Which system: strop & compound or Spyderco?

D

drjones

Joined
Sep 6, 2000
Messages
913
Hi guys.

I'm looking for a sharpening system and think I have it down to either a strop & compound kit like this: http://www.knivesshipfree.com/Knife...g-Kit-Field-Hone-+-Compound/product_info.html

OR

the Spyderco Sharpmaker.


I'm embarrassed to say that none of my knives get used much, so I don't have any knives that need major sharpening, but I do need something to start maintaining and touching up edges, and I NEED to learn how to sharpen my blades.

My main criteria is that whatever I get be relatively compact and portable, as I want to be able to keep my sharpening kit in my SHTF/BOB pack.

I have read of the importance of being able to sharpen freehand, so should I get some stones or is the strop sufficient seeing as how none of my blades need major work?

The thing I like about the Spyderco is that it seems to get great reviews as a general system, it is compact & easily transportable and it can sharpen pretty much anything that has an edge; scissors, nail clippers, serrations, etc.

I want to be able to sharpen (really more of touch up/maintain) anything from the razor blades on my Gerber EAB to my Strider GB to my new Busse FFBM.

Help please!

Thanks!!
 
I think that the Spyderco Sharpmaker is a great system to sharpen most any knife. Its great to use if you are not into free hand sharpening. It is a good idea to learn how to sharpen with a stone or other freehand methods as they will not take up much room in your pack. DMT makes some fine sharpening methods for the quick touch up or to get the knife to a fine edge. I prefer the Sharpmaker for use in the home to restore your edge and then follow up by stroping for that final finish. You can use a strop to help maintain your edge but at some time you will have to go a step back to get that edge in shape again. I'm sure you will get other answers as what to use as we all have favorites. It might be worthwhile to get the Spyderco and make a small strop to carry in your pack for touch-ups or a UF stone (by spyderco). Just my $ .02 worth.
 
The sharpmaker is a good system for keeping your edge sharp but I think you will need something that can cover a few more bases. How much you have to spend would be a big help also as stones, hones and systems can set you back a few hundred $$$. If your looking to keep it cheap then I would go with one of the aligner kits from DMT, they are fast and effective and have more "grits" to chose from. One thing for sure, get the strop, its the best way to finish the edge.
 
I use JRE Industries Strop Bat and their field strop. The bat is loaded with black, green, and pink compound. The field strop is a small belt loaded with black compound. I think I paid $45 total for them. I personally like convex edges. Once you have coverted your edge to convex, they are extremely easy to maintain (even in the field). Convex edges are durable and extremely sharp. Most people use automotive sand paper on a mouse pad to convert their edges. I would probably send it out for the first one. PM me if you have more questions.

Nice choice with the FFBM:thumbup:
 
BushcraftBrainTrust said:
I use JRE Industries Strop Bat and their field strop. The bat is loaded with black, green, and pink compound. The field strop is a small belt loaded with black compound. I think I paid $45 total for them. I personally like convex edges. Once you have coverted your edge to convex, they are extremely easy to maintain (even in the field). Convex edges are durable and extremely sharp. Most people use automotive sand paper on a mouse pad to convert their edges. I would probably send it out for the first one. PM me if you have more questions.

Nice choice with the FFBM:thumbup:
Click to expand...


Who should I send it to to convex it?

Would it really be that difficult to do myself? I'm a sharpening noob, but smart. :D
 
drjones said:
Who should I send it to to convex it?

Would it really be that difficult to do myself? I'm a sharpening noob, but smart. :D
Click to expand...

I do most of mine, but it might be good to send out the first one just so you see what it supposed to look like. Here is a good guide to get you started.

http://www.barkriverknives.com/docs/convex.pdf


I've sent a few Busse knives to Jeremy Horton of Horton Knives. He might only work on Busses, I'm not sure. I would highly recommend him for your FFBM. He has a forum here under makers. Below are a couple pics of work he did for me.:thumbup: Razor sharp mirror edges.


picture.php



hortonknives11056.jpg
 
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I would go with the strop and stropping compound. That field strop will be great for your kit. However, you will probably want a bigger one for home use, especially with a big chopper like the FFBM.

I have hand convexed most of my knives. I am what you would call free hand shapening impaired.

