Sharpening your traditionals?

[combatjiujitsu]

Curious how you fellas are sharpening your knives? I sometimes have issues with holding the same angle over and over again myself. I know theres alot of guided systems and even heard about the bottom of coffee cups before being and option to hone the blade. How are you gentlemen keeping your blades sharp! Any tips appreciated of course.

 

[The Zieg]

For me depends on the grind and how much sharpening needs doing. I usually use a Japanese water stone and a strop. If I need a quick touch up I will use a very fine diamond plate that I carry in my pocket occasionally. Some knives I don't have to touch for a long time, like the carbon Opinels and Moras, Northwoods and Dawsons. Others, like the SAKs, need regular attention. Buck is somewhere in the middle.

Zieg

 

[afishhunter]

After the initial edge is set (I prefer 10 DPS/20 degrees inclusive) regular dry stropping (no diamond paste, etc.) maintains the working edge.

Stropping extends the "life" of the blade before they resemble toopthpicks and you can almost hear the knife screeching in pain.
I might need to use a fine/extra fine stone once a year on my most used knives.

 

[chevyrulez1]

I usually use a Smiths Arkansas stone and strop for most things. I usually try to strop it to maintain the edge. I will also use a tungsten rod or knife steel to straighten/debur the edge sometimes. I have been know to use ceramic rods for some stuff, and I have some Harbor Freight diamond stones I use if the edge is trashed and need to remove more material or it is a harder steel. I love keeping my blades sharp but am careful to not grind the blades into oblivion.

 

[RickHuf]

I have a grey Arkansas stone that does most of the sharpening. A strip of leather and heavy canvas for strop.

If something is really out of wack I have a red India stone to get the edge where I want it. Then finish on the Arkansas stone.

 

[black mamba]

I have a variety of stones and steels from 200 to 1200 grit, which I use totally freehand. I then finish the edge by stropping lightly on paper over the sharp edge of a glass tabletop

 

[Hickory n steel]

I just mostly sharpen by hand because a majority of my pocket knives are quite small and it's hard finding a guided system that can work with these little blades.
I had bought a Smith's guided sharpener on clearance at the hardware store and it did okay with a number of my knives,but the quality on that thing is terrible.

 

[Boattale]

Bench grinder.

 

[Kiteman72]

Bench grinder.

Dad?

 

[guy g]

Sharpmaker

 

[birdsbeaks]

Bench grinder.

That's how I sharpen my pitchfork. Torches need no sharpening however.

 

[JM2]

I sharpen freehand with various Arkansas stones. Sometimes I use dmt diamond stones depending on the knife and the edge I want.

I strop on leather normally after sharpening. If the strop isn’t handy, such as after a quick touchup on the diamond stone or I need to bring back the keenness when whittling, I strop on my palm.

 

[Boattale]

Actually I use a 300 x 1000 grit diamond stone freehand.

 

[Oldy]

Flat rock in the bush

 

[pat9198]

I use this little Victorinox pen size sharpener to do quick touch ups, works great on 1095 and stainless blades.

 

[DavidABQ]

FWIW I use either Spyderco benchstones or an older Spyderco Sharpmaker to handle my sharpening needs.

 

[lambertiana]

Depending on how I am feeling, it could be an Arkansas stone, Spyderco medium bench stone, or a diamond stone. I only do freehand.

 

[mrknife]

lansky crock sticks, couple of passes usually to sharpen out blade rap, or couple of passes on the honing rods to keep the users sharps. my traditionals are mainly not for hard use.

 

[ZHoovie]

Japanese water stones or an Arkansas stone depending on the knife & how much I need to sharpen. I also use a Spyderco sharpmaker from time to time.
Don't worry about being bad at freehanding it. It takes practice, I wasn't very good at first either. But after getting the muscle memory down it's not a problem anymore.

You can also take a sharpie & mark the edge. Do a pass or two & then look at it, you'll be able to see where you're removing material from & adjust accordingly.

Good luck!

 

[jc57]

Arkansas stone for me. I used to use a Sharpmaker (still have it) but I put in the time over a couple of years learning how to freehand sharpen so that's what I do. If a blade needs some real work I will break out the Norton Coarse/Fine India stone.

I don't think that much about the edge angles, I just sort of do it by look and feel now. Whatever I am doing is working because they cut up cardboard boxes much better after I sharpen them. I could probably do better if I focused a little more on it. I used to inspect the edges with a loupe to make sure everything was perfectly apexed and I stropped to a pretty shiny edge.

But the double-corrugated cardboard mentioned to me one time that it really didn't care that much about the mirror finish or perfect grind, it would still separate into smaller pieces of cardboard and still dull the blade for me so that I could play with the Arkansas stone again next time.