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What are the best sharpening tools for high quality OTF knives?
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What are the best sharpening tools for quality OTF knives?
- Thread starter David Huff
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So this is what I’m asking…you would use a whetstone for a kitchen knife. Would you use that on a Elmax, M390, CPM s30V? I can understand it may not matter on high carbon or VG10 but I bought some expensive OTF knives and I have no interest in marring or damaging the blades. I was wondering if an electric work sharp, senzu, etc would be best. thanks.
If you are marring or damaging the blades then it is your manual skills - NOT the tools you are using. I sharpened knives for a living for years and all I ever used were Norton India stones, Washita stones or diamond stones. I don't quite understand why you think a specialized stone is needed to sharpen an expensive OTF blade.
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I’m not a skilled sharpener as you are. I was actually just wondering if there was an easy electric style sharpener for amateurs like me….
Well yes there are but they will ruin a blade quite easily if you don't have the skills needed. Believe me you can learn to do this - just practice on some cheap knives with a decent 6-8 in. bench stone until you understand what is going on. If you really do not want to learn then you'll just have to pay someone else to do it - or trash some nice knives.
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Gotcha. Thanks drail. I do want to learn just wanted to start learning with the best equipment first. Thanks for the advice.
Well yes there are but they will ruin a blade quite easily if you don't have the skills needed. Believe me you can learn to do this - just practice on some cheap knives until you understand what is going on. If you really do not want to learn then you'll just have to pay someone else to do it - or trash some knives.
Unless a blade was seriously damaged - yes.
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Thank you! thats what I was looking for!
I haven't seen your blades, so this is a generalization:
OTF knives tend to be made of very thick stock. Microtechs are a good example of this. Big thick blades with edges on both sides (usually). Generally sharpened to a super duper sharp *point*. Edges are a different story. They are generally kinda sharp, but due to the thick stock, the edge angles are unbelievable: Sometimes 30 degrees per side.
If you want to maintain the look of this blade, with a skinny edge bevel on a very thick blade, then you need to maintain the factory angle (or get close). Such a steep angle is counter intuitive for most sharpeners and may lead to lowering the angle (or making mistakes of lowering once in a while), which may mar the blade material behind the edge.
I don't have a lot of experience with clamp guided systems, but in this case they might be the best choice. This is a specialized blade shape. It's not as bad as a karambit, but it's not a typical pocket knife in terms of sharpening. A guide, especially one that is continuously adjustable, might really help in keeping that edge looking good.
Just my opinions.
Brian.
OTF knives tend to be made of very thick stock. Microtechs are a good example of this. Big thick blades with edges on both sides (usually). Generally sharpened to a super duper sharp *point*. Edges are a different story. They are generally kinda sharp, but due to the thick stock, the edge angles are unbelievable: Sometimes 30 degrees per side.
If you want to maintain the look of this blade, with a skinny edge bevel on a very thick blade, then you need to maintain the factory angle (or get close). Such a steep angle is counter intuitive for most sharpeners and may lead to lowering the angle (or making mistakes of lowering once in a while), which may mar the blade material behind the edge.
I don't have a lot of experience with clamp guided systems, but in this case they might be the best choice. This is a specialized blade shape. It's not as bad as a karambit, but it's not a typical pocket knife in terms of sharpening. A guide, especially one that is continuously adjustable, might really help in keeping that edge looking good.
Just my opinions.
Brian.
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It's possible to sharpen double-sided blades on a fixed angle system ... but generally it's not recommended because the blades due tend to be thick and narrow, and thus hard to clamp properly. That said, I did sharpen my Infidel on a KME and it came out pretty well.
But it was NOT easy for the aforementioned reasons, and because it involves removing a lot of stock.
If you're going to use bench stones with very hard steel, you definitely want to avoid stones that use an aluminum oxide abrasive. They're very slow with super hard steels. Stick to silicon carbide, ceramic, or diamond for super steels.
But it was NOT easy for the aforementioned reasons, and because it involves removing a lot of stock.
If you're going to use bench stones with very hard steel, you definitely want to avoid stones that use an aluminum oxide abrasive. They're very slow with super hard steels. Stick to silicon carbide, ceramic, or diamond for super steels.
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I love my Wicked Edge 130. I take my OTF apart and just clamp the blade up. The clamp will hold it even if I don't take the knife apart, but it's easier to sharpen the blade when it's out of the handle. And the diamond stones will sharpen just about any steel.