- Joined
- Jul 10, 2011
- Messages
- 1,941
After watching a lot of JDavis882/CrimsonTideShooter video's on youtube (I highly recommend his channel, it's fantastic), I finally just dove right into freehand sharpening, which is something I always thought I would never be able to do. Some of his tips really helped (especially clearing up the misconception that you can only go edge first), and he points out that freehand sharpening effectively, perhaps not beautifully, is not nearly as hard as it's made out to be. I've had trouble getting really sharp edges with my sharpmaker until I recently bought a Work Sharp. Don't get me wrong, the Work Sharp works fantastically well; however, I didn't like the idea of paying for belts that wear out super quickly for the rest of my life. Also, after ruining the tips on two knives when first starting, I was worried that in the future I might make a casual mistake and ruin another one. Essentially, I was trying to ween myself off the Work Sharp lately.
So last night, after mustering some confidence from the videos, I decided to have at it on the UF Spyderco stone on a SOG Vulcan Mini Tanto (perhaps the worlds hardest knife to sharpen, a recurved tanto) and I found I had none of the trouble I expected myself to have. With a trusty sharpie, it only took a few passes to get the bevel right, and because of the back and forth motion of the edge, it sharpened up very quickly. I switched sides, and afterwords I was pretty amazed with my results. It was far sharper than it had ever been previously. I tried with my Kershaw Talon II, which has very uneven factory secondary bevels. I was genuinely surprised how little effort/time it took to adjust for the uneven bevel, and now that knife can push cut toilet paper! Now I'm just wishing I didn't convex most of my knives on the Work Sharp :grumpy:
So here's the take home message: if you've ever been afraid to get into freehand sharpening, I suggest you seriously reconsider giving it a try. You might not be an expert for years to come, but I'm sure you'll be able to get great edges. And it certainly beats buying a million different guided systems. Just be sure to invest in some sharpie's.
So last night, after mustering some confidence from the videos, I decided to have at it on the UF Spyderco stone on a SOG Vulcan Mini Tanto (perhaps the worlds hardest knife to sharpen, a recurved tanto) and I found I had none of the trouble I expected myself to have. With a trusty sharpie, it only took a few passes to get the bevel right, and because of the back and forth motion of the edge, it sharpened up very quickly. I switched sides, and afterwords I was pretty amazed with my results. It was far sharper than it had ever been previously. I tried with my Kershaw Talon II, which has very uneven factory secondary bevels. I was genuinely surprised how little effort/time it took to adjust for the uneven bevel, and now that knife can push cut toilet paper! Now I'm just wishing I didn't convex most of my knives on the Work Sharp :grumpy:
So here's the take home message: if you've ever been afraid to get into freehand sharpening, I suggest you seriously reconsider giving it a try. You might not be an expert for years to come, but I'm sure you'll be able to get great edges. And it certainly beats buying a million different guided systems. Just be sure to invest in some sharpie's.
