Time to invest in a home sharpener

Got it. So once you go to a good japanese chef knife you never go back, huh?

Looks like a few diamond stones and a finrr grit ceramic may be the best wsy for me to go. One last wuestion about diamond- is there any benefit to having the dmt polka-dot pattern blocks vs the straight blocks? What is required to keep metal shavings off the full diamond in order to keep its sharpening ability
 
If I were starting over with diamonds I'd probably only purchase the continuous surface DiaSharps now.

But they both work and since I started with the polka dot pattern DuoSharps, I use both.

You can sharpen dry or with water on the diamonds. (Some use other products.) Keeping them wet and sponging them off from time to time will help keep them running.

Soap and water or scouring powder such as Bar Keepers Friend, and a toothbrush when you need to clean.

Diamond hones followed by (Spyderco) ceramic hones is a great way to approach your sharpening needs.
 
If you want a quick and easy sharpening system look into the WorkSharp Guided System with the extra grit Upgrade kit. It will train you to learn the angles to freehand on better stones later. And its $60 and the upgrade is $35
 
Aerose91 said:
Do you guys see any value in buying some angle wedges to get me started and gain some muscle memory on flat stones?
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I guess it depends on whether you plan on reprofiling knives to a particular angle or if you plan to work with the existing bevels (or perhaps take them down a degree or two). If they're only a few bucks I guess you're not out much either way.
 
Knives like the Henkels don't have much if any bevel so i want to make sure i get the angle correct
 
Aerose91 said:
Knives like the Henkels don't have much if any bevel so i want to make sure i get the angle correct
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Unless the angle guide is attached to your blade, I don't see how it's going to particularly help from one stroke to the next, unless you plan to use it to set up each individual stroke or attempt to develop "muscle memory".

Why not try eyeballing and using a fingernail to determine that the bevel is flat against the stone? If there is no gap, you're on it.

I think a precise angle would be more useful if I knew I wanted to taper a blade to a certain number of dps (degrees per side) as opposed to simply sharpening the existing bevel.

There are many roads to Dublin, as a gentleman I have a lot of respect for likes to say.
 
Aerose91 said:
Do you guys see any value in buying some angle wedges to get me started and gain some muscle memory on flat stones?
Click to expand...

Not sure an angle guide is really needed. For existing edges, you will be able to feel the existing angle. That was probably the most significant breakthrough I had learning to freehand. Being able to feel when the bevel is laying flat on the stone takes some practice but once I got it down, freehand became much much easier.

For me, the "polka dot pattern" DMT gave me a little better feedback and feel when first starting out. But, that's just me. Both interrupted pattern and smooth finishes work great.
 
How would one know the angle is correct on a flat grind? Say, a Henkels kitchen knife since that's one i own
 
Aerose91 said:
How would one know the angle is correct on a flat grind? Say, a Henkels kitchen knife since that's one i own
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Even on kitchen knives with very small bevels, the Sharpie trick still works great. You just might need a small loupe. Especially if your vision isn't that great.

I can just feel when I'm hitting the right angle on the existing edge. The blade still draws smoothly across the stone but you get that ever so slight bite into the stone. You can also hear it to some degree. An angle guide is just going to help keep an angle consistent at the whatever angle you use. That doesn't mean that guide's angle will match the one on the knife. That's why learning to feel the correct angle is so important.
 
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http://angleguide.com/ - these have always looked cool to me. A kit of plastic wedges that you attach to the end of your stones via rubber band. If nothing else, they can at least give you a good starting point for developing a feel for the different angles. Just like training wheels. At first you might want to use them to align the blade for every stroke, and then after a while you'd have a good feel (or muscle memory if that's what it is) of what a 15% angle is like. They're pretty cheap at $11 for the set. I may get some myself at some point.

I use a loupe and a bright light, and have even used Sharpie marker, when sharpening my kitchen knives. Use whatever tools or tricks work for you.
 
I've used this a time or two to either set a bench stone at a certain angle...or to check the angle of the arm on the Edge Pro...but to be honest, for the most part it sits gathering dust on the corner of my workbench. Works great, inexpensive and no batteries required...so I got that going for me, which is nice. It just doesn't see much use.

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Quickie angle guide: Take a 3" x 5" index card. Along the bottom edge (long side), measure 1" from the left end and make a pencil mark. Along the right edge, make a pencil mark 1" from the bottom.

