Type of stone, I need help

L

landserpunk

Joined
Oct 5, 2010
Messages
92
I am looking to get a sharpening stone for my ESEE, but I have a few questions and am looking to you guys for help.

Have any of you ever heard of "Smith's TRI-HONE"? Three stone setup.
Any remarks?

Also, is it near impossible to sharpen serrations on a stone?
 
I personally won't use anything but DMT diamond stones. Love'em.

The ESEE serrations can be sharpened on a typical stone due to the flats between each serration. But it's still best to use a rod to sharpen them or else over time and many sharpenings they'll slowly disappear.
 
I've used one of my buddy's a while ago - it was interesting - not compelling for me to buy personally, but for smaller pocket knives it may be the ticket. I use an arkansas medium stone for most of my work, and have a DMT duafold too, for field touch-ups.
 
I have the Smith's Tri-Hone you're talking about.

It's okay, it does work as long as you're good at sharpening free hand. I had an old Ka-Bar than needed some edge work badly and I got it shaving sharp with the Smith's. It did however take a great deal of work to get it to that point and probably well more time and effort than needed to do so.

The DMT sharpening system is a good one by all accounts. I like a lot of others though use a Spyderco Sharpmaker for maintaining a edge. Its worked great on all my ESEE's so far...no complaints.
 
I personally use the Two Sided Sharpening Plate located on RagweedForge. It fits in my wallet and goes everywhere I do. I've always got my sharpener. You do have to know how to freehand though.
 
80% of sharpening systems are junk in my opinion, it is probably one of the biggest gimmick industries out there.

The one that has the most positive reviews around is the Spyderco Sharpmaker. My dad has one and it truly does put on a great edge. Got on on my Santa list for sure.
 
the Smith's tri hone has been around forever, but i've never had one, just used various flat stones or rods and some diamond sharpeners.

almost got one of the tri hones tho when i was cleaning up a rental house one summer. it had been thrashed my the tenants who left it full or crap. shortly after i started cleaning they came back to get the hone, the vacuum and some clothes. :rolleyes:

Harbor Freight sells something similar in design to the tri hone. no clue how good it is, but it's very cheap. i suspect you get exactly what you pay for.
 
I grew up sharpening on an 8" tristone -- worked great.
now I mostly use a 6" EZ Lap fine diamond stone that lives in my pocket.
 
I have three stones types
1. a folding dual sided DMT that goes into the woods with me.
2. A 5 stone Lansky sharpening system that I use when re-profiling an edge, putting on a new edge, or fixing massive chips.
3. A good ole Arkansas wet-stone that is what I use for everything/time else. My go to stone is over 15 years old gets plenty of use and still looks brand new. You can't beat the quality of a good wet-stone. While there is a learning curve to using one I think it is worth it.
 
There is definitely something to say for the wonderful noise that a natural stone makes when a carbon steel blade glides across it.

However, for efficiency, value, and function you will probably find diamond stones to be the best.
 
I have the Smiths trihone.

Its OK, nothing more or less.

Takes some training to do. And id like some more stones for it.

If youre good at free hand sharpening you can get good results.
 
I started puttin edges on blades at the age of 6. Just happens my Dad had worked for a company called Norton. My grandfather used a stone, I watched him do it, and Bingo.. I was the Man of the house sharpining everything with that norton stone. (I still have it and it looks like a new one aftr 1000s of blades done) Smiths wear down after some time, I've seen em scooped out from use, so I don't care for arkansas stones loose matrix, and un-uniformed in composition. I say throw all the gagits in the trash can. Why farg around for 4-5 mins, being worried if, you have the right angle, the blade may be to big, need a flat surface, have to be sooooo careful as the system won't fit some blade angles, have to carry a bunch of rods mini stones, guides, and what not in a big box. Same goes for a $100-$200+ dollar sandpaper holder. Put some on a board and ya git the same thing. A good stone can go anywhere, at allmost any position, in any inviroment, only one peice to worry about , and do ANY blade. Seems kinda simple to me.:D I can do any avarage blade in about 30 secs. And it will shave. I've even done it eyes closed a few times to prove a point. All this for about $20.00 VS. $100s for Ga ga Gagits..Imho. enjoy edgy. :thumbup:
Anyone ever wonder how I got that extra nickname?:D clue: I'm not nervous;)
 
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Man I like it when folks just talk common sense. 2Edgy4u, your spelling is crap but the message is spot on.
 
i use a norton 10 in. 3 stone set up....works awesome...but your looking at 178 to 200 bucks....i was a butcher for 16 years and picked one up right before i changed jobs because i knew i would no longer have access to the ones at work....i do have a dc4 in route to the house now for field use...been using a arkansas stone previously in the field...
 
