this if you had used the stones I've seen and tried. Is this all a matter of you being so cheap that you refuse to use anything that costs more than a few dollars? But you're willing to spend endless time flattening these stones on other cheap items (cinder blocks) and any other steps necessary to make them better? I just don't get it. What kind of stones did you learn to sharpen on? Certainly not these terrible, crumbly, bottom of the barrel stones.

Brian.
 
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