Photos Slippies, Stones and Strops!

315 said:
I really can’t believe I’m the only one using a more modern method to sharpen...:D:D:D

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:eek: :D
 
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FB4EBCC5-7758-4787-B965-2B346A468F39.jpeg I have yet to develop the skill of free-hand sharpening on a stone; I used to ruin knives by sharpening them badly on stones or using pull-through carbide sharpeners. The Lansky sharpening kit changed my life because now I can buy knives and know that I’ll be able to keep them sharp, but the kit doesn’t work for everything. The pen blade on my Old Timer (pictured) is too narrow to sharpen with the kit (at 20 degrees) because the stone hits the clamp jaws without contacting the blade edge.
 
hsherzfeld said:
View attachment 1094546 I have yet to develop the skill of free-hand sharpening on a stone; I used to ruin knives by sharpening them badly on stones or using pull-through carbide sharpeners. The Lansky sharpening kit changed my life because now I can buy knives and know that I’ll be able to keep them sharp, but the kit doesn’t work for everything. The pen blade on my Old Timer (pictured) is too narrow to sharpen with the kit (at 20 degrees) because the stone hits the clamp jaws without contacting the blade edge.
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Have you thought about retrying freehand? I believe that systems can indeed improve our freehand results. We can gain a better understanding of what is happening in a more controlled experience and that learning directly translates to not using the system. You can't really ruin a blade freehanding. Well, I mean I guess you can, but it would take some work. You can bugger up the edge but as long as you don't get too out of hand, it is generally repairable.

Got a stone?

And yes, I advise avoiding pull-through devices. Those can ruin things.
 
I have more sharpening stones than I could ever care to photograph. My mother-in-law worked for Behr-Manning in Watervliet, NY during the Korean War, and my father-in-law was a small engine mechanic. When my wife and I cleaned out the family home after they passed away, we found about a zillion and one stones of various sizes.

I have have a ton of diamond stones, as well as a couple of guided systems. The Sharpmaker gets used a bit for setting edge bevels on more modern steels. But I mostly freehand sharpen these days.

Pictured are a few of my field sharpeners. I tend to accumulate field sharpening stones in leather slips. I have a bunch of them in various sizes, from Kabar, Case, BSA, Smiths, etc.

Also pictured is my homemade bench strop. I made it years ago, from an old piece of wood I found in the garage, and a large scrap of leather. I sand it down every year or two, and reapply the BRKT green compound. This strop is always out, and gets used constantly. Nothing in my house gets sharpened without at least a few passes on this strop. It's like an old friend to me.

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Buzzbait said:
I have more sharpening stones than I could ever care to photograph. My mother-in-law worked for Behr-Manning in Watervliet, NY during the Korean War, and my father-in-law was a small engine mechanic. When my wife and I cleaned out the family home after they passed away, we found about a zillion and one stones of various sizes.

I have have a ton of diamond stones, as well as a couple of guided systems. The Sharpmaker gets used a bit for setting edge bevels on more modern steels. But I mostly freehand sharpen these days.

Pictured are a few of my field sharpeners. I tend to accumulate field sharpening stones in leather slips. I have a bunch of them in various sizes, from Kabar, Case, BSA, Smiths, etc.

Also pictured is my homemade bench strop. I made it years ago, from an old piece of wood I found in the garage, and a large scrap of leather. I sand it down every year or two, and reapply the BRKT green compound. This strop is always out, and gets used constantly. Nothing in my house gets sharpened without at least a few passes on this strop. It's like an old friend to me.
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Great stuff! Thank you for sharing.
 
Buzzbait said:
I have more sharpening stones than I could ever care to photograph. My mother-in-law worked for Behr-Manning in Watervliet, NY during the Korean War, and my father-in-law was a small engine mechanic. When my wife and I cleaned out the family home after they passed away, we found about a zillion and one stones of various sizes.

I have have a ton of diamond stones, as well as a couple of guided systems. The Sharpmaker gets used a bit for setting edge bevels on more modern steels. But I mostly freehand sharpen these days.

Pictured are a few of my field sharpeners. I tend to accumulate field sharpening stones in leather slips. I have a bunch of them in various sizes, from Kabar, Case, BSA, Smiths, etc.

Also pictured is my homemade bench strop. I made it years ago, from an old piece of wood I found in the garage, and a large scrap of leather. I sand it down every year or two, and reapply the BRKT green compound. This strop is always out, and gets used constantly. Nothing in my house gets sharpened without at least a few passes on this strop. It's like an old friend to me.

XZLqubth.jpg
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What a lovely set
 
peanutsxx said:
Definitely nothing fancy here, but my amateur sharpening would be wasted on much else. :p I do need a good strop so if anyone has recommendations please PM me. :cool:
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I used to use leather for strops and it worked well, but I read on a forum that denim works so I tried that, and I think it is even better for strops than leather.

I teach whittling a wood carving and this is what I recommend for a strop:
Get some double sided carpet tape. It usually comes in a roll and is 2 inches wide. I like it better than glue for attaching the denim because it does not soak through the denim and create a hard spot, and there is no need to wait for glue to dry.
Now get a piece of flat material, (plywood, mdf, solid wood - whatever), cut it to two inches wide by about 10 -12 inches long.
Apply the tape to the base material.
Cut the denim to the appropriate length, and about 2 3/8 inch wide. If the sides of the denim hang over the edges, they don't get all raggedy looking like they do when they are trimmed flush. They will work just as well either way.
Peel the backing tape off and stick down the denim.
Apply your preferred stropping compound.

