What do you use for a quick touchup?

T. Erdelyi

T. Erdelyi

Joined
Feb 3, 2001
Messages
32,359
My $20 fine diamond hone does the bulk of my touchups, I have an Edgepro Apex for reprofiling, and a 10" diamond bench hone for freehand, Spyderco Sharpmaker in the kitchen for kitchen knives, and various pocket and pen hones through out the house.

My most prized possesion is a 6"X12" ceramic flange, cast and lapped perfectly flat, this is the last step to put a razor edge on a knife,(it's amazing what people throw out:D ).

Everything fits into a plastic toolbox along with my Torx and Allen Drivers, with this kit I can sharpen and tune up almost any knife.

What do you use,(double sided stones, Sharpmaker), and how do you keep it(in a sock drawer, special box)?
 
I have no storage for anything -- it's all scattered about. I've got a Myerco Blackie Collins sharpener, Edgemaker, crock sticks (don't know who from), Lanksy System, little Gerber double-sided thing, old diamond edge arkansas whetstone, Gerber pen diamond hone, Gatco system, and plenty of various stones laying about.
 
Here's my box with some of the stuff showing, I find it's a lot easier to keep it all together, tackle boxes work well to.

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That looks handy. I finally got all my camping gear in one spot, and I was pretty proud of that. :D
 
I keep most of my hones in an old cigar box (after 30 years of cigar smoking I have a good supply of assorted sizes).

I usually carry a pocket Victorinox steel for touch-ups but hardly ever use it, most sharpening I do at home.

Years ago I would normally carry a pocket eze-lap or a pocket stone and use them some, guess I´m getting old.

Edited to add:

For touch-ups at home I use an extra fine ceramic hone, or a small hard Arkansas, for a polished edge an old barber´s strop, for coarse toothy edges a cheap coarse stone I bought at a supermarket.
 
Here's basically my sharpening setup:

jig.jpg


I made the Jig to hold my 1x4 DMT's in all 4 grits. I use it to reprofile. I also have Hewlitt Diamond Triangle Rod that I busted the handle off of and can attach each section to my jig for doing recurves.

Once profiled I use the Sharpmaker for all final finishing and touch ups.

If I want a more polished edge that is handled by my bench grinder with a buffing wheel and jewelers rouge.
 
T. Erdelyi,

I have that same plastic tool-box, except mine is grey. It holds all of my Edge Pro Professional fittings, a dozen extra stones, 100 extra polishing tapes, all kinds of lube, two water bottles, magic markers, a can of Nevr-Dull, a gum eraser and a scrubbing brush for the stones.

They are incredible boxes. I paid 17 bucks for mine. It also has two removable storage-type bins on the cover. I believe this box was origianlly built for fly fisherman.
 
Oh yeah, my knife maintenance stuff is in a 4 drawer tackle box.

I have a duplicate of tools in my shop along with clips screws parts etc...

Knives are stored in my Gerstner.
 
Originally posted by T. Erdelyi
Here's my box with some of the stuff showing, I find it's a lot easier to keep it all together, tackle boxes work well to.
Click to expand...

Hey, I have that same box in white that I keep all my oils, torx drivers, and sharpening stuff in too.:)

I think a strop loaded with some sort of compound is the best thing for "touch up".
 
ff, Ichabod, you may have the same boxes, but do you have a cool Rasta Smiley Face sticker on it, like mine? I thought not.:cool:
 
I use a leather strop with Veritas green compound for touch up. I have all my "stuff" in two plastic medium size tool boxes.
 
I use a latigo strop glued to a hard backing and charged with tripoli compound for almost all my sharpening. I use stones on a new knife because I always want the angle more acute, but once I've gotten it sharp I keep it that way just by giving it a few strops very frequently. You can glue a piece of latigo to the back of a hone or to a sheath or anything handy. I used to make keyring strops by gluing up two thicknesses of heavy leather and punching a hole and charging with tripoli, made a bunch of them and gave them to all my friends, but the trouble with that is it's hard to hold onto. My current favorite is a GI keyring hone, the kind with the green plastic case with an aluminum oxide stone inside. I glued a strop to the top of the case and once in a while I open it up and use the stone inside, too. It's easy to hold onto and easy to carry in your pocket.
 
I use a DMT fine/extra fine Dia-fold, I keep it in a draw with all my good stuff....tuff glide...tuff cloth....polishing cloth....steel...but the Diafold is used most often:D
 
Originally posted by Cougar Allen
I use a latigo strop glued to a hard backing and charged with tripoli compound for almost all my sharpening.
Click to expand...

Yeah, what's a latigo strop?

And, what what makes tripoli compound different than any other compound?


What does "tripoli" and "latigo" mean? :confused:
 
I use my DMT Diafold(fine/xtra fine) for any quick touchups on my blades. I keep it closer at hand than my other sharpening stuff(DMT benchstone, Sharpmaker 204, Tuf-Glide, etc..), which I store in an old ammo can. :D
 
Latigo is vegetable-tanned cowhide that's been treated with neats-foot oil. The "farmer's repair bundles" of leather scraps are latigo. It doesn't have to be latigo, though -- try any leather you happen to have around; it'll probably work fine. If you don't have any leather you can use cardboard, the kind that's used for backing for pads of paper. It doesn't last as long as leather but it works.

Tripoli, also called diatomaceous earth, also called rottenstone, is the silicaceous cell walls of one-celled plants (diatoms) that live in the ocean and feed blue whales. Those that die without being eaten fall to the bottom and eventually get cemented into a kind of crumbly rock. Because the particles are of uniform size it can be ground up into a polish. It's coarser than rouge, not fine enough to produce a mirror finish but pretty close to it. A tripoli-stropped edge is fine enough to shave quite well but it has a little bite to it, too.

You can get tripoli compound ("compound" means it's mixed with wax and made into a brick) in the buffing section of bigger hardware stores. The wax helps it stick to your strop or buff. A brick only costs a couple bucks and one brick will charge your strops for a lifetime.

This post isn't long-winded enough yet.... :) If the leather you happen to have has a finish like paint or clear lacquer, that is lacquer. Lacquered leather (or lacquered anything) isn't so great for a strop, so remove it with paint stripper or nail polish remover (a very useful solvent; I always keep some around). Gluing it to a hard backing makes a difference. It'll give when you press on it and give your edge a little convexity, but not too much convexity. If your leather is thin you might want to try several layers or a layer of rubber under it; you want it to give a little with pressure.

Experiment! You can use tripoli on wood instead of leather -- it won't round the edge, which might be what you want for some purposes. You can even use it on metal, preferably a soft metal like copper or brass -- it'll embed in that.
 
Excellent post. :) I have Latigo and I didn't even know it :rolleyes:

I had gotten a strop from KnifeArt that matches your description. It's leather, with some perceptible smoothness and slickness, glued down to a wooden board.
 
mostly one of my 2x72" belt grinders with a 220 or 400 grit super flex belt.if no power i use a 10 x 2" norton corause india stone. then i deburr on a grey (medium?) sharpmaker triangle rod. then strop the very edge with a leather strop loaded with fabulustor compound. its finer than tripoli. guys take a old leather belt and glue a piece on a old bread board with a handle. cheap at a thrift store. works well for me.
 
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