What's Your Favorite Piece Of Sharpening Equipment?

M

Mister Coffee

Joined
Dec 6, 2020
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I'm new to the sharpening game, so I haven't accumulated a lot of equipment, but I have been very pleased with this Fulton Sharpening Stone Holder. It is robust and well-made, it holds the stone in place, and it is worth more than the $14.99 retail price. It may seem like an odd thing to focus on, but, for a beginner, it was a welcome relief to have the stone secured in place during sharpening.



What's your favorite bit of kit?
 
Probably my IB8 India stone - I enjoy using it when I get the chance. Most of the blades I use everyday seem to respond really well to it. And sharpening even feels and sounds good on the Fine side of this stone. Using it is kind of therapeutic for me - it's very relaxing and rewarding, even with all the oil 'mess', which just seems right & proper for sharpening. And incidentally, I do use a stone holder like yours, with my India. Makes a very good stone even more user-friendly. :thumbsup:
bWi4r8n.jpg
 
That would be my spyderco fine pocket stone, with one side lapped to ultra fine.

It see's the majority of my touch ups and honing as I've gone off the practice of stropping.
 
I love the simplicity of freehanding and not having to deal with all the water(yes I'm lazy).

They can run dry but I prefer a little dab of water on the DMTs.

From top to bottom:

- DMT Diasharp combo coarse/extra coarse
- DMT Diasharp combo fine/extrafine
- DMT Diasharp fine
- DMT Diasharp extra fine
- Spyderco medium benchstone
- Spyderco fine benchstone

Hj7AC95l.jpg


The Spyderco medium/fine combo pocket stone is also nice if you need sharpening on the go.

CRdk4wSl.jpg
 
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Mister Coffee said:
but I have been very pleased with this Fulton Sharpening Stone Holder. It is robust and well-made, it holds the stone in place, and it is worth more than the $14.99 retail price. It may seem like an odd thing to focus on, but, for a beginner, it was a welcome relief to have the stone secured in place during sharpening.
Click to expand...

I tried to find my old post where I said something like: "A stone holder is the best sharpening accessory you can buy". I couldn't find it. I still firmly believe that a stone holder of some kind is a fantastic accessory. It helped me a lot after I got one. Particularly with 8x3 DMT plates, as they are very thin, so they are "too close" to a table when you use them alone. With the holder they are much better.

That said, my favorite sharpeners tend to be the ones that remove metal fast. That used to be the DMT XXC plate. Still a wonderful tool. Now I'm more into my belt sander with a 180 grit belt. That gets the job done in a controlled manner, but pretty quickly. If I need to be crazy I can use the 36 grit belt. But that's essentially never used for actual sharpening. More like reshaping.

Brian.
 
I probably like my old Spyderco Sharpmaker the most followed by my Spyderco bench stones.. I really like how the ultrafine rods and stones put an edge on my knives. I can’t believe how long I went without them.
 
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bgentry said:
I tried to find my old post where I said something like: "A stone holder is the best sharpening accessory you can buy". I couldn't find it. I still firmly believe that a stone holder of some kind is a fantastic accessory. It helped me a lot after I got one. Particularly with 8x3 DMT plates, as they are very thin, so they are "too close" to a table when you use them alone. With the holder they are much better.

That said, my favorite sharpeners tend to be the ones that remove metal fast. That used to be the DMT XXC plate. Still a wonderful tool. Now I'm more into my belt sander with a 180 grit belt. That gets the job done in a controlled manner, but pretty quickly. If I need to be crazy I can use the 36 grit belt. But that's essentially never used for actual sharpening. More like reshaping.

Brian.
Click to expand...
bgentry said:
I tried to find my old post where I said something like: "A stone holder is the best sharpening accessory you can buy". I couldn't find it. I still firmly believe that a stone holder of some kind is a fantastic accessory. It helped me a lot after I got one. Particularly with 8x3 DMT plates, as they are very thin, so they are "too close" to a table when you use them alone. With the holder they are much better.

That said, my favorite sharpeners tend to be the ones that remove metal fast. That used to be the DMT XXC plate. Still a wonderful tool. Now I'm more into my belt sander with a 180 grit belt. That gets the job done in a controlled manner, but pretty quickly. If I need to be crazy I can use the 36 grit belt. But that's essentially never used for actual sharpening. More like reshaping.

Brian.
Click to expand...
Shapton makes a rubber brick that holds 3 spritz and go stones and provides plenty of knuckle clearance.View attachment 1651799View attachment 1651799
 
Sharpening_Equipment.jpg

Ohhh, such a hard decision. But, if I only get to choose one I think it has to be my microscope, because with it I can see what I am doing to my knives when sharpening them. It more than anything has changed and continues to change the way I sharpen.
 
353 said:
I love the simplicity of freehanding and not having to deal with all the water(yes I'm lazy).

They can run dry but I prefer a little dab of water on the DMT's.

From top to bottom:

- DMT Diasharp combo coarse/extra coarse
- DMT Diasharp combo fine/extrafine
- DMT Diasharp fine
- DMT Diasharp extra fine
- Spyderco medium benchstone
- Spyderco fine benchstone

Hj7AC95l.jpg


The Spyderco medium/fine combo pocket stone is also nice if you need sharpening on the go.

CRdk4wSl.jpg
Click to expand...
My DMT fine diamond stone is my most used. So versatile.
 
Believe it or not, my favorite piece is probably my Knives Plus strop block. The sharpener I use the most is the bottom of my coffee cup. That last one might be sad to some, but it’s right there all the time and works great for popping the edge back up. I don’t know that it’s a favorite, but it sure is handy.

My DMTs get used sparingly mainly for reprofiling. The Sharpmaker works great for maintaining, but that coffee cup is always right there.🤣

Check out the Knives Plus strop block if you haven’t already. It’ll refresh a semi-sharp edge and take a pretty damn sharp edge to the next level.

BTW, dood did you finally learn to sharpen now? And your favorite piece of kit is the Fulton Sharpening Stone Holder?
 
Favorite... hmmm. Depends on what criteria for favorite we're talking about. The easiest one to use, i.e. quickest to set a good edge that does everything I and my customers expect it to? My grinder with 220 grit ceramic belts, maybe starting with 120 if the edge is really gnarly. But my SharpMaker has been with me the longest and it my most used for maintenance, and I usually use it after the grinder anyway to put a 20° microbevel on.
 
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