Sharpening freehand vs using tools (ie. Edge pro, eze-sharp, etc.)

[bigbcustom]

In a thread I was reading a while back discussing the edge pro and other tools like the eze-sharp and the sharpmaker, somebody chimed in with "Why don't you lazy people learn to sharpen using stones like it's been done forever, you don't need any fancy gizmos." or something like that. I was thinking while I was reprofiling a knife on my edge pro that the new "gizmos" make things easier and more precise. To my way of thinking, moving from old fashioned bench stones to a tool such as the edge pro is along the same lines as moving from a horse to a car, a ruler to a micrometer, a steam engine to a gas engine, ad infinitum. While I still use a coarse bench stone to do major reprofiling. I think the new "gizmos" are an evolutionary step in sharpening, not something just to spend money on so you don't have to learn to do it the "right" way. I was wondering what others think about this.

 

[Cliff Stamp]

I was thinking while I was reprofiling a knife on my edge pro that the new "gizmos" make things easier and more precise.

Generally yes, what tends to happen is that over time, if you freehand you will just develop the ability to do it without a jig. This is then much faster than using various systems and it is also much cheaper simply due to the cost of benchstones vs special shaped abrasives.

-Cliff

 

[Vivi]

They can be that, but they can also be detrimental to one's sharpening ability. I actually wrote about this before.

http://www.bladeforums.com/forums/showthread.php?t=416747

The more we let technology do our work for us, the less likely we are to fully understand the processes at hand and know how to complete them in a self-sufficient way.

If you can do both, great. Use the jig if you like. Practice with the stones every so often so you don't lose your touch.

I've always used free-hand myself. I like the experience and the extra control it gives you. I think using a jig would take most, if not all the enjoyment and satisfaction out of sharpening, and I'm not ready to give that up. I'm content with the edge I get on there myself.

 

[Cliff Stamp]

Jigs can be useful in the beginning to show you what a steel is capable of as they remove a number of variables so you don't need to wonder as much if it is just you or the knife that is being problematic.

-Cliff

 

[hardheart]

I can freehand, but I do like having the sharpmaker to make a couple of quick passes for a touchup. I wouldn't resharpen a dull knife with it though, I have more control on benchstones.

 

[bigbcustom]

I carry a diamond paddle when I am playing in the outdoors, and am quite proficient in touching up, or in some cases, doing major work to an edge with it. I can get a hair popping edge with stones, and I can lower or raise angles with a stone as well. When done without the aid of a jig, I don't know exactly what angle I am sharpening to, and the edge doesn't "look" quite as good as it does off a jig. I guess I just like to play with variables in a controlled, measurable, and precise way when experimenting with sharpening angles. When I have a specific angle on an edge, I find it easy to recreate that angle when touching up as I can see where I am hitting on the edge and adjust accordingly. I use and like both methods. Either is better than the other for different situations or goals.

 

[Macchina]

I have only used stones all my life (all 21 years). It's nice to come home after work an spend a few minutes with a good Arkansas stone, helps to unwind. I have found as well that I can now just naturally pick up a knife and a stone, and within a few passes, I can sharpen at the original angle quite well. I get scary sharp edges in just a little while, and set up and takedown is only opening and closing a drawer. I would recommend to use the best method to get the sharpest knife, but spend a little of your freetime learning how to freehand. It's nice to carry a 2 ounce ceramic stone into the woods and keep your knives as sharp as if you had a five pound sharpening system.

 

[me2]

I still have trouble accepting the Sharpmaker is not free hand. All it does is turn things so the angles are easier to judge by eye. The stone is still fixed, and the bladed moved by the hands without anything else guiding the blade. Its the same as locking a benchstone in a vice at whatever angle you want. On the other side, when I'm in a hurry, or want a relatively course edge, I just hold a Norton Course/Fine in one hand and the knife in the other and use my thumb as a guide. Admittedly, I learned using flat stones first, but when I switched to a Sharpmaker, my edges were noticably sharper and a lot of the guess work was removed. One gadget that I rely on is a permanent marker.

