Well, I'm done

Take a look at the work sharp Ken onion edition....makes sharpening ridiculously easy.

Then you can practice on your free hand technique while having a way to sharpen to a razor edge until you get it down.
 
I use waterstones to sharpen then I strop or grab a ceramic rod in-between. There are a couple of Youtube channels that I found helpful when I got mine. virtuovice has a good one for convex and hollow ground sharpening, and If you look up -Ray Mears knife sharpening-, he has a good one on scandi grind sharpening using waterstones. Don't give up.
 
wvdavidr said:
You could buy a DMT Aligner clamp or the Razor Edge Systems guides to use with your stones. That might do it for you. It also might train your hands to freehand. Those would allow you to keep your stones and reduce the frustration.
Click to expand...

I came from there. I learned a lot from Razor Edge articles, I didn't buy their clamp-on angle-guide, but used my homemade version with mini Office Clips and Bamboo Dowel. Because the stone will grind off the dowel guide and clog the stone, I tried to focus all the pressure on the blade edge, and this eventually trained a steady hand. I tried to take away the guide and now I can do it naturally. It's just like riding a bicycle.
 
Well, I spent a little more than 4 hours this morning trying most if not all of the things you guys mentioned in this thread. I know it's me and not the equipment. With my patience short and my left thumb bleeding from making contact with the stones I have officially thrown in the towel. I really appreciate EVERYTHING you guys have done to help me! I'm going to put the set of stones up for sale/trade. I am looking for a Wicked Edge or an Edge Pro. I don't like letting anything beat me but this has. :grumpy:
David
 
Hi David,

Two things to ponder before you pay a lot of money for something wicked:

1) A simple "starting wedge-kit", like the one that Fred offered a few posts above.
2) Either the Work Sharp Guided System (incl the Upgrade kit) or the Work Sharp Guided Field Sharpener.

They will be a great assistance to you to maintain the correct angle.

Have fun!
Claes
 
SC_Dave said:
Well, I spent a little more than 4 hours this morning trying most if not all of the things you guys mentioned in this thread. I know it's me and not the equipment. With my patience short and my left thumb bleeding from making contact with the stones I have officially thrown in the towel. I really appreciate EVERYTHING you guys have done to help me! I'm going to put the set of stones up for sale/trade. I am looking for a Wicked Edge or an Edge Pro. I don't like letting anything beat me but this has. :grumpy:
David
Click to expand...
By your name I'm assuming your in sc.. What part?
 
sc dave you have the right stones just not the right technique, if you don't mind a drive to sc I will try and help you out. live just outside Gaffney. I make knives and all my sharpening is freehand. off on weekends from work and home every morning, usually this time of year I am in the shop anyway in the morning before work.
 
Lots of people overthink sharpening.

I got a DC4 and CC4. I pretend to thinly slice them. Diamond then medium ceramic, then fine ceramic. After that I lightly strop with autosol 5-10 passes per side. I finish by wiping the knife on my jeans.

Ok, might not be a machine perfect even bevel, might not be a perfect mirror finish but it takes my arm hair off with no effort. Good enough for me and takes 5 min.
 
An aligner is a very useful tool when sharpening freehand. I use an ancient Buckmaster that clamps on the back of the blade to realign a bevel. Works great.
 
i can freehand and did so for years but i don't consider it any sort of personal failing that i simply prefer to use my edgepro or kme
 
Although I exclusively free-hand, and although I would never encourage anyone to "quit" at anything, I say- Use whatever works best for you, life is too short to get stressed over knife sharpening.

Although I consider free-hand sharpening to be a good skill to have, I'd wager that the vast majority of knife users will never need to free-hand sharpen a knife.

Maybe keep the hones. You might want to try again sometime in the future.
 
I learned how to freehand sharpen a knife when I was a cub scout. I've never had a problem getting a hair-whittling edge.
Simply out of curiosity I've bought virtually all of the various guided systems to try over the years. Why not? It's only money, and I have a lot of years.
And I discovered something very interesting... With some of them, I could get the same degree of sharpness in half the time!
No... there is no 'Zen' in sharpening with an EdgePro or a DMT Aligner clamp. But there is VRS.... Very Rapid Sharpening.
Perhaps the fastest is the DMT Aligner clamp and your own stones. A perfect edge in just a few minutes... and you can do it while watching a football game on TV at the same time.

So what is your 'real' goal? Do you want to experience the life-changing tranquility of sitting behind a stone and developing an edge? The 'meditation of creation' when you focus all your attention to the detail of sharpening? An hour or two of peaceful movement joining you, your knife, and your stone?

Or do you want a sharp knife?

If you want a sharp knife, and don't want to spend time getting it there, get a $12 DMT clamp and use your own stones.
10 minutes later you'll have a knife edge that you'll be quite happy with.


Stitchawl (who is not a David)
 
I was only a fair hand at freehand since I didn't have anything else when I was growing up. When I discovered the forums, I went for guided systems and that took my sharpening up to another level. I used the guided systems for my pocket knives but I just kept freehanding my kitchen knives because it took to much time to set up the EP for knives that everybody in the house just abused. One day I was surprised to have gotten a pretty good edge on my kitchen knife just freehanding on a SiC stone. My experience with the guided systems(aligner kit and edge pro) seemed to have done my freehanding a lot of good. I seldom use the systems now.
 
kn4wd said:
sc dave you have the right stones just not the right technique, if you don't mind a drive to sc I will try and help you out. live just outside Gaffney. I make knives and all my sharpening is freehand. off on weekends from work and home every morning, usually this time of year I am in the shop anyway in the morning before work.
Click to expand...

Sent you a PM
David
 
David, I replied last nite did you get the reply? I sent my email address so we can communicate direct without going through the forum.
 
I can do both, but to be honest, I like the various systems better. More even edges. I can accomplish the work I want to do better.
 
I always had/have trouble doing the "reverse" side of the blade with consistency (in my case, using my non-dominant left hand).
I get past it by locking my arm & hand with the blade at the proper angle, then pivoting my upper body to "slice" the stone.
It ain't perfect, but I get pretty similar results to what I get with my right hand.
It might be worth a try.

It's kind of the way I was taught to shoot pool: hold the cue in t he fingertips, lock the upper arm and pivot the elbow so the stick stays in the same horizontal and vertical plane as you stroke.
It works.
 
What the heck, 2 years of freehanding for crap results. Don't stay in the cult man. Buy EP or WE and get the results you want.
 
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