Whats the cheapest freehand setup to get a hair whittling edge?

Bladenoobie1

Bladenoobie1

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Jul 20, 2012
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Eventually I want to attempt freehand sharpening, however those Japanese water stones are expensive and I don't see myself dropping that much money on them anytime soon. What kind of freehand set-up can you do for between $50-60 and still achieve a hair-whittling edge?

Thanks,
Bladenoobie
 
You can easily find a 1000 grit J-stone for $50-60. I recommend the Bester 1000. Then go to the thrift store and get a leather belt for $2 and glue to to a piece of scrap wood and you've got a strop to finish the edge (make sure to place the "unfinished" side of the belt facing up and place another piece of scrap wood on top before you clamp it or set a heavy object on top, otherwise the leather will be all warped when the glue dries). I recommend checking out the sharpening videos u-tube for help with the water stone and stropping. Welcome to the world of sharpening and be sure to start with a beater to hone your skills :). Feel free to pm me with any questions.
 
I want to be able to have a full set that I can use for reprofiling all the way to hair whittling. I already have a strop
 
Ok then pick up the stone as well as a DMT XXcourse diamond plate (or the knock-off for $20, I'm sure it works well enough). You can use it to re-profile as well as to flatten your water stone before each new session. PM me for more info.
 
At 50 dollars I think your only alternative is sandpaper. Finding someone who will sell you one sheet of each of the grits you need will be very hard. They typically want to sell the >2500 grits in sleeves costing over 30 dollars. You can buy the 3m combo packs of 1000 1500 2000 and 2500 for about 5 bucks, hard to track down though.

3m polishing sheets will take you to a mirror finish, those packs are about 15 bucks.

so for the 25 dollars for the 3m products then a peice of granite or extremely flat hard surface, or mouse pad if you want a convex edge.

One strop with .25 micron spray would get you to about 60 dollars total spent.

Reprofiling will be difficult but doable. The 1k grit doesn't cut that fast but will eventually get you where you want to be.
 
Lee valley is a wood working store that sells many abrasives includung ultra fine for sharpening and in single sheets... Google is your friend

I hope this isn't "deal spottin"..


Nickelsig229 said:
At 50 dollars I think your only alternative is sandpaper. Finding someone who will sell you one sheet of each of the grits you need will be very hard. They typically want to sell the >2500 grits in sleeves costing over 30 dollars. You can buy the 3m combo packs of 1000 1500 2000 and 2500 for about 5 bucks, hard to track down though.

3m polishing sheets will take you to a mirror finish, those packs are about 15 bucks.

so for the 25 dollars for the 3m products then a peice of granite or extremely flat hard surface, or mouse pad if you want a convex edge.

One strop with .25 micron spray would get you to about 60 dollars total spent.

Reprofiling will be difficult but doable. The 1k grit doesn't cut that fast but will eventually get you where you want to be.
Click to expand...
 
$60: Crystolon 8x2 combo C/F stone + DMT 4" F/EF/EEF benchstones. Practice & practices, you should able to whittle hair after DMT EEF.
 
Jantz sells 3M polishing cloth down to 1 micron (8000 grit). A strip of that laid on plate glass will get you where you want to be. I use a large piece of thick plate glass with silicon carbide wet/dry sand paper and the 3M polishing cloth taped to it.
 
Get a Worksharp WSKTS for about $60 bucks and some cardboard to use as a strop. Hair whittling sharp. I used one last night freehand without the guide, and some cardboard to strop on, and had it shaving hair on my arm in about 3 minutes. Poor man's sharpening system. Easy learning curve. I am not an employee of Worksharp, just a friend of a friend that has one. I will be purchasing one myself soon.
 
A belt grinder will require some work unless you want all your knives to have a convex edge.

Whittling hair and shaving hair off your skin is two completely different things. Shaving sharp is easy to do. Mr Carter does it with a cinder block and cardboard, then shaves his beard in a youtube video, not his forearm hair.
To me whittling is a much finer polished blade edge, where touching a hair and dragging it across the edge of a blade will split it like a feather stick.

Are you looking for shaving sharp or whittling sharp? The difference is a lot of elbow grease and finer grits.
 
Get a really coarse diamond file from the hardware store for reprofiling. Or a really coarse slip stone for like less than 5 bucks. Diamond file is amazing though.

Then get some 600ish grit sandpaper to start to finish the edge. Move to 1200 and beyond.

Finaly get some metal polishing paste and newspaper and strop on a flat surface with a few pages of newspaper loaded with metal polishing paste.

Also think about buying one spyderco medium triangle rod and one spyderco ultra fine triangle rod. This after the diamond rod is enough to whittle hair.

Other cheap option is smiths coarse diamond pocket stone, spyderco medium and strop on loaded newspaper/cardboard.
 
Do you want this cheap for learning? If so go and get from most any hardware store a double sided black silica stone, and then the finest stone they have there. All you need is a coarse , medium , and fine. then a strop witch you already have. If you want to go the sandpaper way look into getting belts for a belt grinder they will last longer than sheets of sandpaper and are available in many grits. Places like Lee Valley , trugrite , Pops, and all the others will sell you any amount and range of grites you want.
 
I've gotten good mileage so far out of a $30 double sided (1000/6000 grit) waterstone. I figure by the time I'm good enough for it to matter, I'll be ready to spend more on two separate stones. But even there I've seen them going online easy for $60 for both.
 
I like the Smith brand diamond stones I got a while back. Lee Valley and Jantz have large selections you can check out too.
 
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