Sharpening knives more... efficiently

beachmaster

beachmaster

Joined
Oct 3, 2014
Messages
679
Hey guys,

I have been purchasing used knives off of ebay with hopes of refinishing them, giving them a hair shaving sharp edge, and reselling them on my website. I have a friend who is starting to do kydex so I might even try to offer them with some custom sheaths.

the only issue when buying used knives off of ebay, is sometimes I buy a knife for cheap that I KNOW is abused, and sometimes I get it as a surprise.

I am looking for a way to relatively quickly remove chips, reprofile edges, and quickly sharpen knives, and I am considering the Work Sharp Ken Onion. Does any one have any advice for or against this?

I can get my knives hair shaving sharp within between 10 to 30 minutes. I am not the best, but with my idahone, I feel I do a pretty good job. After spending about 8 hours yesterday on an Ontario airforce survival knife with a bent tip and a poorly sharpened swedge, and still not having it hair popping sharp... I feel that for this to be profitable, I need some power.

thanks for your time!

And remember, I would rather hear that you suggest that I don't with good reason than suggest that I do, if that is how you feel, because that way the worst that can happen is I save myself some $ on a spendy sharpener lol

Also, I have read Amazon reviews on them, but I don't really trust all of them. Many Amazon reviewers are just average joes, which is great, but when I am looking for advice on knives, I want to talk to knive people, just like when I want advice on guns, I would ask a gun person ;-)
 
I just got the Ken Onion works sharp last week. So far, I really like it. Go from butter knife dull to scary sharp in about 10 minutes. Just remove the knife when the tip is in the center of the belt.
 
I have the Ken Onion with the addition of their blade grinding attachment. I think it works very well, but I'm not a pro. The 1"x30" sander would also work if you get proper steel grinding belts, but they generally don't have the speed control the Ken Onion unit has. The vertical orientation of the sander would also seem to be an issue to me. Perhaps you could craft a mount to make a better angle? You might find one of the sanders at Harbor Freight pretty cheap.
 
Fast ? Are you heating the blade so much that the edge is tempered back ?? It would be much better to use a wet system to minimize the heating especially the the final part .
 
If you keep a bucket of water next to the 1X30, make relatively short passes and dunk the blade between each pass you won't affect the blade.

For the edge, I'd recommend a Sharpmaker.

Adding the diamond stones and the ultra fine stones takes the Sharpmaker to a new level. Reasonable cost, compact and no electricity.

Good luck. I like to see someone reusing things.
 
A set of paper wheels and a $40 buffer from Harbour freight, and for less than $100 you have a system that can give you razor sharp edges in less than 10 minutes. There is a learning curve as is true no matter what you use, but it is fairly easy to get efficient with a little practice on some "throw away" knives or even an old hack saw blade. It took me about an hour to get the basic idea down and able to turn out good sharp blades when I first bought mine. With more practice you can become quite proficient in turning out excellent results with just about any steel out there. I use mine for a small sideline business, and can turn out hair shaving results on a kitchen knife in about 5 minutes. Check out The "sticky" thread at the top of this sub forum for more information, or contact me by e-mail.

Blessings,

Omar
 
As others have suggested, a "real" belt sander like a 1x42 or a 2x72 is a serious tool that can sharpen blades really fast. At least that's what I've been told and looking at the surface area and speed of those machines, I can easily believe it.

I have the WorkSharp Ken Onion and have used it on many dozens of damaged beaten up blades. It absolutely gets the job done. The way I use it, on about half speed, makes the machine sort of quiet and sort of cool and removes metal at a medium rate. So a really damaged blade can take me 20+ minutes depending upon how careful I am, and how coarse of a belt I use. I suspect a "real" belt sander would get similar jobs done in 1/2 to 1/4 of the time I spend with the WSKO.

Also, I don't use the guides on the WSKO. I just use it freehand like any other belt sander. I'm not sure if that's influencing my speed at all, but it certainly gives me a level of control that you don't get when just pulling the blade through a guide. It's kind of long, but here's a video I made a while back showing how I use the WSKO to sharpen a rather dull 6" kitchen blade.

[video=youtube;ApyDcJzKBgk]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ApyDcJzKBgk[/video]

Good luck to you.

Brian.
 
Wait , just so we are all on the same page , is your only sharpening tool an Idahone?
 
@ Brian. Thanks for an excellent video on your technique on the WSKTS-Ken Onion. I use a similar method with my paper wheels with excellent results. I however learned something new that had been giving me trouble especially with kitchen knives. The way you start your grind away from the "hilt" and then back up is a great technique to prevent excessive metal removal and an unwanted dip in the blade in that area. I am always studying videos to learn something new about knife sharpening that I might want to incorporate into my technique. We never have all the answers ourselves, but with the help of others and with a open mind, we can learn lots of good things. There is a wealth of information available on this forum from which we can all learn something useful. Thank you for your contribution!

Have a Blessed day!

Omar
 
Well, I only had an idahone. It worked well for my knives, but on these beat up knives... not so much. I received a gen cut M7 bayonet that has two edges SO dull that you can see the parkerized finish between the two grinds on either side... and the flat parkerized section is the width of the edge of a dime! :/
Well, I went ahead and picked up the Ken onion. I want to be able to confidently advertise the angle of the edges of the knives I sell. I will probably mostly do a 20 degree per side.
With the Ken onion, I also picked up a strop and compound, and a few dmt diamond cards for the field.
 
Double post :/ sorry

Might as well make the double post useful though!
Bgentry, I wish I could watch your video... but I dont have enough data allowance (on my home internet... darn you hughesnet!)
 
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8steve88 said:
How about a 1"x30" belt sander/grinder, it would give you more options.
Click to expand...

Ditto this, or a wheel grinder with water feed. You can (carefully) remove any chips, etc. in a couple of minutes. Then go to the hand sharpening for the razor's edge.
 
OHALLUM said:
@ Brian.I however learned something new that had been giving me trouble especially with kitchen knives. The way you start your grind away from the "hilt" and then back up is a great technique to prevent excessive metal removal and an unwanted dip in the blade in that area. I am always studying videos to learn something new about knife sharpening that I might want to incorporate into my technique.
Click to expand...

That's really cool to hear. I'm about 80% certain you were one of the people that told me that I could use the WSKO freehand, like a belt sander, before I bought it, as you had done that with your original WS. I'm glad you got something from the video. Maybe it's a tiny bit of pay back for the advice you've given me and others! :)

Thanks,

Brian.
 
get the belt grinder but be sure it is for metal. lee valley has a nice viel also viel seel direct. I have a bader for heavy profiling the blades I make and bought the viel 1x42 as a bevel setter now I use the viel for bevela as well as sharpening, and they sell numerous attachments for it as well.
 
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