Sharpening Tools Redux ad infintium.

Yvsa

Yvsa

Joined
May 18, 1999
Messages
15,395
Well I have had an experience that reenforces my belief in softer knifes that can be sharpened with regular stones as well as my belief in the DMT Duofolds and other diamond hones.
Personally I like the harder blades as they last a lot longer in between sharpenings but you need a diamond to sharpen them if you're going to use a hone instead of the mousepad and paper.

Munk sent me a little Browning stainless steel knife that he had worked on along with his 25"AK for me to rework. Munk was pretty close but, and I'm sure that eventually with a lot of time and effort that it could've been sharpened with a regular stone but to say it would be difficult is an understatement.
It took me about three or four hours with my EZElap and then finally the DMT Extra Coarse Duofold to get this little knife sharp as a knife should be.
So I'm going to say it again, "If you're having trouble sharpening your hard sweet spots and can use a hone then get yourself some of the DMT Duofolds."
They came in an Extra Coarse & Coarse, Coarse and Fine, and Fine & Extra Fine.
You only need the first two as the Extra Fine is overkill AFAIC.
Using the Fine grade as the finish hone and then stropping the hell outta the knife will make for an excellent edge.:D
 
For little knives the diamond thingies that Ragnar sells are a pretty cheap way to find out what they are like. Actually I haven't tried any others. But diamonds are definitely different.

For really hard stuff, I think the ultimate is probably waterstones, but they are more work to keep up, and you can trash them. It is very tempting not to shell out for a full set of grits, and you can easily use too fine a grit because they cut so well. Then you have a worn out a stone that should have lasted a long time.I've done this, and more water stones are on the save-up-money-for list. I've learned my lesson.

Don't use waterstones for profiling unless you get the really coarse ones! Actually one of the sandpaper methods is probably the way to go for that. If you don't want convex, use the sandpaper on a sheet of glass or something.
 
Another place to get good small diamond sharpeners is WalMart. They have a small pocket hone about 1/4" x 1" x 3" that works well. I have a couple but the Duofolds are easy to fold up and slip in a pocket as well, just a little bigger is all.
 
Yvsa--I have one of those little eze-lap diamond hones from Wal-Mart. Quite a bit of sharpener for under six bucks. It puts a very toothy, agressive edge on a khukuri. One thing I've noticed though is that after about a year of use, it's pretty worn down. It's still functional, but doesn't sharpen anywhere near as fast as it used to. Do the DMT hones last longer than the eze-lap?

--Josh
 
Josh Feltman said:
Do the DMT hones last longer than the eze-lap?

--Josh
Click to expand...
They last longer than the WalMart EZElaps, a lot longer. I've noticed the same thing and both of mine are just like what you said. They'll still cut, just not as fast.
 
Still though...$6 for a years worth of sharpening! Since I can buy 6 of the cheap ones for the same as 1 of the expensive ones...and I tend to lose things, I guess I'd go with the cheapie from WallyWorld and *if* I still had it a year later, just buy another.
 
Nasty--I've gotten way more than $6 worth of sharpening out of mine, and it still works pretty well, just not as well as it did a year ago. It even comes with a little fake suede pouch:cool: . I'll probably get a new one later on this year.

--Josh
 
When I sharpen the harder steel knives, I also use a diamond rod from Bass Pro Shops. It is fine enuf to sharpen serrations as well. On a hard steel knife, if seems that once you get a good edge profile, all you need to touch it up with is a ceramic rod.

Keith
 
Ferrous-- I agree on the ceramic rod. I use a ceramic rod for quick touch ups, and it's really effective. I have one of those cheap kitchen models that you can find in the home sections in grocery stores. The people who owned our dome before we did left it behind when they moved. I dropped it a while back, and the handle broke off, so I just use the ceramic rod without a handle because for some weird reason I'm too cheap to spend $2 on a new one :rolleyes: .
--Josh
 
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