Uh oh, I'm about to get obsessive about knife sharpening.

Surfingringo

Surfingringo

Joined
May 25, 2013
Messages
3,700
Hey all, well, I just ordered a new spyderco, and at the recommendation of several members here I also got a dmt diamond sharpener. So yeah, I have been obsessing the last few days about my new knife, but also about my new sharpener! I am very anxious to start working with the new stone and develop my technique.

So the knife and stone are arriving this afternoon, but I couldn't wait anymore. Hehe, This morning I took a ceramic bowl out of the cabinet and turned it upside down and found a nice smooth unfinished edge around the bottom rim. I took out a cheap dull gerber bear Grylls and worked it for about 3-5 minutes, taking my time and paying close attention to my angle. And you know what? After five minutes on a soup bowl the thing was slicing and dicing paper and popping hairs off my arm! So I took out my mini grip and in about two minutes had the same results!! Man, I'm thinking if I can get those results with a bowl then surely I can do better with a diamond stone!

Bottom line is, I know myself...once I get into something, I want to perfect it and learn everything I can about it. That's why I have that "uh oh" feeling right now! I have a feeling I'm going to be as hairless as an Olympic swimmer within a month! ;-).

I posted a thread a couple of weeks ago asking for sharpening help. I was asking for a "system" or machine that would make my knives sharp without any effort on my part. I even said I would rather sacrifice sharpness for simplicity. Sigh, I don't know who that guy was that was asking for that, but he's gone now! Hehe. Yup, I'm screwed, so I might as well just enjoy the ride!

I am open to any suggestions from you guys on getting the best results out on my dmt and my new obsession! :-).
 
This may be no help, but sharpening/honing on a diamond
rod produces great results when used in a circular motion
with a pass or two in a stropping motion on the rod.
 
I'm glad you found out about the bottom of the bowl technique. (I was going to say "trick", but it is not a trick.) If you had found this technique before you ordered the stone, you could have saved yourself some money. Not sure you will get much better results with the stone, as "hair popping" is pretty good for the price of a simple bowl edge.

Just goes to show that we really don't need all these expensive systems and or stones to get our knives very sharp and useable. Of course if you are going to sharpen more than your own collection of knives, and time is a factor, then a system is probably justified. I am not knocking people who own these systems, as I have a set of paper wheels that I use, and would not trade for them. I am just pointing out that to get a good sharp knife, and with a good technique, which you obviously have, someone could get by with just a bowl or cup that they already have in their kitchen. Congratulations and I hope some newbie can learn something from your experience.

Blessings,

Omar
 
Lol, yeah Omar, it's funny. I'm still looking for magic! I thought maybe the diamond stone would be magic! ;-) But after 10 minutes with the diamond stone, my benchmade wasn't really much sharper than after five minutes with the bowl! So I spent another half hour on it and finally got it a little sharper. Im thinking it was probably the 30 minutes of practice more than the stone!

I also went through something terrible that I'm sure you are familiar with. I got my knife sharp. Very sharp! Very sharp, but not wicked sharp! Hehe...so I decided to repeat the whole process and went back to the coarse stone again and then the fine. After all that I checked and it was LESS sharp! I spent 10 minutes making my knife duller! I guess that's part of the learning huh? Figuring out what works...and like you said...what DOESN'T WORK! Thankfully I managed to re-repeat and get it sharp again. It's got a serious edge on it now, but I'm still not content. ;-)


Thanks again for the tips. I'm always receptive to any help!!
 
Surfingringo said:
Hey all, well, I just ordered a new spyderco, and at the recommendation of several members here I also got a dmt diamond sharpener. So yeah, I have been obsessing the last few days about my new knife, but also about my new sharpener! I am very anxious to start working with the new stone and develop my technique.

So the knife and stone are arriving this afternoon, but I couldn't wait anymore. Hehe, This morning I took a ceramic bowl out of the cabinet and turned it upside down and found a nice smooth unfinished edge around the bottom rim. I took out a cheap dull gerber bear Grylls and worked it for about 3-5 minutes, taking my time and paying close attention to my angle. And you know what? After five minutes on a soup bowl the thing was slicing and dicing paper and popping hairs off my arm! So I took out my mini grip and in about two minutes had the same results!! Man, I'm thinking if I can get those results with a bowl then surely I can do better with a diamond stone!

Bottom line is, I know myself...once I get into something, I want to perfect it and learn everything I can about it. That's why I have that "uh oh" feeling right now! I have a feeling I'm going to be as hairless as an Olympic swimmer within a month! ;-).

I posted a thread a couple of weeks ago asking for sharpening help. I was asking for a "system" or machine that would make my knives sharp without any effort on my part. I even said I would rather sacrifice sharpness for simplicity. Sigh, I don't know who that guy was that was asking for that, but he's gone now! Hehe. Yup, I'm screwed, so I might as well just enjoy the ride!

I am open to any suggestions from you guys on getting the best results out on my dmt and my new obsession! :-).
Click to expand...

What angle have you been using?
 
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