To convex by hand, just get a pane of glass, a mousepad, various grits of sandpaper in larger sheets (larger than the mousepad is helpful). I tape the edges down to the glass sheet with the mousepad underneath.

read some of the tutorials that have been linked. It really is not too hard to learn. I did one less expensive knife before I started on my infi. I hand convexed my FBMLE. It took quite a while, but I am very happy with the end result. If you send it out to a professional, the look will be better, but it will void the warranty (as to the edge work anyway).


Convex edges are really really simple to maintain. Even if you screw the edge up, you can fix it by steeling the edge a bit to realign it, and then some sandpaper to clean it up before stropping again.

I made a strop out of a broken belt, and some buffing compound from the hardware store. Works great.

you could make your own. If you need leather, grab a belt blank from Tandy leather factory and glue it down to the board.

Mine is ghetto, but it only took me a few minutes to make.

IMG_0985.jpg

IMG_0992.jpg


you can also strop standard v grind's and get them hair popping sharp. They don't have to be convexed. After time, a v grind that you strop will round out.
 
I made that strop bat because I stepped on the buckle on a new belt (bare foot and shattered buckle = ouch at 2 am)

So I had a belt with a broken buckle and it was not a snap belt, so it was done unless I wanted to unstitch it and restitch it with a new buckle. So I glued it on a piece of wood, 4 sided.
 
drjones said:
Hi guys.

I'm looking for a sharpening system and think I have it down to either a strop & compound kit like this: http://www.knivesshipfree.com/Knife...g-Kit-Field-Hone-+-Compound/product_info.html

OR

the Spyderco Sharpmaker.
...

My main criteria is that whatever I get be relatively compact and portable, as I want to be able to keep my sharpening kit in my SHTF/BOB pack.

I have read of the importance of being able to sharpen freehand, so should I get some stones or is the strop sufficient seeing as how none of my blades need major work?

The thing I like about the Spyderco is that it seems to get great reviews as a general system, it is compact & easily transportable and it can sharpen pretty much anything that has an edge; scissors, nail clippers, serrations, etc.

I want to be able to sharpen (really more of touch up/maintain) anything from the razor blades on my Gerber EAB to my Strider GB to my new Busse FFBM.
Click to expand...

Assuming it's an either-or situation, then I would get the SharpMaker. As you noted, the SM will be more versatile. Can you sharpen scissors or fish hooks with a strop? You can with an SM. The strop will only let you finish edges that are already sharp. The SM will allow you to sharpen edges that are dull.

The SM is fairly compact, and if you want something for the world coming to an end, the versatility of the SM far exceeds any strop for your BOB.

BUT (and I really mean BUT) the SM will not get you the really sharp edges if the edges are not beveled properly to begin with. In other words, if you have a knife with 45° or 50° edges, and you want to convert them to 30° edges and then finish with a 40° microbevel, you can spend days using the so-called coarse stones and still not get there.

I got the SM and then I got the diamond stones (triangle rods), but even those were not enough. It wasn't until I binder clipped some 180 grit Wet or Dry sandpaper to the coarse stones and used that to reprofile a blade that I finally succeeded in getting a blade really sharp. (My success came just this very night so I qualify as a newbie too.)

Freehanding: A good skill to have perhaps, but I'm not willing to spend the time and effort learning it. I have other interests. But I might go on to it one day. In the mean time, I am learning how to get a sharp edge with the SM, which I think is a valuable step toward learning to freehand.

Even though the SM makes it easy to touch up edges, don't be surprised if you have difficulty (like so many of us newbies who post pleas for help). The good people of BF will come to your aid.

Whatever you get, I highly recommend a Sharpie with big fat tip and jeweler's loupe. I have a 10x Belomo (comes highly recommended on jewelry forums). This will help in figuring out what's happening to the edge. For now, I would skip the diamond rods if you need to re-profile and use 180 grit emery cloth clipped to the coarse stones.

For stropping, try the cover of your phone book.
 
check out the paper wheels for sharpening. you can bring back a slightly dull knife with just the paper buffing wheel. you cant convex a blade with the wheels but you can buff the edge back to sharp with just a few passes if its not that bad. here is a thread i started on the wheels. http://www.bladeforums.com/forums/showthread.php?t=578787
here is a video of a knife i made for a member with a half convex edge slicing newspaper http://vids.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=vids.individual&videoid=51941310
 
You are probably not gong to carry paper wheels and a grinder in your SHTF/BOB pack. Good for the bench though.

