I am looking for a sharpening system for traditional knives. Are there any system that work well with the smaller blades on traditional knives. If any of you all have any experience with any of the sharpening systems I would like to hear your feedback as I am not the best free hand sharpener.
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Sharpening System for Traditional Knives
- Thread starter jth250
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Learn stones and you'll be forever prepared. I guess you could grind the initial on a belt sander and then just hone it, but the best way is to learn stones.
The lansky system works well enough for me. You can sharpen about any traditional on it, and with a little practice you can put some very sharp edges on knives. You can even sharpen the pen blade of the peanut on the lansky! You can also get a lot of stones from super coarse to mirror polished edge awesomeness. The best part is it is inexpensive (around 40$ for the standard kit). It is also very high quality for the price. I have had mine for a year and don't have any real complaints. Sure, there are better systems, but not for this price. You should really check it out.
I hope this helps!
-Tyler (sweetT019)
I hope this helps!
-Tyler (sweetT019)
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+1 :thumbup:
Brian.Evans
Registered Member
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Keep practicing with stones. You'll get better. Work one side until you have a fine burr along the entire edge then flip and work the burr over to the other side. Keep going up in grit on the stones until you feel like stopping. Strop then you're done.
Pjake
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Although I do not practice what I preach, learning stones would be best. I would need a 1/2 day hands on seminar to learn the ropes. The Worksharp Ken Onion Edition is a variable speed belt system that is getting some good reviews...and it does convex!
I'm thinking about it. I suspect this thread will get moved....
Peter
I'm thinking about it. I suspect this thread will get moved....
Peter
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I still have a little trouble with convex edges. Too cheap to buy a strop, I have discovered that reversing the edge (spine first) and steeling gently at a slightly steeper angle will touch up my 1st gen Trail Master edge....that's ok for now as it's my only convex blade and I can't justify buying a strop setup (yet). 
For reg stuff, I like Fallkniven Combo (diamond/ceramic) stones like the DC-4 and the bigger 8" bench stone. The DMT Diafolds are good too but as with all pocket/field stones, you have to firmly support them or your angles will drift off (the sportsman steels too).
Used the little medium grit pocket rods (like Smiths) for years to sharpen everything from pocketknives to axes...still have a few around.
For reg stuff, I like Fallkniven Combo (diamond/ceramic) stones like the DC-4 and the bigger 8" bench stone. The DMT Diafolds are good too but as with all pocket/field stones, you have to firmly support them or your angles will drift off (the sportsman steels too).
Used the little medium grit pocket rods (like Smiths) for years to sharpen everything from pocketknives to axes...still have a few around.
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I've easily gotten by for years with small pocket stones --- DMT coarse, Arkansas Hard, and cardboard or brown paper bag for stropping for stop. You need nothing fancy and anyone can learn to use stones. Millions have for the last several centuries and did so without aligners and/or fancy/expensive setups. It really just isn't that difficult.
I use the DMT Aligner to reprofile the blade than I free hand sharpen using the stones. I just move the blade as far out of the clamp as I can while it can still securely hold it so I can reprofile those traditional blades as they tend to be a bit narrow. If I wanted to use the Aligner for sharpening purposes as well I would have to come up with a good space system (coin, measured length, etc) so I could keep the blade in the same place between sharpenings and probably make a small set of notes on each knife on placement and angle for reference.
Unfortunately if you have the blade moved all the way in the back of the clamp with the smaller blades it's quite possible you have the entire blade in there, or you might start grinding away the clamp and not the blade which happened to me the first time I used it.
But in all honesty I think freehand is probably the way to go, it just seems like you have to jump through some hoops to get those smaller blades to work right in most sharpening systems.
Unfortunately if you have the blade moved all the way in the back of the clamp with the smaller blades it's quite possible you have the entire blade in there, or you might start grinding away the clamp and not the blade which happened to me the first time I used it.
But in all honesty I think freehand is probably the way to go, it just seems like you have to jump through some hoops to get those smaller blades to work right in most sharpening systems.