Traditional vs. Non traditional Sharpening

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8Blades

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Sep 15, 2003
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For all my life since my days as a Boy Scout I have sharpened my blades with a natural stone. The only changes I ever made was that I stopped using honing oil a few years ago after doing some interesting reading on sharpening, and I have learned to use clamps to hold the stone in place on a bench. As a matter of fact I own less than $35 worth of sharpening paraphenalia. I'm glad that I can sharpen a knife the old fashioned way (granted I'm not nearly as good at it as some people are), but I'm always looking for bigger and better.

It seems nowadays that technology has caught up to the point where what I call a sharpening "system" outperforms the old sharpening stone, but since I'm not the greatest hand sharpener in the world I'm hesitant to say that gizmos have replaced hand sharpening for most of us. I know some people that sharpen the same way I do and they're a lot better at it. But it sure looks like contraptions and gizmos are all I see in the store any more.

So I'm just gonna start a little poll... do you sharpen like I do with a stone, or do you have better luck with a Sharpmaker or a belt sander or some other whatchamacallit? I have no strong feelings on this one way or the other I'm just curious if anyone actually hand sharpens any more.
 
I do...

Stones all the way. It's relaxing and makes you feel at one with the blade, Grasshopper.:D
 
I haven't the time or inclination to sharpen by hand. Sharpmaker and an accusharp work for all the knives I sharpen at the club on Sundays.

3.00 a knife and I can do 10-15 in an hour from butter knife to shaving sharp.

Can do it with the stones, but it isn;t nearly as fast and when time is money, well, you go with what gets you there faster.

Brownie
 
The other day I took out the flat stones to see if I could put a shaving edge on a old knife I found in a drawer. I did it with basically no trouble. First I had to reprofile it on a course stone. I find that I can apply what I've learned about sharpening here on Bladeforums to get a good, "user" edge on any knife.

It was satifying, but far from a Zen like experience. For me the Sharpmaker is so easy to use and remains set up in the corner of the kitchen. Frankly I'd rather spend time doing something esle than take the extra care and time it takes to sharpen the "traditional" way. Like play with my little girl, talk to my wife, go fishing/hunting, hike, workout... or look at this forum. :D

It has become "traditional" for me to use the Sharpmaker for touch ups and my Edgepro for reprofiling or putting on a "scary" edge. Lately scary edges loose out to "user" edges with some teeth.

Bruce
 
I do most of my work sort of freehand, but I own a lot of hones and tools. I work on a lot of extremely dull knives and I usually rough those down with a belt sander (80 grit, 120 grit, 220 grit). Then I use diamond bench hones freehand to get my basic edge. I finish with just a few strokes on a Sharpmaker to get the symmetry and finish that I want for the final edge.

I have a lot of other hones available, but I only use them for special purposes. I don't see much point in clamps and angle guides. I don't see that critical a need for controlling precise angles.
 
I love sharpening by hand. I always did a horrible job just using an old Smith's stone before I started reading these forums. Then I decided to learn how, since I didn't want to spend $50 for a Sharpmaker dammit! :)

Of course, over time I've spent much more than that on arkansas stones, a duo-sharp, and a strop; but I've learned how to put on a good edge by hand and I really enjoy doing it that way. I don't dull them so fast that it gets to be a chore anyway.
 
If you want to know what is going on in the world of sharpening these days check out the thread, "best sharpening system for under a hundred bucks." You will get many different opinions on every tool out there!
 
I sharpen free hand, and with my grinder, and I have used various jigs and such.

Whether we are talking about today or 300 years ago, knife nuts of all times wanted sharp knives. Stones are the traditional method, byt many a knife has been (and still is) sharpened on a large rotating grinding wheel. Most (all?) factory knives and custom knives are sharpened on belt sanders. The sharpmaker is older than many BFC posters. Jigs, angle holders, and power equipments very much mainstream these days, I think.

I have no problem sharpening knives free hand, often it is easier for me to take the cover off of my waterstones and go at it. But I think I get better results with my belt sander. Also, I can do a knife way faster with my belt sander and my sharpmekr/strop than I can using just stones. I think that mountainmen in the days of yore, if given a chance, would take a sharpmaker and a large stone for reprofiling over a set of stones. When you have to skin many buffalo, you'll appreciate the speed of a sharpmaker and the quality edge it puts on a knife.

