What is the best way to sharpen your GEC's?

First decision - do you want to learn to freehand? It's worth it - takes a bit of practice - get a beater knife to learn on.
But if you do learn it, it will serve you well, for the rest of your life. People will chime in with their favorite stones,
but it's all personal preference. A Norton Crystolon in coarse/fine, maybe a Diasharp or 2, coarse and fine, and a couple
Spyderco bench stones, Med. and Fine (these are a progression, they don't overlap) and a strop is a complete setup.
PLENTY to read here, youtube has good videos too.
 
JerryIsAlive said:
Most of the knives I own are GEC. I want to buy a sharpening system. The Sharpmaker is the leading contender but read that the bevel on GEC knives may not be conducive to the Sharpmaker. How do you sharpen your GEC's/traditionals? I am new to knives and sharpening so do not want to be messing around w re-profiling the blade and such.
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Staying within your desires to keep it as simple as possible, I'd think the advice offered by SubSpace (quoted below) would probably work best for you. It's always good to eventually get into freehand sharpening and having a more universal set of skills and tools for sharpening. But in the short term, the diamond rods would work very quickly on a 1095 blade, so you can go ahead and re-bevel your edge to 30° inclusive on the Sharpmaker. Afterwards, maintenance and frequent touch-ups on the ceramics are a LOT easier, once the bevels are set for the tool. The gains in cutting performance are quite big at 30° and lower, so I'm sure it's worth the effort and time. Attempting to re-bevel on the ceramic rods alone would be very, very slow, even on this simple steel.

SubSpace said:
I purchased the diamond rods for my sharpmaker. They help with my GEC knives. As discussed, the factory edges don't match the sharpmaker angles most of the time (in my experience). I make a few passes on the diamond rods, then go to the medium rods. I repeat until I can cleanly slice phone book paper.
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David
 
SubSpace said:
I purchased the diamond rods for my sharpmaker. They help with my GEC knives. As discussed, the factory edges don't match the sharpmaker angles most of the time (in my experience). I make a few passes on the diamond rods, then go to the medium rods. I repeat until I can cleanly slice phone book paper.
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+1. IMO, the diamond rods are a must have when pairing the Sharpmaker with a GEC knife for the first time. The brown ceramic rods just don't have enough grit to reprofile the grind. I also go with the 40 degree bevel.
 
Chosera 1000, for a finisher, a killer edge.
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Or, the silicon carbide stone in the wooden box here.
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This little thing was $6 at a local store and is a handy little field sharpener. I keep it in my work bag for touch ups if I forgot to strop my knife and I find it dull at work.
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Woodrow F Call said:
Okay. It really depends. I'm not effecient at freehand. I use a DMT aligner. I need to work at my free hand on some stones.
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Very easy to use for those that do not freehand
Constant results
I rebevel from E Course thru to E Fine

The Aligner set including the E Course will be about $65
Let the diamonds do the work and they will last for years of sharpening

And maintain the edge with an E Fine folding (paddle) type or the E Fine on the Aligner
And strop
 
https://drive.google.com/file/d/17IftHllcU2d0C4Ystbds3CUImMZXk7Px/view?usp=drivesdk

For small blades I'm using modified cheap folding diamond pocket sharpener with home made little leather strop loaded with 3 micron diamond compound.
One side has #320 diamond plate (I replaced the original #400 plate). The other side has original #600 diamond plate.
I paid about $5 on Aliexpress and it works great. I also use it to refresh/sharpen my EDC working knife (K110 steel, 61HRc). This cheap sharpener cuts it without a problem.
I hope the link to the photo works.

By the way; I adopted the sharpening technique from 'Northwest_Knife_Guy'. You can find it on Youtube. He has some interesting sharpening videos.
 
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