Your Favourite Sharpner

My KME with a set of KME lapping films had me going from butter knives to scary sharp mirror finishes in in a matter of hours :thumbsup:
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After years of trying them all, I've finally settled on the following;
Ken Onion Worksharp for my kitchen knives, glass-rod 'steeling' between sharpenings.
DMT Aligner clamp, diamond stones, and lapping film for my EDC, stropping on horsehide.
EdgePro Apex with waterstones and lapping film for my hunting/bushcraft knives.


Stitchawl
 
Witterings, my 'favorite sharpener' is Norton's IM- 313 Tri-hone. I've set mine up where it's portable. This is a luxury set up and will handle
any size knife. But for my axes I do not take the ax to the stone. I take the stone to the ax. It's a lot easier to control. Just a coarse/ fine India will work. Really the India along with a coarse / fine SiC stone in 2"X 8" will take you a loong way in sharpening. DM
Trihone.jpg
 
stitchawl said:
After years of trying them all, I've finally settled on the following;
Ken Onion Worksharp for my kitchen knives, glass-rod 'steeling' between sharpenings.
DMT Aligner clamp, diamond stones, and lapping film for my EDC, stropping on horsehide.
EdgePro Apex with waterstones and lapping film for my hunting/bushcraft knives.
Stitchawl
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Mr.Wizard said:
S stitchawl Why do you favor those in each of the applications? Why not the Worksharp for EDC and the Edge Pro for kitchen knives for example?
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Most of my kitchen knives are relatively thin-bladed; Wustof, Henkels, etc., while my EDC is a recurve, thicker-bladed knife (Benchmade 710 Axis lock) and my hunting knives are thick bladed Randalls.

I find that the Ken Onion Worksharp performs best with long, thinner bladed knives, so that's what I use for the kitchen stuff. It does work on thick blade knives, just not a uniformly... for me, anyway, and it gives me just the right edge VERY QUICKLY. I appreciate the speed. After 65 years of sharpening, I'm no longer into the Zen of it. I want repeatable, accurate results quickly.

I like the DMT for my Benchmade 710 as it's easy to maintain its recurve, but still gives me a hair-popping edge on shorter blades, and is fast to set up and use. VERY fast to use.
The KME would be a good alternate, but the DMT Aligner clamp only costs $12.95, and can be used with its own stones, bench stones, or even sandpaper.

For real precision, little beats the EdgePro Apex, but it requires set up, is messy, and needs more space to use, and is much slower. But I want my Randalls to have a perfect edge. And... truth be told, I like to give them a little more tender love and care. They were made for me, have left-handed stag handles, and precious memories besides being some of the finest knives made.


Stitchawl
 
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I'm not sure why and will check my settings but I haven't been getting notifications so have only just stumbled across all the replies, I#ll have a good read through hem all but at a quick glance it seems whetstones aren't neccesarily most perople's preferred.
 
I'm partial to the Edge-Pro Professional for almost everything. Although I do use Lansky Crock Sticks quite a bit for maintaining my edges and for the softer low end steels.
 
Ben Dover said:
I'm partial to the Edge-Pro Professional for almost everything.
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I agree, in fact, I never take that fixture down. I keep it covered with blue tape because I know I'll be using the Edge Pro at any time.

I will admit, while I use the fixture, I only use stones from Ken Schwartz. He sell 1x6 stones at the 20K level. The edge has a bit of sheen with that stone.

I did buy some "stones" made of glass. With very fine paper adhesives on this glass and Schwartz's pastes I think you can get the scratches out of just about everything.
 
Never been disappointed with anything purchased from Mr. Schwartz.

(May the Schwartz be with you.:D)

If memory serves me, he was the driving force behind Shapton offering their glass stones to fit the EP blanks.
 
W Witterings If you don't want to free hend sharp I would look at a TSProf,Hapstone or Edge Pro,depending on the steels you own or plan on buying you should look at the Venev diamonds for steels like S30v M4 S110v and so on regular water stones do do a good job on those steels the way diamond put an edge on those steels.
 
Ben Dover said:
Never been disappointed with anything purchased from Mr. Schwartz.

(May the Schwartz be with you.:D)

If memory serves me, he was the driving force behind Shapton offering their glass stones to fit the EP blanks.
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It was the owners of Chef To Knives To Go from what I understand who got shapton to make their stones in edge pro format,at the time shapton agreed to do it they were one shaptons biggest dealers in the states.
 
wade7575 said:
It was the owners of Chef To Knives To Go from what I understand who got shapton to make their stones in edge pro format,at the time shapton agreed to do it they were one shaptons biggest dealers in the states.
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That's true. But from what I understand, it was Schwartz who finally convinced the owners at CKTO that the glass stones would sell.

I seem to recall from "that other" knife forum that Schwartz actually cut up a few full size glass stones, but couln't keep up with the demand. CKTO then convinced Shapton that there was a market for them.
 
