Stone in hand sharpening

[not2sharp]

Free hand sharpening is the most practical way to maintain a knife. You can carry a sharpening stone easily and use it anywhere when needed. The results are not going to be as pretty as you can get with various jigs, but you would no longer need to worry about exotic steels; and with a user knife, the entire blade will get marked with use so why the excessive care over the edge provided that you can achieve a reasonable level of sharpness.

n2s

 

[soc_monki]

I sharpen with stone in hand. Latest being, just putting the whole stone on my palm.
It's nice because all my knives are reprofiled this way and when I need to sharpen them again, everything is already there and just clicks and I can do it outside anywhere. If I don't go back and forth and just do edge leading, I get a pretty flat bevel and nice scratch pattern. If I go back and forth it will be more convex.
I was too ocd with sharpening in the beginning. I was thinking the stone on the bench has to be level and all, so if it's in my hand, it's not being on a perfectly level surface doesn't bother me. Sometimes I'll even start moving the stone and hold the blade. Like as if your using edge pro on your knife, but the stone is under. right hand is the clamp. The blade I move too a bit actually.

Sounds a lot like how I do it. I will move the stone to make hitting the tip easier, or so I can see the edge hitting the stone better. Works great for me!

 

[GABaus]

I seem to switch between this and using a bench/fixed surface based on a lot of different factors i don't consciously consider.