What to use to sharpen knives? Stone, wet stone, gadget etc

A

agoutihead

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May 5, 2007
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Ok I need to pick up something to keep all these blades I've been buying nice and sharp.

So what is the preferred method? Just a regular old stone? (seems like the easiest way with little maitenence) but aren't there combo stones out there? What kind of stone should I get?

Does size matter? I mean I'd prefer to not have a big long stone unless it's necessary.

What about a wet stone? Are they worth it? They seem like they can be messy... Unless there's a nice little leak proof container that they come in these days?

Perhaps another kind of knife sharpening gadget?
 
A combination waterstone with grits around 220 on one side and 1000 on the other should suit you just fine. Combine with a leather strop and you're set for most knives and woodworking tools - very versatile system. :thumbup:

As for a container for your stones, you can get neat stone ponds that have clamps and such to hold your stones in place during use. However, a big enough tupperware container and a board to lay across the top do the same job just fine. Like what this dude's using:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QuOlGGl97dI

Another option is to get an old, thick mousepad and some various grits of wet-or-dry sandpaper. You can find videos on youtube that explain it much better than I can, but it's a way to put a convex edge on your knife and is extremely forgiving. Cheap like borscht and works like a charm :D
 
Sharpmaker. Relatively foolproof and extremely effective for a wide, wide variety of knives.
 
I primarily use a wet stone and touch up with a ceramic rod but I still have not mastered sharpening yet.
 
Depends on the steels, heat treats and grinds your knives have. A whetstone/arkansas stone won't do much to a knife above 59RC, but then again I don't own many knives above 59RC. I use the 15 dollar Smith's Softstone/Hard Stone/Honing oil kit-I'm on my 4th hard stone, though the softstone is doing great and I have plenty of oil left. I supplement the combo with wet and dry sandpaper from 1000 to 2000 grit, and finish with a naked leather strop. I use bastard files and a Lansky Puck for things like machetes and axes. All of my knives use Scandinavian or working flat/convex grinds, so none of them are perfectly flat-but in my opinion it's the easiest way to maintain in the field. When using water, I just use an empty soup can and a terrycloth rag. When using oil, I use scotchbrite to scrub the buildup off. Not much to it. I have less than 50 bucks total into all of my tools, and they all work great. Now, working with harder stainless steels, that makes life an entirely different story. You'll want to focus on diamond stones versus ceramic stones.
 
To the OP. Have you ever sharpened a knife before? Is so, what did you use. If not then the Sharpmaker is your sharpener.

Does size matter? I mean I'd prefer to not have a big long stone unless it's necessary.
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I'm not going to touch this line except to say yes it matters!! :D
 
No never really sharpened knives before.

And the spyderco setup does look pretty neat. I do like how everything is contained in one smaller kit.

Something like this is better than just a flatstone on it's own?

What's the consensus on going dry, water or oil?

Seems the spyderco is just a dry setup?

I suppose I'll have a few different metals, grinds and coatings on the few knives I have and plan on getting. So a versitale sharpener is what I'm looking for to do them all.
 
Please give some thought to the proper forum for your posts.

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Yes, the Sharpmaker works dry, and only takes a few seconds to set up.
Practice on some old paring knives or pick up a couple of Moras and a cheap folder.
 
No, the kit includes medium and fine. Add-ons are the diamond and extra-fine. I wouldn't recommend either of them until you get good with the basic set-up and decide you want to do more with the Sharpmaker.

Frankly, the Sharpmaker helped me in two ways. It gave me an easy way to put a nice edge on a knife, AND it taught me what was going on when I sharpened. This got me started on stones and other ceramic rods and diamond stones and stropping.
 
Esav Benyamin said:
No, the kit includes medium and fine. Add-ons are the diamond and extra-fine. I wouldn't recommend either of them until you get good with the basic set-up and decide you want to do more with the Sharpmaker.

Frankly, the Sharpmaker helped me in two ways. It gave me an easy way to put a nice edge on a knife, AND it taught me what was going on when I sharpened. This got me started on stones and other ceramic rods and diamond stones and stropping.
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Thanks for the advice. I'll pick one of these kits up very shortly.
 
My only gripe with the 204 Sharpmaker is that you need a coarse stone to go with it. The pre-set angles of 30 (15/side) and 40 (20/side) will not match up with 90% of the knives you buy. The edges will need to be rebeveled, or you can use the 204 stones free hand, in which case you're better off with a bench stone anyway. The 204 will rebevel knives, but you'd better call in sick for a day or 2. Even the diamond stones, which are ~400 grit, take a while. For edge maintenance and for adding a final polish to an established bevel thinner than its 30 and 40 degree slots, it is excellent. Get a coarse stone of some kind to go with it, something in the 100 to 250 grit range. Blue DMT stones work as well.

I've actually started recommending the Norton Coarse/Fine India combo stones for knives. If you have chisels, the 220/1000 grit combo water stones will do better, but for just knives the India stone works well.

The Coarse side cuts fast enough to remove nicks and re-establish a worn bevel, and the Fine side puts on a toothy edge that is will catch hair on the back of my head well above the skin.
 
If you need to rebevel , then you can pick up cheap diamond stones. I got these from a truckload sale at a farm store, three for five dollars. Rubberband them to your sharpmaker rods for the same angle.

sharp.jpg
 
me2 said:
The Coarse side cuts fast enough to remove nicks and re-establish a worn bevel, and the Fine side puts on a toothy edge that is will catch hair on the back of my head well above the skin.
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You test your knives' sharpness by tree-topping hair off the back of your head? You're one bad mofo! :eek:
 
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