Sharpening

[KnifeCarsen10]

Hey guys, I know I’ve asked a lot of questions about sharpening, and I just can’t seem to get the hang of it. I have a coarse 220 grit diamond plate and a fine 600 plate on my worksharp WSGSS(it’s the manual one). I also have a ceramic rod with coarse and fine. Finally I have a leather strop with a coarse side and a smooth side, green and white compound. I would like to know the exact steps for sharpening correctly. Some of me steels include: 20cv, 154cm, 8cr13mov, aus8, 1095, 440, and so on. I don’t know if my equipment is able to get a knife to hair popping? Also, how much should I feel a bur? If my current system doesn’t have the requirements for a hair popping edge, is there any systems under 100 that will give me one? I like to have a system as I am not the best at freehand. I was also looking at the Worki Sharp Ken Onion. If anybody knows how sharp that can get it and if it’s worth it over my system now please tell me. Thanks so much you guys are the best. Sorry for all the questions.

 

[W. Anderson]

The Spyderco Sharpmaker has always worked well for me. Get the UF stones, too. Under your budget. Use a sharpie to mark your edge and see where metal is being removed.

 

[rswanson]

I think any system that's well designed will get a knife sharp, provided you're using the right medium for your steel (I.e. Not putting a very wear resistant CPM steel on soft aluminum oxide stones). It's more about patience and good technique.

As for freehand sharpening, there is no replacement in my opinion. If I want to touch up a knife at my desk at work or sitting around a campfire, even a compact system like the Lansky or Sharpmaker is not going to cut it. My advice is practice freehand techniques on some less expensive knives. This thread helped me immensely- https://www.bladeforums.com/threads/the-seven-secrets-of-sharpening.1353408/

Good luck and just keep at it. It won't take so long to get decent results. You just have to put in the time. There's no substitute for practice. Sharpening a knife is a skill and skills are generally not something we spend time on anymore.

 

[rswanson]

But I should say that W. Anderson's suggestion is a good one. I've got a Sharpmaker and it does great, especially with supplemental coarse triangular stones. Do a search on the forum for Mold Master and read up on members' experiences.

 

[bucketstove]

Hey guys, I know I’ve asked a lot of questions about sharpening, and I just can’t seem to get the hang of it. I have a coarse 220 grit diamond plate and a fine 600 plate on my worksharp WSGSS(it’s the manual one). I also have a ceramic rod with coarse and fine. Finally I have a leather strop with a coarse side and a smooth side, green and white compound. I would like to know the exact steps for sharpening correctly. Some of me steels include: 20cv, 154cm, 8cr13mov, aus8, 1095, 440, and so on. I don’t know if my equipment is able to get a knife to hair popping? Also, how much should I feel a bur? If my current system doesn’t have the requirements for a hair popping edge, is there any systems under 100 that will give me one? I like to have a system as I am not the best at freehand. I was also looking at the Worki Sharp Ken Onion. If anybody knows how sharp that can get it and if it’s worth it over my system now please tell me. Thanks so much you guys are the best. Sorry for all the questions.

Hi,
You have all the equipment required to sharpen to hair popping by any definition, example
The Work Sharp guided sharpening system - grierwolfe

As to the steps,
basically,
use light force ,
use lube (ex water),
shape on the 17 degree setting (left side raise small burr, right side raise small burr)
progress through the rest of diamond stones , 10-30 passes per side each
then on your last diamond
do 10 alternating edge passes to stand up whatever burr remains
then double the angle and do 2 using ultra light edge leading passes to remove the burr
then backsharpen 1-10 passes at original angle (ex 17 degree setting)
check for burr again, repeat deburr/backsharpen 1-3 times as needed
then do 5 ultra light edge leading passes per side using the 20 degree setting on the ceramic
and you're done
...

 

[Bob6794]

Your guilded worksharp if it's the one I'm thinking of, which is basically a benchstones with guides for the most part is more than capable of producing sharp knives. Going off memory the lowest setting is 17 degrees per side in comparison to Sharpmaker 15. Not too much of a difference there and you can remove your guides if I remember correctly too.

Bot your system and a Sharpmaker is basically a free handed sharpenings setup with guides when you break it down, ones horizontal the other vertical. No magic there, just extra help for your technique. If your not getting sharp edges on one the other probably won't fix the problem as there is something you need to fix.

I would practice on the 1095 blade or the 440 (assuming it's not 440c) so your working on something less wear resistant and easier to sharpen and try to hone in your skills (pun intended).

I own a worksharp field Sharpener which has the diamond stones at 20 and ceramics and strop at 25. So quite a bit more obtuse than yours and it can still produce an edge that will slice and push cut receipt paper with ease. My Sharpmaker with diamonds and ultra fines stones can make it sharper by putting the edge at 15. Than I have a DMT aligner that will do the same. And same story with sharpening stones if I use the guides to put it at the same angle or completely free hand and pay extra attention to what I'm doing.

All of them will produce a high level of sharpness it just takes honing your technique and that translates to the other devices quite well if you know what your doing and looking for. My advice don't do what I ended up doing and spend money chasing improvements, hone your craft on what you have and than after you can reliably make an extremely sharp edge explore other options if you find something you want to do differently. Like explore crock sticks (turn box, Sharpmaker) or do highly polished edges (I don't think the worksharp is well equipped for that), etc.

And what's your definition of hair popping? Are we talking shave arm with ease or tree topping? Because the first one can be done with ease, second from what I recall tends to like more polished edges which I tend to not do so I can't comment on that much

 

[bflying]

Everything has it's learning curve. And every person is different, both in knife needs, and personal skill set. So this may seem a bit harsh, but the "advice" that first pops into my head for sharpening is to....

First, go to the main index of the "Maint, Tink, and Embell" category, and read ALL of the "Sticky" threads. Yes, that a bunch. But it contains good info out the whazoo from Pro's and aspiring Pro's. And if you have questions along the way, probably more people than you would ever guess would drop what they are doing to answer your questions and get you back on track.

Then, scroll down below the stickies in the Maint index, pick another dozen topics that just look interesting, and read those. YES, ALSO from top to bottom.

At this point, you will know far more than most gun/knife show Sharpening guys.

Now, got a question??

 

[KnifeCarsen10]

Wow guys, thanks for the help! It worked really well! I can now easily shave hair off my arm. Will worksharp replace my diamond hones after they wear out? Or maybe the ceramic rod? Thanks again!

 

[Bob6794]

They shouldn't need replacing. Use the weight of the blade or very light pressure on diamonds. If you use a lot of pressure on diamonds you will dislodge them. Don't worry about wearing them out, you coud make a normal stone dish out before you wear out a diamond stone.

As for ceramic, clean it and carry on. Barkeeper's friend (use with caution and do not get in your eyes), or Ajax to clean off the stones both diamond and ceramic when they get loaded up.