Drjones, After you read the Bark River PDF posted above (very good) on convex sharpening check out the videos on here. There are 11 videos on convex sharpening and field touch up. They use the Bark River sharpening kit (or compounds), various strops including a homemade bench strop and field strop, and they use the Bark River method. They talk more about the specific tools in the context of packing, edge touch up, and making your own double sided strop in Vid # 11. Two pieces of leather, one on each side of a paint stick and you have a double sided strop. Add a piece of 2000# sandpaper, carried loose, to wrap around the stick (over the leather) if you need to get a little more aggressive then just stropping (also covered in Vid. 11). You could also carry coarser grits if you wanted to with almost no weight penalty. They show how to wrap the sandpaper around the strop in a very ingenious way, which requires only one hand, using the leather strop as a soft base for convexing in the field. All this can be carried in a Ziploc bag and weighs next to nothing. You can buy it or make it yourself. All you have to buy are the two compounds (black and green) if you don't already have some.

BRKT_sharpening.jpg


The strop and sandpaper are lighter and pack smaller then a Sharpmaker. It is also quieter to use and carry.

You can easily convex your own edges using this or the mouse pad / sandpaper method. It is of coarse faster on a belt sander the first time to get the shoulder knocked off but not necessary. Of coarse it is easier to maintain a convex edge and keep the same geometry then it is to make one from a V grind. If converting from a V grind you will probably be working on the shoulder for a while more then the edge. You will want to start with a coarser grit then the 2000# paper when forming the edge. Probably something more like 120# at first, working up through the grits. The first time it would be easier with paper glued to pieces of mouse pad on a wood or glass back. Use a stropping stroke (trailing edge) with all grits so as not to cut the paper (or leather).

This is more versatile then the Sharpmaker as far as range of grits available (although, you could wrap sandpaper around the Sharpmaker sticks too). On the other hand the Sharpmaker sticks would last longer then the paper. The leather strop could last indefinitely.

Gary
 
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Very good tutorial.:thumbup:

gary jp4 said:
Drjones, After you read the Bark River PDF posted above (very good) on convex sharpening check out the videos on here. There are 11 videos on convex sharpening and field touch up. They use the Bark River sharpening kit (or compounds), various strops including a homemade bench strop and field strop, and they use the Bark River method. They talk more about the specific tools in the context of packing, edge touch up, and making your own double sided strop in Vid # 11. Two pieces of leather, one on each side of a paint stick and you have a double sided strop. Add a piece of 2000# sandpaper, carried loose, to wrap around the stick (over the leather) if you need to get a little more aggressive then just stropping (also covered in Vid. 11). You could also carry coarser grits if you wanted to with almost no weight penalty. They show how to wrap the sandpaper around the strop in a very ingenious way, which requires only one hand, using the leather strop as a soft base for convexing in the field. All this can be carried in a Ziploc bag and weighs next to nothing. You can buy it or make it yourself. All you have to buy are the two compounds (black and green) if you don't already have some.

BRKT_sharpening.jpg


The strop and sandpaper are lighter and pack smaller then a Sharpmaker. It is also quieter to use and carry.

You can easily convex your own edges using this or the mouse pad / sandpaper method. It is of coarse faster on a belt sander the first time to get the shoulder knocked off but not necessary. Of coarse it is easier to maintain a convex edge and keep the same geometry then it is to make one from a V grind. If converting from a V grind you will probably be working on the shoulder for a while more then the edge. You will want to start with a coarser grit then the 2000# paper when forming the edge. Probably something more like 120# at first, working up through the grits. The first time it would be easier with paper glued to pieces of mouse pad on a wood or glass back. Use a stropping stroke (trailing edge) with all grits so as not to cut the paper (or leather).

This is more versatile then the Sharpmaker as far as range of grits available (although, you could wrap sandpaper around the Sharpmaker sticks too). On the other hand the Sharpmaker sticks would last longer then the paper. The leather strop could last indefinitely.

Gary
Click to expand...
 
It depends on the knife type. If convex than you need to make a strop,mine is 2x6 piece of hardwood with slots in the end. I glued an old mousepad on it and then use strips of wet/dry sandpaper as abrasives.
For a standard system I find the Lansky to be the most versatile and economically feasible choice. I do like the sharpmaker for final sharpening and for touch ups,it is not worth a damn for setting a bevel on the edge unless you buy the over priced diamond rods. For the money get the Lansky diamond kit and a good final finish stone (ultra fine or super sapphire).
 
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