Sharpening preferences

Would you rather sharpen...

  • Quick touch-ups as often as needed

  • Once a week, preferably no more than ten minutes, let's get this done.

  • Once every few weeks or a month, it's fine if it takes up to half an hour.

  • No more than two or three times per year, and I am ready to give a good part of the day to it.

  • Sharpening is for the birds, I'll just buy a new knife when this one is dull!

  • Other (please explain in a post)

Results are only viewable after voting.
I find sharpening a blade therapeutic😏 So will often just sit and resharpen my knives, all shave hair easily although that's not really a prerequisite for a "working blade" imo. But the knives I do use very frequently will be sharpened as and when required. I currently use DMT diafold stones and/or a strop.

I like the smaller stones as they are what I will be taking with me when the SHTF😏🤣
 
Figure I'd add to the conversation more.......
Talking with a coworker today.

A real outdoorsman.
A hunter, trapper, fisherman. Hardcore. MANY years.
I doubt many people have killed, and cleaned more stuff in my area. LOTS of animals. Everything.

I'm making him a knife to test for me.

talking about knives, and what he wants and expects from a knife........?


Long story short........ any results of This poll above are going to be Very skewed.
Most people aren't as gear focused as We are.
Not by a long shot.

The guy I know, who uses knives more than most of us.
sharpens up a bunch of them. He says 6-12 for a batch of animals he intends on skinning.
that way he always has a sharp one ready, and he doesn't have to stop......


ok, all sounds good right?

(he uses a pull-through carbide sharpener) o_O
he says he gave up on crappy sharpeners, and bought himself a real good one This time.
Ugh.



So, sharpening means lots of different things to many people.
*I told him that I will sharpen the knife I make him!
 
I chose "quick touch-ups" because I usually strop a knife after any nontrivial use. And I lean towards steel with good toughness more than good edge retention. But I like using different knives with different steels, different geometries, different angles, different edges, and so on.

Machetes I almost always sharpen free hand after use.

At the other extreme, I have a knife I used to use for cutting baling twine and other everyday sorts of farm chores. It has a half-serrated Wharncliffe blade. If I used the smooth half, it needed sharpening every week. I switched to the serrated half and used it for nine years before it got to the point that it did not always cut baling twine in one easy slice. By that time, somebody's hoof had cracked the scales a bit, so I figured maybe it was time to get a new knife. I never have sharpened the serrations. That knife cost $5 on ebay.

Sometimes I compare two knives by using each one on alternate days over a period of weeks or months. I sharpen both at the beginning of the experiment, but then I do not sharpen or strop either one until one of them does not cut satisfactorily. For example, I have found that Benchmade S30V (Bugout) lasts 3 times longer than Benchmade 154CM (AFO II), and Spyderco S90V (Lil Native) lasts 3 times longer than Benchmade S30V (Lerch Impel). YMMV.

Sometimes I have trouble sleeping and get up and go collect half a dozen knives from the kitchen and sharpen all of them on a Work Sharp Ken Onion. That way I don't have to change belts as often as if I sharpened them all separately.
 
Maybe I'm an outlier here but I don't much like major sharpening. I do like when my knife just needs a quick touchup and I give it literally a few swipes on my Sharpmaker and it's screaming sharp again, but I really just don't much enjoy reprofiling. If I was a simple (knife) man and just carried a couple different knives then I can absolutely see enjoying taking the time to get closer to said knife by giving it a good sharpening every once in a while. However I'm kind of undecisive with my knives and end up carrying a bunch of them. The thing is almost every single knife I buy needs a full reprofiling job to make me truly happy. I just don't have the time to reprofile them all, or I should say I don't prioritize it when I only get a few hours of free time a day. I'd like to get to where I had just one or two knives that were my carry knives and that did all the work, then I could give them the love they truly deserve. That said, I do keep my knives sharp, it's just that I like to reprofile every knife to 15-17 degrees per side on my KME when I get them and then touch up as needed with my Sharpmaker in between profiles. It's a bummer when an edge comes over 40 degrees and one can't use the Sharpmaker as intended.
 
LimpCroissant said:
Maybe I'm an outlier here but I don't much like major sharpening. I do like when my knife just needs a quick touchup and I give it literally a few swipes on my Sharpmaker and it's screaming sharp again, but I really just don't much enjoy reprofiling. If I was a simple (knife) man and just carried a couple different knives then I can absolutely see enjoying taking the time to get closer to said knife by giving it a good sharpening every once in a while. However I'm kind of undecisive with my knives and end up carrying a bunch of them. The thing is almost every single knife I buy needs a full reprofiling job to make me truly happy. I just don't have the time to reprofile them all, or I should say I don't prioritize it when I only get a few hours of free time a day. I'd like to get to where I had just one or two knives that were my carry knives and that did all the work, then I could give them the love they truly deserve. That said, I do keep my knives sharp, it's just that I like to reprofile every knife to 15-17 degrees per side on my KME when I get them and then touch up as needed with my Sharpmaker in between profiles. It's a bummer when an edge comes over 40 degrees and one can't use the Sharpmaker as intended.
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I totally understand where you're coming from. I'd like to reprofile all of my knives to 17 degrees, but it's a lot of work.

