what should I buy for sharpening?

A

ASharpCanadian

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Sep 12, 2011
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Do I need water stones or am I alright with just buying a dmt diafold? Trying to get my new ratmandu sharp
 
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Id honestly buy water stones. Rmd = Richmond? Either way, a fine and course (aka 800/4000, or 1000/6000 ala murray carter)

I like shaptons personally. I use a 320 for all heavy grinding, and a 1000, 5000, 8000 for standard sharpening. usually just the 1k and 5k for a quick scary edge.

Though a set of King 1k and 6k will be less than $100. (This is what I recommend doing)

DMT diafolds are excellent in the field, but if you wanna get proper sharp, full size water stones are a HUGE help.

Just a question, have you ever used water stones?

If not, you have a possibly long and frustrating experience a head of you, but the payoff is sooo worth it. Id actually recommend getting an edge pro or a WEPS to supplement the process while you learn freehand.

Where in canada are you? Im in Vancouver
 
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ASharpCanadian said:
Do I need water stones or am I alright with just buying a dmt diafold? Trying to get my new rmd sharp
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do you plan on carrying the sharpener with you? if so, a double sided diafold sounds good. if you don't plan on carrying the sharpener with you, you could get a diamond bench stone or a sharpening system if you're not very good at sharpening. how much are you able to spend?
 
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just buy the edge pro now. it will actually save you money. i use mine with diamond stones though as the whole slurry and flattening of waterstones grew wearisome to me
 
the setup you mentioned with king stones at less than $100 seems alright. Its a swamp rat ratmandu that Im sharpening but I do plan on picking up an esee junglas eventually so I guess the water stones would be a decent investment. To answer your questions I'm in Calgary and no, I havent even sharpened a damn axe before heheheh. I figure if I can teach myself how to reload without blowing myself up I'll be okay with sharpening.
 
ASharpCanadian said:
the setup you mentioned with king stones at less than $100 seems alright. Its a swamp rat ratmandu that Im sharpening but I do plan on picking up an esee junglas eventually so I guess the water stones would be a decent investment. To answer your questions I'm in Calgary and no, I havent even sharpened a damn axe before heheheh. I figure if I can teach myself how to reload without blowing myself up I'll be okay with sharpening.
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are you planning on using the sharpener in the field or at home?
 
You may also want to check out the EZE Lap stuff. I have several grits and use them for my luthier tools as well as my carrying knives.
 
Canadian, it depends on what you're primarily sharpening. I'll give you a little glimpse at my issue with SR101 and my sharpening experience. A vast majority of my blades are high carbon, and those few stainless models I have are softer 57-58Rockwell hardness. This puts me solidly on the stone side. I bought a HRLM about six months ago and tried to lighten up the final bevel's angle a bit, but my stones really wouldn't touch it. The steel is too hard and the grain too small to get anything done on Swamp Rat's steel with water stones, though they were the perfect ticket for everything else I owned. At that point I acquired a 3x8x2 chunk of oak, varying grits of wet and dry sandpaper, which is more abrasive even at similar grits (and harder) and proceeded to tack strips of wet and dry to the wood block to make an 'ad hoc' stone that was hard enough to be effective on SR101. If you tried to get anywhere with a steel that hard on a nice set of stones, you'd probably wear them to a point of uselessness, spend so much time and water or oil in the process that it wouldn't be worthwhile, etc. At the same time, I wouldn't go as far as using diamond stones on my blade, especially for reprofiling, and I really don't think those DMT stones are robust enough to get much done in the edge thinning department. Wet and dry is the ticket for that badboy IMO. Save the King stones for your nice bushcrafting blades and burn disposable GatorGrit on the supersteel.
 
Personally, a lot of it depends on your budget and how much you think you might get into sharpening.

If $ is really tight and you want your blades to be functional, then a doublesided DMT diafold will certainly work. I would suggest the fine/coarse combo. I would also hit a thrift store or garage sale (ok not the best time of year for these) and get a wide leather belt to work as a strop. The DMT is easy to carry if go hiking/camping too.

For a little extra $, look at the spyderco sharpmaker system. Easy to use and quite fool proof.

A nice set of stones is the traditional way to go and the most expensive (for the most part). Many folks like this "traditonal" way of sharpening knives. Even if you go this route, many folks carry some kind of portable sharpener in the field or for trips.
 
The factory profile on my HRLM may be thin enough to use on the Sharpmaker's widest angle (40-? degrees) but it would need some serious thinning work to use on the standard angle for most of those V style flat grind sharpeners. You can get 1x4 portable hard and soft arkansas stones for inexpensive prices for portability, but again way too soft to take on Sr101. I think Diamonds are just too abraisive and cut too deep to use on high carbon steel. I really do think Aluminum Oxide is the ticket here.
 
