What's missing from my sharpening arsenal?

M

MacTech

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Jan 7, 2006
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611
I have a Lansky basic kit to which i added an extra-fine hone, i use this kit for restoring badly ignored/abused blades, like my old generic butterfly knife with the banged/nicked up edge

i have a Spyderco Sharpmaker 204, which i use for maintaining razor sharp edges and touching up, i've also been starting to experiment with freehanding using the bottom of the S/M, and i'm getting some *very* nice edges, i was able to restore my beat up old butterfly knife to *shaving* sharpness after a reprofiling session on the Lansky, then freehand sharpening on the brown and white rods

i was thinking on the drive home tonight, what to add to my sharpening arsenal, i want to keep it simple and basic, so no "Edge Pro" type of ultraexpensive sharpening sytems for me, thanks....

since i can use the Sharpmaker rods as a kind of impromptu benchstone for freehanding, do i really need the standard combo of medium and fine benchstones?

the only thing i think i may be missing is a coarse diamond benchstone for the rough work/restructuring, maybe one of those large, flat DMT's?

what would be the next sharpening tool you'd reccomend?
 
With a coarse or x-coarse DMT stone, the sharpmaker and a strop, you can achieve an edge that is pretty much as sharp as it gets. Anything else is not so much a must-have as it is a want-to-have. For the latter, the list is endless ;).

I would suggest, you expand along those lines. Tow ultra-fine rods for you Sharpmaker will run you a wopping $16 (www.newgraham.com) and I see you don't have a strop (e.g. www.leevalley.com) plus stropping compound. Since you have the Lansky, I am not sure if you need a coarse benchstone. But if you want a kit that it easily portable, a DMT stone would be nice, they cut nice and fast and are useable on the road (need only a drop of water). Of course a SiC stone would serve the same purpose cuts at least as fast and may be even cheaper, but is not quite as care free to use.

For the benchstone you need an angle guide, THAT is essential. Something that you can check the angle that you holding with your hand against while freehanding. You can cut little wedges out of wood and impregnate them against warping in water, preferably one at about 12 deg and one at about 17 deg. This way you can set up a very fine edge and one that is a bit sturdier and you can easily continue the sharpening process on the Sharpmaker at 15 (30 deg included) and 20 (40) respectively.

Keep 'em sharp!
 
I didn't see an India or Arkansas whetstone in your list.
Bill
 
I have an S/M and love it, but that "old school" methodology still tugs at my heart from time to time, so I pull out the Arkansas stones. I have a Silicon Carbide (125 grit), a Soft (600 grit), a Hard (900 grit), and a Hard Black (1200 grit). I dearly love the feel of sliding a blade across the natural stones.

If you check out Dan's (http://www.danswhetstone.com/), under the "EZ Hone" product line, you'll see that you can get all four of the grades that I mention in a very cost effective manner. I got the 8" models - one has the Sil Carb and Soft, and the other has the Hard and Hard Black. All for under $100 and superb quality. Dan's will cut any grade to any size that you want - all you have to do is call them and tell them what you want.
 
You definitely need a strop.

The cheapest would be to just use an old belt and the green compound. What I did was to go a a shop selling leather to cobblers and just bought some scraps that they had. This way, you can choose the type and thickness of the leather, even colour :rolleyes:

Stropping after sharpening will introduce you to a new level of sharpness.
 
If you aren't into diamond stones this seems to be a pretty nice 220 grit waterstone (they also have a smaller cheaper one if you don't want to buy "the brick"). I've been using one to reprofile a yanagi.... Yes, it does wear, but not as fast as my other coarse waterstones, but it cuts fast and leaves a finish closer to a 300-400 grit stone. If you want to polish up your edges, the Kitayama stone is well liked and can leave a polish like a 12k grit stone. You can also stick some of this down to a hunk of glass, marble floor tile, or something flat and smooth. Abrasive film or something like this kit (they also have nice leather hones and 1.8 and 0.5 micron honing compounds).

One of these protractors can come in real handy, either for making angle guides or setting directly on or next to a stone (set the angle then put a flat part of the blade on the arm, lock your wrist and remove the protractor).

One of these Belomo 10x triplet or similar is really handy for checking your edges. They come in powers from 7x to 20x+ but 10-15 are plenty powerful enough to see if you're hitting the edge, checking for micro-burrs and the like, and probably the best for this application... just hang it around your neck for quick "on the fly" edge inspections best way to hold a loupe (you can get hand microscopes up to 50x, and while it is very interesting to see an edge up that close, the shallow depth of field and narrow field of view of even a 20x makes them difficult enough to use that it defeats the purpose, which is to give people, who aren't experienced enough to read the way the light reflects off an edge, a way to instantly check their progress without resorting to the magic marker trick)
 
Really depends on how addicted (errr enthusiastic/devouted) to sharpening you are really.

yuzuha's list is good. I'd also add a 80 Grit Green Lobster for the those really massive reprofiles or rebuilds. The protractor is a great idea there are smaller ones on the market. I've just made wood wedges cut at angles and use those to get my blade angles set on bench stones and to check that I'm not getting too far off.