Now draw a line from the top left corner, down to the bottom, to your first mark. That creates a triangle that is 3" x 1". Draw another line from that same mark, to the mark you made on the right edge. That creates a second triangle that is 4" x 1".

Cut along the lines to separate your triangles from the rest of the card. The more acute angle of the 1x3 triangle has an angle of ~ 19.5°. The acute angle of the 1x4 triangle is ~ 14.5°. Those can be used to approximate your typical 20° and 15° sharpening angles. You could then use your 3x5 card stock template to trace onto thicker cardboard or wood to make your own home-made angle guides.

View attachment 919354
 
Those are great pointers, thanks! I'v used the sharpie trick on my tomahawk and bushcraft knife but haven't ventured into sharpening kitchen knives yet. Is the general rule, 20 degrees for buschcraft tools and 15 deg for kitchen knives? I put my tomahawk at closer to 22-25 deg
 
Aerose91 said:
Those are great pointers, thanks! I'v used the sharpie trick on my tomahawk and bushcraft knife but haven't ventured into sharpening kitchen knives yet. Is the general rule, 20 degrees for buschcraft tools and 15 deg for kitchen knives? I put my tomahawk at closer to 22-25 deg
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I think 30 Deg combined on a western style knife like yours is fine. You could run lower but IMO, 15 per side is fine. Heck, 20 per side is OK as well. The small bevels are so minor that they really don't have as significant of an impact as a bush craft style blade or pocket knife that tend to have larger bevels.
 
Aerose91 said:
Do you guys see any value in buying some angle wedges to get me started and gain some muscle memory on flat stones?
Click to expand...
Hi,
Not me :)
Why buy something you already own ? (binderclips and clothespins , tape and coins )
Why buy something you can bushcraft at your desk in 5min?
Grab a pencil and ruler, punch some numbers into triangle-calculator, draw some triangles on paper, cerealbox, popsicle stick, soda bottle, aluminum soda can, cut/crease/fold/tape as needed, doesnt take long, lasts for years ...
 
bucketstove said:
Hi,
Not me :)
Why buy something you already own ? (binderclips and clothespins , tape and coins )
Why buy something you can bushcraft at your desk in 5min?
Grab a pencil and ruler, punch some numbers into triangle-calculator, draw some triangles on paper, cerealbox, popsicle stick, soda bottle, aluminum soda can, cut/crease/fold/tape as needed, doesnt take long, lasts for years ...
Click to expand...
I love this kind of frugality. Ashamed my mind didn't go there first
 
I have the 2 double sided 10" DMT DuoSharp stones in 220, 325, 600, 1200 grades. If an edge is badly damaged or needs significant reprofiling, I won't hesitate to use the 220 grit black stone on any knife. The key to not damaging the knife you're working with is soapy water and a very light touch. Then I'll go to my Naniwa super pro stones. Which are all splash and go, be warned you'll damage them by soaking them. I have the 3000, 5000, and 10000 grade stones. The 10000 is fine enough that strops and pastes are unnecessary imo. You will need to use a stone fixer to keep. Them all flat periodically. I also have a Naniwa Nagura for each of the grades. These are a great help in speeding things up because they give you a good slurry right off the bat and with Japanese water stones, the slurry is what does the sharpening. This progression works really well for me and the Naniwa Super Pros cut even harder steels pretty quickly.
 
I started with a Sharpmaker and then moved to two DMT stones and I am very satisfied. The Sharpmaker helped me learn about angles and what was really happening to the edges. The more I learned, the more I wanted to be capable with freehand / stones so I spent short money on two DMT stones. One is a fine DMT whetsone. The other is a dual (coarse / fine) plate. I continued learning by paying close attention to angles and pressure and what was happening to my edges. Now, I can't remember the last time I used the Sharpmaker ... but it's nice to have. With the coarse/fine plate I can take care of any edge I need to. Honestly, though, I rarely use that any more either.

Now that I put reasonable edges on my knives and now that I have a better understanding of the mechanics... 90% of my sharpening today is simply grabbing the cheap 6in fine stone out of my kitchen junk drawer and touching up an edge here and there. I don't get the awesome results that others here do, but I also don't care to spend the time / money some other folks do.

My takeaway is that you don't need to spend much money at all to get good results once you invest the time combined with a real learning mindset.
 
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