 

[thombrogan]

I learned how to sharpen freehand from various posts here by fulloflead and db and a Murray Carter dvd courtesy of TedGamble. My freehand edges can be as sharp as my EdgePro edges. The beltsander is a great friend, too. They're all good. A freehand edge that doesn't affect the looks of the blade nor negatively impact its cutting ability is more satisfying to me than one done with my EdgePro, but it never matters to what I'm cutting.

Bigbcustom,

That guy who made those comments (without bothering to share any how-to's) is probably frustrated that most of us are in frenzies over sharpening machines and various abrasives instead of figuring how to restore or improve on the esthetics of our knives. The sharpening nuts are here more often than the other nuts and some of them get bitter when we're passing over areas of expertise where they pridefully excel.

 

[db]

I personally don't care much how a person gets their knives sharp as long as they are getting sharp. I've got a little different opinion of the systems than some of the other free hand sharpeners. I'm one of those free hand guys now. I beleive the systems are a great way for someone to learn to sharpen, they take some of the guess work out of sharpening witch is very valueable wile learning to sharpen. I tried for years to learn how to sharpen and always made a dull knife duller until I got myself a system. After learning on a system I then easily learned free hand almost by mistake, it was so easy. If I can learn anyone can. I now can get a edge as sharp as I want and I can also have it looking great too. For those who are useing systems and are past the point where it is easy to get a knife sharp with it, move on to try free hand with a hone. You'll find it's pretty darn easy. And just like with all learning first get those edges sharp then you can work on getting them looking as great as they are sharp. Once you learn how to sharpen you really can do it with just about anything, a system, bench hone, file, grinder/sander, or many other things.

 

[HoB]

I see it more as moving from stick-shift to automatic. Yes, there are some new, double-clutching automatics are hard to beat even by a professional driver, but on occasion I like to do the shifting myself, even though I am a far cry from a professional driver. I like the convenience of a rig, but I like the freedom of a benchstone.

Note to add: It is really not new vs. old. Jigs have been around for a whole lot longer (arguable for many hundreds of years) than the vast majority of the sharpening media we use today. Jigs were already used when silicon carbide wasn't invented yet (industrial production invented in the late 19th century IIRC), there were no tape/sheet abrasives, no reconstituted or artificial waterstones, no diamond hones and no ceramic sticks made from closely graded alumina. (Keep that in mind when you do your traditional, "good-'ol-days" freehanding on space-age abrasives). So just because somebodies grandpa didn't use a jig, that doesn't mean they weren't around yet.

 

[Cliff Stamp]

I still have trouble accepting the Sharpmaker is not free hand. All it does is turn things so the angles are easier to judge by eye.

Many jigs have some element of hand control, on the Edge Pro for example you have to rotate the blade or else you get a different angle through the tip. Most people just consider freehand anything which isn't basically just you and the stone. What is kind of hard to characterize are things like Boye's knives which use the guard to jig the angle so when you sharpen them is it freehand or not.

-Cliff

 

[bigbcustom]

This is turning into quite an interesting (to me anyway) discussion. I like to hear other's viewpoints (else why start this thread). While I was reading this, it brought to mind my first ever experience seeing a knife sharpened. My dad had this little hocky puck looking stone he always kept in the junk drawer in the house, or, when hunting or cutting firewood, in one of his pockets. It's been thirty odd years or so, but I remember it being about 3/4" thick and about 3" in diameter. He would put an edge on just about anything with that thing, then check it by shaving hair off his arm...axe, knife, taking the burr off a ground lathe bit, chisel, etc. That one little (and it must have been relatively cheap) stone was used for everything. His high tech sharpening system consisted of a stone puck and spit.....sometimes simplicity has a quality all it's own I guess.

 

[John Frankl]

Ed Fowler, for my money, has the best analogy yet:

Training wheels vs. just riding a bike.

This works on a number of levels.

"Training Wheels": They will get one up and running right away, regardless of (lack of) skill. But they will also hold one back and not allow one to do many of the cool and interesting things one can do on a bike once one takes the time to learn to ride for real.

This also works because many start with training wheels and then, perhaps due to the lack of satisfaction that comes from "faking it," choose to remove the training wheels and learn to ride for real, albeit after many hard falls.

John