I have a jig for sharpening my chisels (from www.leevalley.com) that I wouldn't be without. I can very quickly hoen the edge and my chisels cut wood veeeerrryyy nicely, thanks! I have sharpened chisels by hand and though they cut, the jig-sharpened chisels work way better.

I guess that the bottom line for me is that with soemthing liek an Edge Pro, a sharpmaker or a belt sander, you can put an edge on a knife faster, more consistently and often with better results than people normally can. But at the same time, I suggest that all of us knife nuts learn to sharpen on all kinds of gear. I went from stones to a sharpmaker to a Razor Edge kit to a belt sander and today, I use a combination of all of these. Armed with the principles of sharpenign theory, I'll do my best to sharpen a knife with whatever gear is available. I believe that my freehand sharpening has gotten better after using sharpmakers and grinders too. Learning how to put a good edge on a knife with one system will help you use any other system too.

Hmm... I feel like sharpening something!
 
Tried 'em all, Lansky, Spyderco, DMT, Natural stones , Synthetic stones, EdgePro.

The bulk of my sharpening and touch ups are on an 8" DMT Diamond Bench Hone, reprofiling done on EdgePro, and kitchen touchups done on old Sharp Maker, also I carry a Smiths combanation 4" coarse/fine diamond pocket hone.

The secret to great edges I've found is using the right tool for the job, you don't try to reprofile a 12" Bowie on a Sharpmaker, or polish an edge on a coarse carborundum oil stone.

If I could only have one way to go it would be a combo coarse/fine Diamond Bench Hone.
 
Free hand all the way. Used just Norton India fine grit, but now have ceramic rod (not system - still free hand), diamond stone, and sharpening steel. With those combination, I can make the knife very sharp. For those who like old fashion sharpening method, try sharpening steel for 'stropping'. I love it !
 
On the non traditional side here's a pic of a $8,000 Ceramic Flange used in a high temp oven for a manufacturing process in SemiConductor Industry, I forget what type of ceramic it is but it will polish an edge to an ultrafine edge.

They were going to throw this piece out because it had a small chip break out of a bolt hole, this type of sintered ceramic is not repairable.

I took and it's been on of my favorite hones for the last 14 years.

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Seems to me that it's a question of *both* time, and preference. If I had a lot of time on hand, I'd probably try to become proficient at sharpening with a stone, without a jig. But, given that a jig (I have a Gatco system myself) gives me exactly the same angle every time, and I can get a knife shaving sharp in five minutes, every time. There's barely enough time in my life to get everything else done -- and besides, I'm certain that when I've sent the two or three Spydies back to Colorado that I've sent for various reasons, they've come back shaving sharp from a NON-hand-sharpened method...
 
14yrs of freehand sharpening, can do butterknife to clean shaving in 20min...

200/300 combo, 500/800 combo (both alumina oxide stones, meant to be used with oil but I use em dry), sandpaper(80, 120, 220a, 600, 800, 1200, 1500) and a strop with veritas green... and a spyderco doublestuff

have the sharpmaker, but only use it on serrations.
 
I sharpen my knife by hand only. Use both natural stone and DMT. Sharpening knives don`t take up much of my spare time anyway, why bother then to seek out new and more or less usefull gadgets for sharpening.
 
My Dad did alot of carpentry. He'd just give his knife a swipe on what ever fine sandpaper was around.
I have diamond, ceramic, arkansas, pike, india stones all over the place.
For touch ups I use sandpaper on a mousepad and a strip of 8-9 oz leather glued on a board.
Full circle, eh?
:D
 
I have a bunch of different sharpening systems, occasionally use most of 'em and sharpen freehand occasionally as well. When I want real precision I go with a system. There's just no way free hand will be better, at best freehand can be close to as accurate. I like freehand for quick touch-ups, or touch-ups in places where I won't carry a system (camping), or when I'm just too lazy to put one of the systems together.
 
EZ Lap diamond rod,Gatco ceramic dogbone thingie. I learned the basics on a coarse Arkansas stone. I like being the go-to guy for sharpening around my place.
 
I'm able to put a decent edge on freehand, but as Joe points out , a system such as the EdgePro lets you be much more precise when needed & it's much faster,(for me at least). With my better knives, I always use the system to set the edge, then touchups are a breeze. My sharpmaker usually does that now, but it's a system too. It's very small & light, & by using the eraser to clean the stones, it's usable in the field too.
 
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