Sharpmaker tips?

TouchOfRed said:
Okey, now i understand. Thank you very much bro. :)
If im lucky, i can sell a few knives and maybe afford a Wicked Edge.
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What about purchasing a decent bench stone to practice freehand sharpening? Sure, it takes practice, but once you become proficient at it, sharpening is a joy. I enjoy the simplicity of it and it can be more economical than purchasing a wicked edge, edge pro, etc (CAN BE. You can always end up like myself and others 'round here with thousands of dollars worth of bench stones and sharpening kit) I hate having to set up my edge pro and I rarely do anymore.
 
KNaB said:
What about purchasing a decent bench stone to practice freehand sharpening? Sure, it takes practice, but once you become proficient at it, sharpening is a joy. I enjoy the simplicity of it and it can be more economical than purchasing a wicked edge, edge pro, etc (CAN BE. You can always end up like myself and others 'round here with thousands of dollars worth of bench stones and sharpening kit) I hate having to set up my edge pro and I rarely do anymore.
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Actually that is so true. Ive been watching alot of videos about how to sharpen with Wicked Edge and Edge Pro. And i found out that people have different problems with these systems. Like when the stones have different thickness on the Edge pro, you have mark the edge with a pen everytime, or having a collar which you then use to make up for the different thicknesses on the stones etc. And this must be on the Wicked Edge also? With the thicknesses on the stones?
It all seems to be frustrating and boring, and EXPENSIVE to say at least.
Wicked Edge Pro Pack 1 costs 570$ in Sweden, and Edge Pro Apex 4 380$.


Ive seen that Jdavis on youtube, had been freehanding for two weeks, and putting an awesome edge on a knife, but for me it will take alot longer. Somebody said it takes about 3 years to learn it, can that really be true?

but with freehanding you can never put those exact mirroredges that a WE or EP gives? Not that i require those edges, just saying.

EDIT: Think ive changed my mind on the perfect mirroredges while freehanding. Just looked on Solosknifereviews freehanding guide, holy sh*t his skilled. He drags a single hair on the edge, and the hair pops off.
 
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Everyone is different, but I don't think it will take you three years to get decent edges from freehanding. It will take years to master, but not nearly that long to get a decent edge which is why you should start practicing. For me, sharpening is one of those things that make more sense to me the more I do it. I started out with a sharpmaker as well, but would mess around with an inexpensive norton stone every now and then. At some point, things just clicked and made sense.
Mirrored edges can be achieved through freehanding. I have a few customs as evidence of that. I think it's more important to concern one's self with setting the bevel and working up a burr (and recognizing it) than perfect symetrical mirrored edges.
 
To start with, why not refer to this sticky: www.bladeforums.com/forums/showthread.php/1014274-What-is-sharpening-a-knife-about and a good followup thread:
www.bladeforums.com/forums/showthread.php/963298
And a good simple freehand tips from this thread:
www.bladeforums.com/forums/showthread.php/1029230-New-to-Sharpening-Need-help!/

Finally, lookup HeavyHanded. He sells Washboard which is very good for learning due to feedback. His videos are applicable for any freehand as well even though it uses the washboard as example.
 
Dmt 3x8 coarse
Dmt 3x8 fine
Spyderco 3x8 306uf

I'm not doing rebeveling and stuff, so should i pick a the Extrafine instead of the coarse? Thanks
 
There are 2 videos on YouTube that really helped me. Google SharpMaker improvements.

The things that helped me the most from the videos were mounting the SharpMaker down so I could use two hands.
 
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