What do you guys use to sharpen your EK?

[robNsaTX]

Hello,

I just got my first serious knives (Emerson Commander and La Griffe)

The paper that came with them said to sharpen them with a stone and then use a leather strop.

So which stone do you guys use to sharpen your Emerson Knives? Do you use the leather strop? Is this just any piece of leather or is there a special treatment on it.

I just want to get a super sharp edge. I was thinking of getting the stone and strop and practicing on some of those $5 knives from the gun show for awhile.

any tips?

Thanks,
Rob

 

[Brian C]

You'll have a hard time sharpening either of your knives on a traditional flat stone because of the blades' curves. Neither the Commander's recurve nor the LaGriffe's hawk bill will make proper contact with a flat stone. I use a Spyderco 204 Sharpmaker & suggest this, a "crock stick" set up, or similar sharpener would be the best way for you to go based on your knives' blade shapes. More on this in a bit.

If you are new to sharpening, I strongly suggest that you check out the Knife Sharpening FAQ by Joe Talmadge here on BF. IMO, his "raise a burr" advice is probably the most important single tip to remember. In that way, you know that you're taking the bevel right out to the edge.

Back to sharpening your blades... Both have chisel ground final bevels which, according to Emerson literature, are set at 30 degrees. Unless you want to invest considerable time in changing the angle, works slowly & try to match that sharpening angle as closely as you can. Pre-set angles on sharpening systems may not necessarily do that for you. (For example, the 30 degree setting on the 204 Sharpmaker is for a double ground bevel -- that is, 15 degrees per side.) I'm not sure if Joe covers it in the FAQ, but you may want to use a magic marker to color in the bevel on your blades. If you check the edge after a couple of strokes, you should be able to see whether or not you are holding the same angle.

Best of luck with your sharpening!

------------------
Cheers,
Brian

He who finishes with the most toys wins.

[This message has been edited by bcaffrey (edited 04-18-2000).]