I didn't want to spend a huge amount, I saw the edge pro's and some of the other systems were easily coming in at £200+ ... I ended up ordering a diamond sharpening stone .... apparently Ultex are disappearing and Vaunt has taken them over or rebranded the Ultex products to a new name (bought this as there weren't any dual sided Ultex left).
https://www.its.co.uk/pd/8-x-3-CoarseFine-Double-Sided-Diamond-Sharpening-Stone_VNT210082.htm

I also watched some sharpening videos and learnt more about sharpening and what the burr is and feels like, I used the 300 side and I think the knives I had really needed this as starting point and then the 1000 ..... I also then used the ceramic rods on the Lansky box to hone afterwards and I have NEVER got a knife even close to being so sharp EVER!!!

I also didn't like the idea of it slipping all over the place so I also ordered one of these at £6 :eek: ...
https://www.its.co.uk/pd/210302-Diamond-Stone-Dock-_ULT210302.htm
I thought it'd be rubbish and would be sending it back but it's brilliant .... it looks the same as the ones with the new Vaunt name which are
£18 so think they're possibly clearing out old stock at discounted prices
https://www.its.co.uk/pd/Diamond-Stone-Dock_VNT210302.htm

Whilst I'm happy with my most recent results which puts my starting point at a much higher level I'd also ordered a Cerax 1000/6000 Whetsone (delivery time was longer should be here mid week) as I get the impression whetstones probably give a nicer finish to knives / kitchen knives and the 6000 will probably help take it to the next level.
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Cerax®-Combination-Sharpening-Stone-6000-Grit/dp/B0052M3W4C

After this I'll probably look at stropping ... I made a strop a while back, cutting up an old belt up that no longer fit as I'd lost so much weight (or was it the other way round :oops: :p err ummm) and glued it either side of a piece of wood, one side fluffy one side shiny.
On the "fluffy side" I used some T-Cut as compound but I'm really not convinced that was the best as it seems to dull knives rather than sharpen them ... I don't know if now putting a better compund on would go over that and "mask it" or by using it loads with a knife (or machette as it's bigger) that I don't care about would remove it and I could then use something better ... OR ... if I'm about to use 6000 whetstone is that enough to strop with so I don't need to follow it up OR then use the "shiny" side of the strop that hasn't had any compound put on it??

Interested to hear people's opions as always and cheers for everyone's help / input so far :)
 
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Ben Dover said:
That's true. But from what I understand, it was Schwartz who finally convinced the owners at CKTO that the glass stones would sell.

I seem to recall from "that other" knife forum that Schwartz actually cut up a few full size glass stones, but couln't keep up with the demand. CKTO then convinced Shapton that there was a market for them.
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I know that CKTG about 1 to 2 years ago were very worried about getting anymore shaptons in edge format size,shapton has a new owner from what I understand and the Mark the owner of CKTG told me that the new owner complains everytime he has to make a run of edge pro size stones because they have to set everything up different to do them.
 
One doesn't need a fine stone to strop on- think edge trailing strokes. I take mine to a 280 grit SiC and remove the burr on that. If the blade steel is 440C and up, I'll back hone it on a fine diamond 600 grit to remove the burr. Which works well. DM
 
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I have quite a few different sharpening systems: DMT plates, water stones, vitreous stones (SiC and AlO2), ceramic stick, SharpMaker, ceramic spyderco bench stone (only the UF), worksharp KO... and more.

I've spent way too much money over the past 15 years buying equipment. Most of it works just fine. But most of it is rather slow.

My latest system is a Kalamazoo 1x42" belt sander. Using a 120 or 180 grit belt, this system is reasonably fast. I'm taking my time on most blades, trying to get a really nice pretty edge that's also fully deburred and very toothy. So it's taking me 8 to 25 minutes per blade, depending upon how beaten up the edge is and how much time I spend on the cosmetics.

Edges coming off of this, after using a scotchbrite belt and a leather belt, are extremely sharp. My typical edge is around 160 to 170 BESS. For reference a brand new utility razor blade (like you get from a hardware store) is 150 to 200 BESS.

https://www.edgeonup.com/eou_new_2016_008.htm

So far, after only a few weeks, these edges seem to perform very well for EDC and kitchen use.

I also purchased an angle guide for my belt sander which makes getting a consistent edge bevel much easier. This helps take care of the "pretty" part. I think it also leads to a more consistently sharp edge along the entire length.

Here are the results of my most recent sharpening using the Kally.


Brian.
 
Wicked Edge GO sharpener...anyone got one and what do you think?
Thanks, birdave.
 
Honestly?
I ordered Chinese whetstones for cheap from AliExpress long time ago... #8000 stone gives mirror finish, but I'm often lazy to use it... I just get shaving sharp edge on #1500 and call it a day.

Incredibly cheap stones I used a lot and are still flat.
 
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