Smith's diamond Tri-Hone sharpening opinions?

M

MAD777

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Aug 3, 2011
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I'm no knife expert and even more lame at sharpening. I have a leather strop with compound glued to a wood plank. I lay sandpaper (black, made for metal) on to of it when I need a more aggressive solution.

However, I still cannot get my dull blades sharp. I have an assortment of cheap to mid-priced knives. The good ones that came sharp, do well by maintaining the edge on the leather. But my cheaper knives need some major work. I'm thinking I need diamond stones, starting with coarse.

No exotic hard steels, biggest knife is 5.8" but most around 4". Predominantly fixed Scandi grinds or secondary bevels on pocket knives.

I found this small bench sharpener with 2 diamond stones (coarse & fine), plus a finer Arkansas stone. It has great reviews and looks like the ticket. It is a bit short at 6" long, but the price is right at <$50.

What do you experts think?
 
With no exotic steels, I would just get a Norton combination stone (1"x 2" x 8") with fine and coarse sides. Will run you $15-$20. Continue to use the strop for final polishing of the edge.

I have DMT coarse & fine, fine & extra fine combination duo sharp 8" bench stones. They are relatively expensive. I use the Norton a good bit for sharpening my carbon steel blades.

I have no issues with the Smith's tri hone. I have a number of Smith sharpening stones. Use a long chisel type on my machetes a lot. You should be good to go, although you might find a larger sharpening surface easier to use.
 
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Thanks rimfire. Here's a picture of the sharpener that I forgot to post.

90fe6b406c7bd63cb2f0274853498082.jpg


And a link to the product description.
http://www.smithsproducts.com/product/50380/
 
Using any flat, non-sssisted sharpener, be it sandpaper, stone, or hone, is all a matter of technique. If you can't hold a consistent angle and raise a burr, it does't really matter what the abrasive is.

Maybe you should consider a system, like the Spyderco Sharpmaker, DMT Aligner, WorkSharp, KME, WickedEdge?
 
No burr! This is indeed a shortcoming of mine.
Hmmm, maybe diamonds will work faster and make up for my lack of patience.
 
I've used this exact system for all of my freehand sharpening and achieved good results. It's not fancy, but will get the job done. Put a very nice edge on all of my kitchen knives as well as a Benchmade 950 Rift. As was mentioned before, just have to make sure you are getting a burr.
 
Nothing will make up for your lack of patience, (or poor technique) except time and practice...

No exotic metals, no need for diamonds, (and if you do go diamonds anyway, all you'll need it a fine to set edges with basic steels)

My suggestion; Buy a decent water combo stone, 1000/4000 should be a good start, and spend more TIME on those, and go SLOW and deliberate paying attention to your form and technique to hold a steady angle...
Don't apply too much pressure. Let the stone do the work.

Get a good magnifying glass (or jewelers loupe) to better examine your edges as you go and see close up what exactly your doing, helps to understand what is actually taking place, and better what your doing wrong, still need to do, and how to correct any issues.

Watch some refresher videos on YouTube to learn more/better techniques

When stropping use no pressure, just the weight of the blade, and strop a little longer...

Once you do get a good fine edge your strop will be your best friend, a few regular passes after use and you'll be able to keep an edge for quite a while, you'll rarely need to use your stones at that point. I typically "sharpen" my Knives about twice a year and I make a day of it... And only the ones that need it... Maybe one here or there gets a touch up as needed, but A Regular rotation + stropping (with a fine ceramic hone in the kitchen for the Cutlery) works wonders on keeping a lasting sharp edge much longer.

*fwiw I also don't typically "keep" fine polished razor sharp edges on my EDC Knives, more of a real nice working edge... You can usually shave with my kitchen knives on any given day, but as for my edc's, save for sharpening day when I get 'em scary sharp, any other given day They'll usually still cut hair, but they won't shave it... But that's all I need for any given task, plus there is always a handful of "special" knives that don't get carried near as much that stay scary sharp if o need 'em, (because they don't get much use).
 
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Moved to MTE, General Knife Discussion is for talking about the knives, not the sharpening.
 
You might want to check the sharpeners for sale on BF. There are some good deals to be found that will work for you.
 
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