What do you sharpen with?

[Paracelsus]

There seem to be a lot for freehand responses in this thread than answers on the poll. Hmm.

Anyway, I sharpen everything freehand. That includes a lot of woodcarving tools which really can't be sharpened any other way.

It takes some time to learn to do properly (make that A LOT of time), but once you get the FEEL of it, it only takes seconds to get any of your knives shaving sharp. Even if you usually use a sharpening device of some sort, get a couple of good stones and practice freehand sharpening on knives you don't need to keep real pretty. Practice. You will eventually be glad you learned how to do it all by yourself.

My most common stones used are medium (grey) and fine (white) ceramic stones followed by stropping on green paste on leather.

I have a lot of fun amazing folks who sometimes comment that they do not believe knives can shave hair. I simply reach for my pocket, pull out whatever knife is handy, and remove a patch of hair from my own, or better yet, Their forearm. Then they Believe.

 

[Jazzman]

Spyderco 204 all the way!
Matt

 

[pyton357ru]

About shapening with glass -- edge of any piece makes a nice sharpener. Grass is harder than steel, and edges always have grains. If the grass is not fresh-broken ( for example, I use a long sqare-shaped piese from broken scanner) it makes a wonderful small-grain sharpener.
And it doesn't harm cover of the blade.

 

[Kwaiken56]

I voted freehand , that is to say, when I actually have to reprofile an edge, that is the method I use exclusively. And it does indeed take lots of practice to find that feel.

When I'm just dressing the edge - which is what is required most of the time anyway, at least with my blades, I use the white rod of a Sharpmaker setup - again freehand. I stopped using the base setup a long time ago. I can achieve a much sharper edge without it.

The results I get going by feel are superior to what I can get by trying to align by eye to a vee sharpener,