Up-leveling my sharpening game

[R.Russell]

Hey folks,

I've been freehand sharpening for many many years, have a nice set of diamond stones and Shapton glass stones up to 16k for finishing and strops and pastes... I've mostly worked on kitchen knives with this set.

Looking at getting a Worksharp Ken Onion or Hapstone Ultra for smaller knives and getting crisp lines. I will start making my own knives at some point... Leaning towards Hapstone.

Any guidance for me? Do any professional knife makers use the Hapstone system or just finish on a narrow grinder belt and strop it?

Would appreciate any thoughts on the matter.

Russell

 

[Jason B.]

For my small knife Sharpening, such as folders and small fixed blades I wanted more consistency in the edge, and nicer grind lines than a belt grinder can provide.

I sharpened a lot of folders by hand and while I prefer a coarser edge (600 grit) on my folders its not always the best looking and not something I would hand to a customer very often. The level of difficulty compared to a kitchen knife also makes the juice not worth the squeeze.

I ended up with a Tormek T8 and 600 grit diamond wheel. The edge is pretty amazing off this machine, I like it so much many of my personal blade sport it and customers ask for it by name. Its the kind of tool where you can have a bad day and still make a great edge, hard to say the same for hand or belt sharpening.

 

[R.Russell]

For my small knife Sharpening, such as folders and small fixed blades I wanted more consistency in the edge, and nicer grind lines than a belt grinder can provide.

I sharpened a lot of folders by hand and while I prefer a coarser edge (600 grit) on my folders its not always the best looking and not something I would hand to a customer very often. The level of difficulty compared to a kitchen knife also makes the juice not worth the squeeze.

I ended up with a Tormek T8 and 600 grit diamond wheel. The edge is pretty amazing off this machine, I like it so much many of my personal blade sport it and customers ask for it by name. Its the kind of tool where you can have a bad day and still make a great edge, hard to say the same for hand or belt sharpening.

Thanks for your response. So with a recurve shape on the Tormek you would manipulate the blade and use the corner of the wheel to hit the inside curve? Do you use the guides or freehand with the Tormek, or both? Thanks a lot.
R

 

[Jason B.]

I pretty much only sharpen recurves on a belt sander. If you have the stone wheel its possible but I still think you would run into problems. Larger the curve and belly the more distortion you have in the bevel as it changes angle moving up and down the curvature of the wheel. I dont move the knife around like some do when using the tormek, so I guess you could compensate, but keeping that bevel on a single plane while adding a 3rd axis is going to be extremely difficult.

I only use it with the guides. I've tried freehand on the tormek but its not easy.