What is a good "Starter steel?"

For some cheap crap to experiment on, you can get anything. For a serious knife with easy-to-sharpen steel, look for something in AUS8 (or 8Cr13MoV), VG-10, H1, and other soft steels known for easy sharpening.

Trust me, you don't want to learn on ZDP-189 :(
 
knarfeng said:
Another vote for a Buck knife in 420HC. Not real expensive. Easy to sharpen Takes a great edge.
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When I vowed to learn to sharpen on stones, by free hand, I was very impressed with the sharpness of my Buck 110 vintage. It still is the only knife that I can actually say that I sharpened by hand and is hair whittling sharp.....

Also, I would find a beat up or broken blade Old Timer on an auction site, buy it and make it sharp. Carbon blades are fun too. Keep it up, you will get there. Read alot, and follow through.
 
Opinel is a great suggestion. Victorinox is another suggestion that sharpens up easily to a keen edge. On the other end of the scale would be a Spyderco Salt 1 plain Edge. Never worry about rust with that one.

It would be interesting to know what style of sharpening method(s) you will be using.

Let us know what you go with for the knife.
 
Ditto on the Opinels, they're phenomenal little knives, super cheap, and great to learn on.

I would say no to a Mora, simply because of the scandi grind. Sure it's easy to sharpen, but it's not really going to teach you how to sharpen most other knives. Though you should get a carbon steel Mora anyways :D
 
I, Like others, would start with a Buck in 420HC. It's a decent enough steel that you'll never be ashamed to own it, and cheap enough to practice on.
 
J's Knives-N-More said:
I suppose a monkey wrench to toss in is what kind of sharpening stone/device/system are you going to be using?

When I started, I had to teach myself to use freehand on an Arkansas stone, then I got a lansky clamp system, which makes re-beveling a lot easier, and more recently I bought a poor man's sharpmaker (a lansky turnbox set) for touchups.
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An Arkansas stone... i think that freehand sharpening is an important skill to learn
 
I learned on S60V... But using a Sharpmaker so it was easy, just took FOREVER.
I've found Sandvik easy to sharpen but I think you should go to a garage sale and buy up a few beaters and work on putting an edge on them. It would be cheap and if you screwed them up you wouldn't had to stress over losing much money.
 
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