For now I've done this process with just 3 knives I'm loving. American Lawman, PM2, and a Mini Griptilian.

Next, I want to reprofile my AD10 and Ultimate Hunter.

The process of getting them reprofiled and extremely sharp, though it may be slow, is great because then they only need a little stropping.
 
I sharpen my current work knife (Spyderco Military in s30v) about every week or two. Everything else gets sharpend about every month.

I free hand and have 4 different grit stones, a couple of ceramic rods and a strop bat I use. Touch ups usually just get a strop and maybe the ceramic rod before if needed.

And the stones are usually used more for repair and edge reprofiling, or if I feel like putting a really nice edge on it, I'll run them through everything.
I'm certainly no expert on sharpening and I'm sure my angles arent perfect, but really enjoy it since I've took the time to learn and practice my sharpening skills freehand.
 
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I hate to admit this - mainly because I used to enjoy sitting down with a pot of coffee and a pack of cigarettes and my grandfather's old India Oilstone and putting a decent edge on everything in the house....but....I haven't done that in 20 years.
Not since I go my Spyderco Sharpmaker.

Now - I just touch up the blades with a swipe or 2 or 3 or 4 , etc and when that no longer brings the edge back, I shelve the knife and buy a new one.

Thankfully my grandson like knives & he'll get a whole bunch of dull ones when I croak.! Along with the old Oil stone! :D
 
Blasphmey!

There always seems to be a guy with a tble at the gun show who can put a shaving edge on whatever is in my pocket that day.
 
I don’t do touch ups anymore. I spend a bit of time establishing the geometry I want the first time I sharpen a new knife. Touching up a blade makes resharpening to the established geometry take a long time.
 
I have a diamond plate that I've been using since last year that works well. D2, 1095, 20CV I'm able to get the edge back quickly. Mosty used for my fixed blades but still on some folders.

I also picked up a work sharp precision adjustable setup out of curiosity last year. It's pretty easy to use and will get a very sharp edge back. I use this for mosty folders, maybe a small fixed blade a couple of times.

I like the diamond plate (and other flat stones), just much simpler and easier for me. The work sharp is a nice tool to have on hand along with a few others smaller tools more suited for an immediate "fix".
 
Quick touch ups for me

Will occationally repair an edge or tip if I drop a knife or go over a nail hard surface buts thats few and far between
 
David Mary said:
That's true, and even if it shaves hair, half a minute of work will put a stop to that.
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David Mary David Mary , I couldn't agree more. In construction, depending on what I am doing my large folding work knife of the day will down to a workable, but not so sharp edge. Some of them are great for general work, but lousy slicers. Trimming wood moldings, opening packaging, whittling plugs, cleaning up notches in framing, etc., is great work for the CS SR1 and its brothers. They are great for probing in rotted wood, very light prying, and the tanto points make great scrapers and chisels. But a super fine, razor edge (although it flies in the face of most opinion here) wears down to a "kinda sharp" much faster than a edge from a 1200gr rod. Tried out my experience on all kinds of knives and all kinds of steels, and a micro-fine edge great for shaving isn't of much for me on the job site. Obviously, others will have different experiences.

That being said, I always carry two knives, one for the rough work, and a small traditional pattern for finer work like splinter removal, fine material marking, and to cut my occasional cigar. The traditional stays shaving sharp, but just.

I had to change my mind about sharpening many years ago when I saw how many ways folks edge their cutlery. Starting in the 60s, I used my Grandfather's stone, and they were probably some kind of Arkansas soft and hard. Although they put a nice edge on the blade I seriously doubt it was finer than about 800gr. My hunting buddies loved it for dismantling an animal and for camp chores. We did our own knife testing for higher and lower grit and stropping and non-stropping. The one guy that was a professional butcher never went past 600gr for his butchering.

So I have tried all kinds of systems on all kinds of steels. I have gone full circle; like I said, 1200gr is my sweet spot and when I go home at the end of the day I can carefully swipe the blade on my 12" chef rod and I am back in business.
 
Im an infrequent and unskilled sharpener. I almost ticked the vote for 'just buy a new knife' . If I bungle it or get impatient I give them to a buddy who sharpens them for me. The machetes I use for work I sharpen myself with a file. Usually before I start and during the day as needed.
 
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