Unconventional sharpening

I've worked out a little unconventional system that's been getting me great results... Been using a course/extracourse DMT stone for reprofiling lately, but I had been propping & binding it to my sharpmaker stones to get the preset angles of the Sharpmaker.

However, recently I decided to give freehand my first serious attempt and practiced with my Opinel. Had great results just using the bench stone regular to set my coarse bevels, and then I lay the sharpmaker stones on the table so that the edge was sticking up and just freehanded using the corner of the stone. Finally, when I got up to the fine/ultrafine grits I finished off each by holding the stone on my leg and freehand sharpening on the flat of the stone, then stropped and such.

I'll eventually invest in some medium/fine/xfine bench stones, but really I can't imagine much advantage over my system with stone + sharpmaker corners. Sharpened a few of my knives sharp enough to shave my face or cut ink letters off printer without cutting through the paper... I'm satisfied!
 
I use a regular diamond stone. I usually sharpen at a 45 degree angle. Dad and papaw lay the blade flat on a stone and sharpen away. I've used a light filament on construction jobs, sand paper, and a file once or twice.
 
I've cleaned all the flux off of a welding rod and used it to touch up the edge once or twice it actually worked pretty well
 
I sharpened a friend's meat cleaver in the curb outside of his house and finished it on the bottom of a ceramic bowl. Not the greatest sharpening job I've done, but it made the knife useable.

Ric
 
I've done just about all those listed other than coffee mug and toilet lid.

Only one nit listed was a Ryobi brand battery operate sander at work. It put a pretty skinny edge on my already cricket sharpened knife.

Cuts paper now.
 
I am dredging up this old thread because I had to improvise while on vacation last week. I had to sharpen knives in a time share on the island of Kauai. That involved fixing a scraper style sharpener and then finishing the edge on the top rim of a toilet tank. Barely shaving sharp but much much better than it started out.
 
willgoy said:
Powertools grinder......:D:eek::eek:

When I was a small boy, a neighbour who was a well-to-do lawyer also used the backdoorstep (some kind of sandstones?) as the carving knife sharpener. Let's just say the edge looked a bit uneven as far as I can remember

I use cardboard to strop as I've never got round to getting leather or those costly compounds...works OK though.

That toilet cistern is really innovative piece of re-cycling :thumbup: Not too portable mind:D
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That is why they invented the Port-A-Potty.
 
I typically re-profile with a lansky kit, and then convex with a strop and compound. Makes edge maintenance a breeze.

BUT . . . the most unconventional way I've ever sharpened was using a polished granite floor. I'd dropped the knife on some asphalt outside and bent the tip. So, I walked into a nearby building, found some out-of-the-way granite steps, and sharpened out the ding. I think, had anyone seen me, I would have gotten some very strange looks.
 
Jeff Clark said:
I am dredging up this old thread because I had to improvise while on vacation last week. I had to sharpen knives in a time share on the island of Kauai. That involved fixing a scraper style sharpener and then finishing the edge on the top rim of a toilet tank. Barely shaving sharp but much much better than it started out.
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Oh Cool! HI Jeff, I've not seen you around for a spell. Sounds like all is well.
 
Don't worry Jeff, it's really not that old when you compare it to some threads that have been dredged up lately, IIRC some one dredged up a 7 year old for sale thread recently. ;) so this is definitely current, timely and relevant.

As far as unusual any unglazed ceramics usually work, grinding and lapping compounds with cardboard will remove steel to sharpen as opposed to polishing and stropping.

Thinking back the strangest thing I ever sharpened my knife on was my Old Man's tombstone, he died when I was 15 but we spent those 15 years hunting, hiking and doing things most people never get to do in their lifetime.

We were close so I felt very comfortable sitting on his grave and one afternoon while visiting I was cutting the stems off some fresh flowers mom picked for me to bring and my Old Schrade UH897 Stockman wasn't doing it but I noticed the unpolished granite(?) was perfectly flat and worked quite well to restore the edge to a very functional aggressive edge.

After that it became a ritual of sorts as it give my pocket knife a few quick swipes before trimming the stems of the flowers to put in the urn, there a small polished patch on his stone now where I did this for the few more years before I moved to PA.

The workers got used to seeing me do this and if anyone visiting their lives one's saw me they never did anything. I did talk to one old worker one day and he told me that always used the unfinished tombstones where they made them to sharpen his old Sodbuster.
 
I'll add to the resurgence, of this old thread by adding, that a friend of mine, who is a knife enthusiast, brought me a ceramic sodium light bulb, filament, and stated, that he felt it was serviceable as a sharpener. It's no longer than 5 inches in length, and really needed a handle to be useful. In keeping with the DIY spirit, I drilled out a shed antler, I had found, and gorilla glued the ceramic filament into the stag. Works plenty good enough, for being so expedient of a set-up. I did once sharpen my "beater" 3138 Case Sodbuster in CV on a piece of shale, I lapped against another piece of shale, I got my blade to were it would sort of pop hair, but not an exceptionally sharp edge....
 
I'm not usually too far away from either a sharpening stone, or diamond tool sharpeners at work, but I do remember once or twice using the metal edge of my old iphone 3 as a honing steel. Not great, but I suppose it was better than nothing.
 
When I forget to strop at the end of a work-day I use the bottom of a ceramic coffee cup to touch up my knives.
 
Opps this is the traditional thread forgot about that and this isn't traditional. So I took down the video of bear grylls sharpening a knife with some crushed up rocks on a stick. I think the rock would have been better on it's own.

Strangest thing I've used to sharpen my knife is cardboard while I was cutting up cardboard. I think my dad has used a rock or the cement to sharpen a knife before.
 
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Cardboard definitely works. I've used it as stop and it puts on a mean edge when done right. I've messed with the bottom of coffee mugs, but not extensively. Haven't really gotten a nice edge off a coffee mug, but the next time I have a dull knife I'll definitely give it a shot.
 
I've sharpened knives on rock's and bricks and got a ok shaving sharp edge on them while out in the middle of no where.
 
Agreed just about any medium that can abrade the steel you can put a sharp edge back on your blade.
G2
 
All these posts about the front stoop for sharpening reminds me that my mother used the concrete stoop to DULL my first knife, when I was about 6.
 
Due to my various martial arts, I have built up a thick callous on the inside of the bottom joint of my middle finger. I have used it as a strop on smaller pen blades in the past. Also, I carry a little square of leather I cut off a belt and use it to touch up the edge of whatever knife I am carrying.
 
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