Sharpening

How do you sharpen?

  • Grinder/belt

    Votes: 13 41.9%

  • Stones

    Votes: 18 58.1%
  • Total voters
    31
Tim Pollack

Tim Pollack

Basic Member
Joined
Aug 24, 2012
Messages
214
With the recent thread on stone sharpening vs grinder/belt sharpening. Like to see how you all sharpen.
 
For what its worth I use both but have settled into course DMT as my primary. All three research that I have done leads me to believe that it is the longest lasting edge and its a very effective and grabby edge. I am doing it on my pass around knives and people really like it. In fact after I showed one guy he is ready to give away his Japanese waterstones. I don't know if it's the best edge but its really good and takes 2 minutes even on M4 or s110v. For me that means that my knives are all sharp rather than waiting till I'm bored enough to go look for something to sharpen. I might not be a long term knife maker but I have been into sharpening since I was a kid and this is my preferred method for most knives. My hypothesis is that the way we sharpen knives comes from sharpening razors and it's not as simple as just increasing the bevel angle for a different task though especially for western knives in the past it probably was. Now that we have harder higher carbide steel and better abrasives I think it opens up better options. The bases for my hypothesis starts from something I learned about polishing metallurgical samples for etching. It basically that 220 grit has the fastest material removal and lower grits work by letting the grit cut deeper but up to 220 the grit is cutting. I think that much past this you end up with a "bed of nails" situation and the grit isn't so much cutting as it is wearing and burnishing. If you are sharpening a razor and just trying to get the apex as smooth and thin as possible that's fine. But (just my hypothesis no proof yet) on a working knife I feel this is causing fatigue at the edge and that fatigue will shorten the life of that edge. I think that it opens up other variables as well especially in high carbide steel. There seems to be a lot of focus on making sure that the abrasives are harder than the carbide so that they don't get undercut or tear out but even if they are harder will they be able to cut if there is to much surface area? Hey, its just my hypothesis to explain why a lot of the test that I have read about have a substantial jump in edge retention with lower grit sharpening. At the end of the day I feel like the course edge may actually cut a bit better in general use though for items like hand planes that rely on push cutting a polished edge may be desirable. The time difference is a huge factor as well. If there is a factor that I am missing I would love to hear it.
 
Stones for me
I wasn't confident enough in my grinding to grind
I love stones or more precisely I love easy to sharpen carbon on stones.
And I forge my knives by hand so only finish 1 or so on a full week so no need to rush it
 
Personally after 25 years of sharpening I performed most of my sharpening by hand with Arkansas oil stones, DMT diamond plates, and Japanese water stones. In the last 10 years or so I've branched out and started experimenting more. I enjoy using my Tormek T-7, and my favorite system now for fine sharpening is my Edge Pro with their diamond matrix stones and Jende Industries diamond lapping films especially for 3%+ vanadium steels.

https://www.bladeforums.com/threads/super-polished-edges.1265034/page-56

There is an example of the results with the Edge Pro.

I'm also looking to eventually try slotted paper wheels soon, @wootzblade combines the Tormek with them for some very nice results.
 
Last edited:
DevinT said:
I am making kitchen knives right now so all my grinds are zero or very near zero ground so there is no need to use a grinder to sharpen them. Only takes a minute to sharpen them on stones.

Hoss
Click to expand...

What is your preference for stones Devin?
 
I use the solid DMT stones. I also like norton combo oil stone. I have some water stones also. Technique seems to be more important than equipment. The different stones have different strengths. FWIW, I use windex with the norton stone.

Hoss
 
DevinT said:
I use the solid DMT stones. I also like norton combo oil stone. I have some water stones also. Technique seems to be more important than equipment. The different stones have different strengths. FWIW, I use windex with the norton stone.

Hoss
Click to expand...

I use Windex myself with the Edge Pro diamond matrix resin stones, it works well with them. I'll have to try it on my other stones.
 
i use a 120 grit belt to get a burr on both sides of the blade, then i use a lansky sharpener with a coarse, medium, then fine stone. i took an old lansky stone, and with contact cement glued leather onto it, and rubbed in some white buffing compound. now my strop follows the same angle as my stones did.
 
1000 grit king waterstone and then 6000 grit water stone and sometime loaded leather strop with tormek compound. Kitchen knives with a thin hard carbon steel edge. Takes minutes to sharpen.
I also do slipjoint folders this way
I see no reason to change
 
Vitrified CBN Waterstones.

The belts don't cut high Vanadium steels at high Hardness like 10v at 64rc very well.

aOVPF5f.jpg
 
Just about all my shop made knives are sharpened on a slow belt with the burr knocked off on a buffer. I'm gonna put a coolant mister together, as it's something I've been wanting to do for years anyway.
I have some stones in my work locker, and if things are slow, I'll often pull them out and touch up my daily carry knives, or sharpen a knife or two for my co-workers.
Either method seems to get the job done suitably, though I'm all for trying new methods, and/or improving old ones.
 
I've never used CBN before, I've read as much as I can on it though. What advantages would you say that it offers over diamond abrasives in low speed applications?
 
Ocelot85 said:
I've never used CBN before, I've read as much as I can on it though. What advantages would you say that it offers over diamond abrasives in low speed applications?
Click to expand...
There is academic information one can read that doesn't apply to stones.

The Vitrified bonding is the the most important thing, I felt it was more compatible with the bond I like. I also selected the CBN over diamond cause I liked the finishing characteristics. It should be noted that CBN is more expensive than Diamond. CBN is not as hard as diamond but I find the structure of the abrasive grains more suited to the cutting speed and finish I'm looking for with this stone.

 
DeadboxHero said:
There is academic information one can read that doesn't apply to stones.

The Vitrified bonding is the the most important thing, I felt it was more compatible with the bond I like. I also selected the CBN over diamond cause I liked the finishing characteristics. It should be noted that CBN is more expensive than Diamond. CBN is not as hard as diamond but I find the structure of the abrasive grains more suited to the cutting speed and finish I'm looking for with this stone.

Click to expand...

I've been looking at different CBN options and trying to decide when I'll get some, I love all methods of sharpening and honestly just like collecting different stones and equipment. These are on my list for sure. Thanks for the feedback.

Also when you where correcting the tip, that was worse than nails on a chalk board.
 
I use my disk grinder at slow speed with fresh 220 grit paper to set the initial edge and then diamond stones and a strop to finish.
 
All freehand stones for me, but i grind pretty close to sharp, especially on my chef knives so it's not like it takes a long time to finish.

I use Shapton 'pro' ceramics 330-30k grit and love em. No need to fully soak, no oil to mess with, and they are super easy to maintain while still lasting a looong time. Added a diamond plate to dress the stones with and create a good slurry and man it works wonders on these. Then it's on to a double sided leather strop i made with compounds on em.
 
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