I find that sharpening a knife at 10 degrees per side on a Norton India stone until a burr (wire edge) is formed, first on one side and then the other - this part is absolutely essential, because until the burr is formed the true edge has not been reached - then light stokes on the India stone a few per side until most of the burr is gone, and then stropping on the denim strop using either green, white or Rick's White Lightnin' with firm pressure (still at the 10 degrees) will give a very good (hair poppin'!) edge for whittlin'. I say FIRM pressure, because I often, when teaching people to do this encounter student edges that are almost but not quite there, and when I strop firmly, the edge appears right away.

Using finer stones will work well too of course, but I find that they really are not all that necessary.

Really firm pressure can be a problem with some leather strops, because that pressure can cause the blade to sink into the leather a bit and round the edge. This is less of a problem with thin leather glued to wood, hard leather, or the denim.

Also I do not recommend that stropping be done first in one direction and then in the other - back and forth, because when that is done the stropper tends to anticipate the flip and will stroke the blade at too high an angle at the ends of the stroke, and actually ruin the edge. It is important that the angle of stroke stay the same all along the strop, and that is easier to do if several strokes are taken on one side and then the other side is stropped. Don't run off the end of the strop either. I usually suggest that after using the India stone that 50 to 75 strokes per side of the blade are used. The entire edge does not have to be stropped on each stroke especially on longer blades.

If you absolutely have to alternate strokes, do it the way the old barbers did it - flip the blade backwards between stokes. If you flip it forwards, or finish each stroke with a little flourish (!) it will be counter productive.
 
Oh yes.

When the edge has been sharpened like this, and degrades a bit in use, a few more strokes on the strop will bring it right back.

In whittling, when I find myself having to strop every 5 min. or so, I go back and freshen up on the stone.
 
Here is a post I made awhile back. It still applies so here you go.

My .02¢ on knife sharpening:

There are a lot of threads and posts in this sub-forum about angles - 20º, 30º, etc.. Too many people worry about getting that exact angle when all they need is to be close to that angle and most importantly be consistent in the angle they hold their blades at from sharpening to sharpening.

Their next worry is what to use to sharpen their knives. I have been hand sharpening for years and have settled on stones mostly like the ones show in the picture below. Norton India coarse/fine, aluminum oxide stones and Arkansas stones. One other stone that I also use is a Norton Crystolon stone shown in the second picture.

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Perhaps one of the easiest ways to get into sharpening is to use a simple rod system. Most of these systems have predrilled holes or slots to hold various rods and sharpeners at a consistent angle. Here are two systems that I have. The Lansky system holds rods at 20º and 25º while the slots of the Case system hold a sharpener at 20º. Both systems are very easy to use. Just follow the directions that come with the systems. A plus for the Case system is that you can use diamond stones from various manufactures. A heads up - you may need to lightly and carefully sand the holes or slots to fit the rods or sharpeners to their holders.

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EDIT: Adding this picture of a Spyderco Sharpmake to say it would be a great addition as a "rod syster" but it is perhaps a bit expensive for just starting out. As stated below, the Lansky rod system next to the Sharpmaker will do just fine to get a beginner started.

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OK!! This has been kinda clumsily written but I hope this helps some of you guys. I think the easiest way for a new sharpener to get some sort of satisfaction when they first start sharpening is to use a round-rod system such as the Lansky system shown above.

Of course everyone can start out using diamond sharpeners but those are a bit expensive for someone just starting out sharpening knives. Here are a few of the simpler diamond sharpeners to use.

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Whatever sharpeners you decide to use, keep it simple and be patient.
 
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One more thing!!!

If you notice, I didn't include a strop of any kind in any of the pictures or the article I posted just above. Usually when I sharpen a knife, I am at a table or at my desk and usually wearing jeans. When I'm where I want to be with the edge, I just strop the blade on my jeans over my upper thigh. Just a few light strokes will bet rid of any wire edge and then give my final edge.

OK - here's the shocker. Sometimes I'll be in a pair of shorts and just give the blade a few strokes on the top of my bare thigh.

Everyone will find that there are small things they can do to enhance their sharpening experience. As I said in my above post, consistency and patience will pay off.
 
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Modoc ED said:
One more thing!!!

If you notice, I didn't include a strop of any kind in any of the pictures or the article I posted just above. Usually when I sharpen a knife, I am at a table or at my desk and usually wearing jeans. When I'm where I want to be with the edge, I just strop the blade on my jeans over my upper thigh. Just a few light strokes will bet rid of any wire edge and then give my final edge.

OK - here's the shocker. Sometimes I'll be in a pair of shorts and just give the blade a few strokes on the top of my bare thigh.

Everyone will find that there are small things they can do to enhance their sharpening experience. As I said in my above post, consistency and patience will pay off.
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I use my jeans too. :thumbsup:
 
I like waterstone sharpening and stropping.
The 800 and 2000 Naniwas are working good for me,
on my old ksf leather strop the black compound works better and smoother than the green one.
It took a while and some missharpening accidents on my carbon steel to get into it,
but finally I reached the hair shaving sharpness point.
At this, the skill is as much important as a small sharpening angle.
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