Sharpening heaven

theonew

theonew

Joined
May 16, 2006
Messages
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For almost a year now I've been finish sharpening all my knives, from small folders to chefs knives, using a single Spyderco ultra-fine ceramic rod. Using it I have been able to get all of my knives to hair whittling sharpness. It has literally been used and cleaned hundreds of times. It hadn't seemed to loose any of its bite, but I was still curious to see how it would compare to a new one. While I was ordering one I decided to also get one of these,

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and I am so glad I did. It is such a pleasure to use and so much more efficient. I used it today to sharpen a fairly dull 3 inch knife that in the past I would have had to start off using a DMT coarse with, and in about 5 - 10 minutes had it whittling hair. For someone who doesn't use a strop and wants all of his knives to whittle hair this is really a slice of heaven and worth every penny :D

Regarding whether my old Spyderco ceramic had in fact lost some of its bite, I am happy to report that, despite a large amount of use, there was no perceptible loss in performance. Very cool :thumbup:
 
This benchstone that you are raving about - is it the fine one or the ultra-fine? Good to see you got such good results and was wondering which stone it was. Cheers.
 
theonew said:
I used it today to sharpen a fairly dull 3 inch knife that in the past I would have had to start off using a DMT coarse with, and in about 5 - 10 minutes had it whittling hair.
Click to expand...
Sounds great, but I don't understand how an ultra-fine stone can sharpen a dull knife as well, or better, than a coarse stone.

Would you please explain this?

Thanks....
 
Mtn Hawk said:
Sounds great, but I don't understand how an ultra-fine stone can sharpen a dull knife as well, or better, than a coarse stone.

Would you please explain this?

Thanks....
Click to expand...

The contact area of the ultra-fine ceramic rod I had been using was just a heck of a lot less than the 2" X 8" ultra-fine bench stone I just received. So with a dull knife it would take forever to re-sharpen just using the ceramic. So I would previously use a DMT Coarse stone to do the heavy cutting and then move to a DMT Extra-fine to refine the edge and then finish with the ultra-fine ceramic. But now with the greater surface area of the ultra-fine stone I am able to remove enough metal on each pass that its quick enough to just use the ceramic stone. The DMT Coarse will obviously remove more metal more quickly than an ultra-fine ceramic, the edge just then needs to be refined using progressively finer grits to get a hair whittling edge. With larger knives made of harder steel and depending upon how dull they are, I will without a doubt use the coarse diamond to reestablish the edge.
 
I use a translucent Arkansas for my finishing which probably has a similar grit to the Spyderco Ultra-fine. The problem with both of these stones is that they are fragile. I might buy anSpyderco but I would go with the 3 inch wide one. What's good about the ceramic stone is you dispense with the use of oil. Try an SArkansas Translucent and see how you like it. They ARE expensive, but so is the Spyderco. I think sharpening is great anti-stress therapy with the added benefit of getting your knives sharp!
 
Interesting, thanks, that's the first I've heard of Arkansas Translucent stones. I may have to pick one up.

Agreed on sharpening as anti-stress therapy, I thoroughly enjoy it :D
 
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