Your first stone?

F

fervens

Joined
Apr 26, 2009
Messages
291
So this will be my first post here, after a long while of lurking and a much shorter time commenting...

I have noticed a lot new people are asking about what their first break into the sharpening world should be. It got me thinking about what my first stone was, a really cheap no-name that would constantly loose grit and show nothing for it, to finally moving onto nicer ones like norton's india stones and dmt diamonds with plenty of cheap ones in between. Now, i'm not the most experienced here (by a long shot), but if i could make that choice over again, i would have bought the most course stone i could find and worked with that. My patience was no where near long enough for me to grind some of those old knives down to the apex. This brings me to my question for all of you out there...

What was your first sharpening stone, or device, or whatever and if you knew then what you know now, would you have picked something else?
 
butcher steel (for most of my life) -> sharpmaker -> edge pro (reprofiling) -> strops & compounds -> sand paper (convex) -> water stones (medium and fine)

I don't know if I could have done it any other way. I didn't have the confidence to go straight to freehanding on water stones. I still feel a need for the edge pro for "fancy" knives. I'm still not very good with freehanding, but I get by. Before I got the sharpmaker (and later the edge pro) I was pretty much under the impression that knives were as sharp as they could be when they were new, unless you sent them to a professional sharpener (which I have never tried).

Next I'm looking at getting a courser stone and something else to use for flattening the stones.
 
I started on a small Boy Scout stone. Then I got a Norton IB8 stone that is still my favorite. The Norton stone has lasted 35+ years and still has many more years to come.

ric
 
First I used all those crapy little Smiths pocket sharpener, then I used an electric sharpener( Ugggg, it messed up so many of my blades) Now stone sharpening and strops. I hoping to get a Lanksy rod system in the furture to help with the reprofiling.
 
Well, I guess it depends on how far I wanna go back, I've been a sharpening nut since I was a kid really. My dad use to have this 6x2 Norton stone, I'm not sure what kind; it was an orange and then a darker orange on the other side. Anyway I "sharpened" one of his knives on that once and messed both the knife and the stone up, so he decided to buy me my own sharpening kit. I had a rather nice pull-through type one that used little Arkansas wheels, it got knives pretty sharp. The kit I really liked was the Lansky "Deluxe Sharpening System" or whatever. It was just one of the rod kits that they have today, but it had one for serrations and some oil and all that jazz. However at the time the manual confused me, and I wound up using the hones in such a way where I basically wore grooves into them by stroking the blade from side-to-side.

I kind of grew out of it and then got back into it over the course of a few years though. I remember when I was trying to get a new stone, I kept seeing the AO economy ones and thinking, "This is nowhere near as good as the old Norton." So I decided to look them up online and the first line of stones I found from them were waterstones. So I thought, "Hmm? Waterstones huh? What's all that about." And well, I got sold on the waterstone thing for a while.

But oh man did I wear out that stone. It WAS a half inch 220/1000 grit stone. I say was, because it is now a half inch 1000 grit, and a 1/8th 220 grit. They wear so fast and in the process of flattening them over and over I really just killed that poor stone. It's amazing to me because once I started being just a bit more conservative with how much I flattened, how little pressure I used, etc. I've sharpened dozens of more knives on the 220 side an dit's lasted me longer at this thickness than from before.

They're pretty awesome stones and all, but I'm going to get some DMT continuous hones when I eventually get new benchstones. For now I've been using a DMT fine credit-card sharpener to do all my knives, and the Norton to re-profile the really bad ones that people bring to me. I have to say I've really taken a liking to the 600 grit on the DMT fine hones, they leave a very balanced finish.
 
I started out with a cheap ALumOx combination stone when I was a teenager/preteen. I mangled a few knives, dished the stone, got my knives sharper than dull, realized I mostly didn't know what I was doing and started to buy more knives.
Owned a few combination stones as I went from teen to adult, self-taught how to get an edge to shave arm hair but not much better - that was good enough for many years. No teacher.