Jim222 said:
Man I like it when folks just talk common sense. 2Edgy4u, your spelling is crap but the message is spot on.
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Thanks. yeah I got the stones.lol. But I also only have one arm, so I don't spell check much. If I git the message accross, good enough for me.:D
Actually one of my former jobs was as a field,lab, and teaching paleontologist. But some stuff called arthritis took care of that adventure. So I do spell very well, just don't care when I'm in a hurry. Typos..ah some are funny I like taht. enjoy edgy :thumbup:
 
2Edgy4u said:
I started puttin edges on blades at the age of 6. Just happens my Dad had worked for a company called Norton. My grandfather used a stone, I watched him do it, and Bingo.. I was the Man of the house sharpining everything with that norton stone. (I still have it and it looks like a new one aftr 1000s of blades done) Smiths wear down after some time, I've seen em scooped out from use, so I don't care for arkansas stones loose matrix, and un-uniformed in composition. I say throw all the gagits in the trash can. Why farg around for 4-5 mins, being worried if, you have the right angle, the blade may be to big, need a flat surface, have to be sooooo careful as the system won't fit some blade angles, have to carry a bunch of rods mini stones, guides, and what not in a big box. Same goes for a $100-$200+ dollar sandpaper holder. Put some on a board and ya git the same thing. A good stone can go anywhere, at allmost any position, in any inviroment, only one peice to worry about , and do ANY blade. Seems kinda simple to me.:D I can do any avarage blade in about 30 secs. And it will shave. I've even done it eyes closed a few times to prove a point. All this for about $20.00 VS. $100s for Ga ga Gagits..Imho. enjoy edgy. :thumbup:
Anyone ever wonder how I got that extra nickname?:D clue: I'm not nervous;)
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So what "grit" of stone are/do you use? Norton, I got that, but they have waterstones, oilstones, arkansas stones, japanses stones.

I read that guide that goes into a whole lot of detail, how to reprofile, what degree is best... I just dont know what stone to get. Would prefer something to be able to take in the field (so preferably not the Sharpmaker).
 
landserpunk said:
So what "grit" of stone are/do you use? Norton, I got that, but they have waterstones, oilstones, arkansas stones, japanses stones.

I read that guide that goes into a whole lot of detail, how to reprofile, what degree is best... I just dont know what stone to get. Would prefer something to be able to take in the field (so preferably not the Sharpmaker).
Click to expand...
I use 80% of the time an 8 in. Norton india combination stone. Heavy side is about 400, so you can reprofile a blade really fast. The other side is 600,800? if I remember right? But I have used both water or oil on it. Oil seems to work better, but some water or spit will do in a pinch. I will send some pics here, and the correct grits if I got that wrong. But it makes a razor edge every time. As far as serrations go. Most are milled in on one side, so when they git (I say words like git, gonna, goin, puttin,ect) kinda like slang. and it just makes typin-(see did it again) faster. OK back to the way I do serrations, I just turn the blade over and put an edge on the other side of them, works 80+% of the time. Really bad one yeah ya may need a diamond round file. But not often. So I will do the pic thang for ya, and hope ya will have a "hair popin experince" Yak later with info. enjoy edgy. :thumbup:
 
2Edgy4u said:
I use 80% of the time an 8 in. Norton india combination stone. Heavy side is about 400, so you can reprofile a blade really fast. The other side is 600,800? if I remember right? But I have used both water or oil on it. Oil seems to work better, but some water or spit will do in a pinch. I will send some pics here, and the correct grits if I got that wrong. But it makes a razor edge every time. As far as serrations go. Most are milled in on one side, so when they git (I say words like git, gonna, goin, puttin,ect) kinda like slang. and it just makes typin-(see did it again) faster. OK back to the way I do serrations, I just turn the blade over and put an edge on the other side of them, works 80+% of the time. Really bad one yeah ya may need a diamond round file. But not often. So I will do the pic thang for ya, and hope ya will have a "hair popin experince" Yak later with info. enjoy edgy. :thumbup:
Click to expand...

Yeah, I like those Norton India hones. I was trying to use the Smith's Tri-Hone straight out of the box on one of my friend's kitchen blades, and in my opinion the stones need too much dressing out of the box as there were two big dishes on either side. I wound up using his Norton India stone instead, but I only tried the Smith's for a bout 15 minutes.

I like Norton's 220/1000 "Japenese Style" waterstone. They say "Japanese Style" because a lot of actual Japanese water stones use natural materials while this one uses synthetics. Either way it works great for me. The water-stone already works in a way that promotes faster metal removal than normal, but with the 220 side it makes reprofiling jobs pretty quick--I can't do them in anything like 30 seconds but I'm a little less of a grinding machine than some people I've seen. Usually takes me about an hour or two; while that may sound long, it's mostly because of my skill level as it takes me way 4-8 on an Arkansas or SiC stone. At the end of it, the 1000 leaves a super-fine finish that's a lot better than what I can get off fine Arkansas or diamond.

I would go with either one of the Norton's for an ESEE since it's carbon steel, and I've found SiC and Arkansas don't cut those quite as fast. I've looked into diamond before since water-stones need to be flattened, but just haven't really found anything to justify getting one since I've already got the Norton. To me though, the diamond and the Norton cut just as fast (at least with an interrupted diamond hone, haven't tried the continuous models), but the Norton will need to be flattened and has a higher grit finish, but the diamond doesn't need to be flattened at all and only has a slightly lower grit finish. So I use my Norton at home and my diamond hones in the field.

All in all though, if I were worried about grinding the serrations and wanted a hybrid home/field sharpener, I'd probably just get one of those Lansky diamond rod sharpeners since they have the tri-angle hones for serrations. I've had them in Arkansas before but I think those wear too much for you to be able to do any reprofiling.
 
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