smith's tri hone sharpener

beestokk

beestokk

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Sep 20, 2009
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hey all - currently have a DMT aligner (with extra coarse, coarse, fine, and extra fine stones) and am very close to picking up a sharpmaker, which together should cover all of my needs short of freehand sharpening with bench stones. my question is for someone just looking to start out learning to freehand sharpen with stones, is the smith's tri hone sharpener a good option to start? i'm looking for something affordable to learn on, but of acceptable quality. the reviews i've seen seem decent for this product, and the price certainly is right. not interested in putting a lot of money into it at this point as the system sharpeners should have me covered, just want to expand my abilities and learn something fun.
 
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You can start learning on the DMT stones if you want. No need to spend more than you have to.

Smith's are decent but you can do better.

How about a Norton IB8 instead. You can add a Black or Hard Arkansas stone if you want a finer edge.
I've had good luck with Natural Whetsone Company. Dan's Whetstone and Norton are just as good.

1000/6000 King waterstone is a good alternative to Arkansas stones.
 
and it works just fine:thumbup: it's been great as i was new to sharpening and with alot of practice i'm now able to get my slipjoints to an acceptable level of sharpness with the tri-hone, im sure theres better out there but for the beginner i think its excellent.
hope this helps
regards
gene
 
all helpful responses, thanks! the only thing i don't like bout using the DMT stones from the aligner is that they are fairly short and narrow, which seems to make it difficult for me to try freehand with anything other my smallest blades (slippies really). thought it might be easier to learn with bigger blades on bigger stones where i can better get the "feel" of it.

the norton ib8 seems reasonable, is the coarse/fine sufficient enough or is it too big a jump (i.e. should i ideally be using a medium grit in between the two, or an extra fine grit after the two?)? dan's whetstone makes a similar tri-hone sharpener for a bit more $$, any thoughts on that specifically vs smith's?

gene - thanks for your input, that does help.

i'm also slightly swayed by the fact that i've got a gift card to a store that sell's the smith's and none of the others :p
 
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