PayetteRucker said:
Canadian, it depends on what you're primarily sharpening. I'll give you a little glimpse at my issue with SR101 and my sharpening experience. A vast majority of my blades are high carbon, and those few stainless models I have are softer 57-58Rockwell hardness. This puts me solidly on the stone side. I bought a HRLM about six months ago and tried to lighten up the final bevel's angle a bit, but my stones really wouldn't touch it. The steel is too hard and the grain too small to get anything done on Swamp Rat's steel with water stones, though they were the perfect ticket for everything else I owned. At that point I acquired a 3x8x2 chunk of oak, varying grits of wet and dry sandpaper, which is more abrasive even at similar grits (and harder) and proceeded to tack strips of wet and dry to the wood block to make an 'ad hoc' stone that was hard enough to be effective on SR101. If you tried to get anywhere with a steel that hard on a nice set of stones, you'd probably wear them to a point of uselessness, spend so much time and water or oil in the process that it wouldn't be worthwhile, etc. At the same time, I wouldn't go as far as using diamond stones on my blade, especially for reprofiling, and I really don't think those DMT stones are robust enough to get much done in the edge thinning department. Wet and dry is the ticket for that badboy IMO. Save the King stones for your nice bushcrafting blades and burn disposable GatorGrit on the supersteel.
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SR-101 is 52100 ball bearing steel that goes through a better than normal heat treatment ending up around 58-59 Rc. It is in no way a super hard steel it just has a good temper and it a more difficult to sharpen compared to other carbon steels which is typical of 52100. Waterstones cut faster than sandpaper, I'm pretty sure you meant Arkansas stones. And diamonds are plenty robust but regardless of that they are not the best choice of stone to sharpen carbon steels.

OP, the waterstones will work well but I would recommend something other than the king stones. They are ok but you can get higher quality stones and stay in the same price range.
 
ASharpCanadian said:
right sorry Jim- probably mostly at home.
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it sounds like you want to learn how to hand sharpen, very good. my best suggestion to learn how to hand sharpen is to get a cheap $3-$5 combination stone (aluminum oxide) and practice on worn out kitchen knives. this will build up your hand coordination and give you a feel for sharpening.

when it comes to sharpening there are many different abrasive materials to use. every one has there own sharpening routine, but for the most part, there really isn't much of a need to go over 1200 grit with stones (unless you're dealing with specialty blades like straight razors). i can finish with 600-1200 grit and then go to a loaded strop and wind up with a nasty edge.
 
Hey thanks guys all good input I know 100 times more tan I did this morning. If I can get better stones for the same cost would you mind sharing which stones you're talking about?
 
ASharpCanadian said:
Hey thanks guys all good input I know 100 times more tan I did this morning. If I can get better stones for the same cost would you mind sharing which stones you're talking about?
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just keep in mind, when hand sharpening, technique is more important than equipment.
 
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I know this very well knifenut. As you know I did considerable research in many subforums before investing a hundred dollars as a college student in that knife-and I do just as much research in every product I buy. Anyone that has used or sharpened SR101 will tell you otherwise=just because of its chemical relatedness to 52100 doesn't mean that its physical properties as turned out by the Bussekin plants doesn't put it in the running with 'super steels'. Grain size, alloy distribution, heat treat etc. are much different than the typical ballbearing steel. Waterstones cut faster than sandpaper up to a certain hardness, but after tearing up a set on my HRLM and seeing no results on even the finish of the edge, determined that the steel was just too hard for the stones themselves. I guess I should have referred to DMT's duohone products as not being robust enough. They're too small to be efficient and get clogged too much to remove material in quantities that would allow you to reprofile a blade. They make great pocket and pack sharpeners for on the go touchup but for maintaining a blade long-term or reprofiling as a 'one stone' they just aren't the tool to use.
 
Do you have only select stores to purchase from?

I usually get my stones from CKTG because they have a large selection and great service. The arashiyama 1k & 6k would be my suggestion if you shop there, if not then it would help to know where you are shopping at.
 
PayetteRucker said:
I know this very well knifenut. As you know I did considerable research in many subforums before investing a hundred dollars as a college student in that knife-and I do just as much research in every product I buy. Anyone that has used or sharpened SR101 will tell you otherwise=just because of its chemical relatedness to 52100 doesn't mean that its physical properties as turned out by the Bussekin plants doesn't put it in the running with 'super steels'. Grain size, alloy distribution, heat treat etc. are much different than the typical ballbearing steel. Waterstones cut faster than sandpaper up to a certain hardness, but after tearing up a set on my HRLM and seeing no results on even the finish of the edge, determined that the steel was just too hard for the stones themselves. I guess I should have referred to DMT's duohone products as not being robust enough. They're too small to be efficient and get clogged too much to remove material in quantities that would allow you to reprofile a blade. They make great pocket and pack sharpeners for on the go touchup but for maintaining a blade long-term or reprofiling as a 'one stone' they just aren't the tool to use.
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Your facts are not straight.

I own 3 bussekin blades in SR-101, its my favorite steel for a fixed blade.
 
a medium and extra fine grit diamond stone will take care of 95% of sharpening needs. add a strop and some compound and you're good. lansky and eze-lap make continuous diamond stones that are affordable. a 2"x6" eze-lap combination diamond stone (400+1200 grit) will run about $40. lansky 2"x6" continuous diamond bench stones are about $20-$25 each (medium=280 grit, extra fine= 1000 grit).
 
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