For checking edge angles I'd get an angle checker from a wood workers tool supply or make a couple from brass sheeting. You only need 2° increments. Say from 10 through 45. If it doesn't fit 10 but it's loose in 12 it's close enough to 11. I've found a 6 inch diameter works well lots of room to work with. I stole the idea from http://www.rd.com/americanwoodworker/articles/200009/bettersharp/main.html and went round the outside of the circle. I got 10 angles per six inch diameter disk.

Leather strops or just get the leather and make your own. Various grit powders, mineral oil, compounds, gel hand clearner (for cleaning the leather hones)

and.... and.... and... and.... and.... and.....

and one of those too. You can keep adding stuff almost endlessly and find a use for it.

Most important though, an agressive stone for relief grinds, edge rebuilding. Protractor or angle wedges to help set the angle on the stones. A magnifier/loupe for checking out the edges. A work light, (I say flex neck work bench but others say otherwise, but good light will help a lot in sharpening and it's one of the things we all forget to often). A angle checker to check the existing or finished angles. A couple of leather hones and you're set pretty much.

Of course you have to have a Tormek, a belt grinder, an Edge Pro, PSA tapes in 1.0, .5. and .025 microns, diamond paste too of course and.....
 
Dear Og i never knew how addictive sharpening could be.....

last night i took my beat up and abused old butterfly knife (cheap generic "Rostfrei" knife) it had chips and dings in the blade, and was about as sharp as a butter knife, the handles are loose and rattly, the lock doesn't hold the knife closed when the blade's stowed in the handle.... the thing was badly abused, evidence of how hard i used my knives "Pre-BF"....

i did some agressive edge reprofiling/resetting with the coarse Lansky hone, starting off at 17 degrees to define the edge profile, then going to 30 to remove the chips and dings, i used the coarse stone to agressively reprofile the blade back behind the chips, once the chips were gone, i went to the finer grits to put the edge back on

i basically used the Lansky kit to get the blade back to a utility edge, but after a run over the ultrafine Lansky, it was approaching shaving-sharp, so i did a little more polishing until it could shave hair

i then did some freehand sharpening on the base of the SM, just to see if i could do it, and the edge came out pretty darn good for a newbie

once the edge was restored, i set up the Sharpmaker, ran down the brown and white rods on the 30 degree setting, then went to the 40 degree for final setup

the old beater was now approaching scary-sharp, not there yet, but close, however i was tired, and it was 1:30 AM, so i decided to turn in for the night

today, i brought the beater in to work, admiring the sunlight gleaming on the shiny new edge, i decided to perform my "ultimate" test, fully expecting the knife to fail....

"Filet D'Packing Peanut"

i grabbed a styro packing peanut, and put the edge of the blade on the foam, drew down and back, expecting it to tear the peanut more than *cut* it.....

a *clean* sliver of foam dropped away from the side of the blade....could it be true? is the old beater now just as sharp as my other blades?, only one way to tell....

i set the edge as close to the edge of the peanut as possible, to get the thinnest filet possible, then cut.....

it cut an absoluely *flawless* Filet D'Peanut, thin, translucent, and *no* sign of tearing....

not bad for my first official "restore" job, certainly not up to some of the more experienced sharpeners here, i'm a newbie and know it, but i think i'm showing signs of improving

now.... to find some spare leather and some stropping compound.....

the best part of being a sharpening addict?, it's stopped me from buying more knives, as i'm now on the quest for the "ultimate edge" on the knives i already own

my Sis runs a horsemanship clinic for high schoolers, so i'm *sure* she has some spare (pronounced "free") leather laying around, i'll check with her tonight

soon i'll be stropping, can only imagine how scary sharp i'll be able to get the edge....

hey, here's a *great* idea for a keyring gadget, why doesn't someone invent a "Mini-Strop-Block" keyring strop, give us the ability to strop when away from our kits.....

hmm, the idea has merit, i think i'll see what i can work out.....
 
Well, i got my leather scrap (roughly 8" long, 3" wide, a *little* irregularly shaped, but that doesn't matter) and even using it with no stropping compound, i can already feel the difference on the old butterfly, it filets the packing peanuts even finer now, i was even able to filet one of my thicker filets....

now i just need to build up a stropping board to glue it to, at the moment, i'm simply holding it flat with a couple heavy objects

here are some pics of the results of styro peanut filetting after stropping....

the crappy old butterfly knife beater;
Butterfly.jpg

Butterfly2.jpg


the Dyad Jr;
Dyadshave.jpg

Dyadshave2.jpg


the Native;
Nativeshave.jpg

Nativeshave2.jpg


note how you can see the words stamped on the blade and the Spyderhole thru the styro filet
 
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