Picked up a Gerber diamond plate and eventually a bunch of Smiths plates and a Lansky extra coarse stone - mangled a few more knives and learned how to get a somewhat better edge faster, but still no fundamental grasp of the entire process. No teacher.

Started talking to folks, bought Arkansas stones and a few waterstones for dabbling - started stropping with compound and made a leather belt for my belt-sander. Ah ha - shaving the fine fuzz off the side of my neck, and arm hair no longer pops but simply accumulates on the edge and floats away. But trouble in paradise - at work I'm cutting tyraps, plastic skid banding, clay-coated board stock, wiring. Face shaving edges melt into rounded off butter knives in days or less. Start going in the other direction but with all that I'd learned re fine edges to help guide me. Wind up going coarser and coarser till I begin to get acceptable life out of my edges. This is confusing and I continually fall back to fine edges but they do not hold up at work. Father in law (engineer specializing in blades for industry) says " when gigging carp you need a rounded tip so it glances off their scales and slides under the next row, or it'll just stick and come away with a few scales. When gigging frogs you need the sharpest point you can get or it'll skate off their slimy hides." Ah ha - different edges for different tasks - we do not chop with a saw or saw with an axe - this is huge, my world makes sense again.

For work I start using edges ground on an 80 grit tile rubbing stone and life is good. Am good for more years - from time to time I whip up fine edges painstakingly with Arkansas stones and barber hones bought at estate sales and am now able to whittle hair. Realize that in general, this is a dying art - older generations sharpened tools, newer generations buy new tools for less than the cost of a good stone. Estate sales for older homes frequently have good stones, estate sales for newer homes have none.

Continue to build on my understanding of edges and tasks. This carries me to my involvement with Bforums two and a half years ago. Spurred by this community I start experimenting with all manner of grinding and maintenance regimens - I had no idea this many people shared my obsession! My ability to produce edges with varying characteristics grows faster and more consistent.

Currently do nearly all of my sharpening with Norton IB8 and JB8 stones along with lapping boards and compound applied to paper. I recognize the inherent strengths and weaknesses of many grinding media, as well as my inexperience with many grades of steel. My current methods do not produce the absolute best edges I am capable of, but for me, produce the most consistent across a wide range of steels and within the shortest amount of time and bother invested for freehand sharpening.

HH
 
Thru the 60's I used what ever stone I could get my hands on when no one was looking to sharpen my sliplock. Which I mostly dulled, having no teacher. In the 70's I had a small hard Arkansas stone which worked slow but I was learning more how to sharpen. I could get the knife to shave some arm hair and I'd stop before I messed it up. In the 80's I got a Norton combination India stone and began to realize I could get a nice edge on my knife from it. If I held the correct angle. Still, learning and thought the coarse side was too coarse. By late 80's I was using the coarse side more than the fine and getting better edges and never looked back. Then found the coarse edge cut longer on whittling, cutting rope and skinning. This was a real break thru for me and I began using the coarse more than the fine India. Still, had yet to learn about stropping, I was steeling my blade but wrong. Thru the 90's I was still using the 2X6" India stone and a 2X6" coarse dmt, which I thought worked well. Leaving a nice sharp edge with good retention. Finally, in 1999 I began learning about a burr and stropping on denim and this gave me better edges. Shortly after I found this forum and swallowed the advise that one needed several stones up to a kazillion grits to obtain a nice sharp edge. In short order I realized this was for the OCD type but now I had more stones. I've since gone to a Norton IB8, JUM3 and IM 313 system of my meat cutter days to find this takes me where I want to go. Leaving a nice sharp edge by merely working it a little more and remove the burr on the stone. I utilize a more coarse edge and only take my razor up to as sharp as I can at 2K grit, plus stropping. DM
 
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Late 60's in VN, I watched & learned how to crudely sharpen mostly big knives (1 & 2 kg) using some sort of water/sandstone 10x25x8 cm ~ 50 and 80 grits. 1980's USA, I bought a Gerber & a Kershaw fixed blade, dabbled with natural stones. I still have a 1x3x0.25" a coarse granite ~320grit. Mid 2000's went nut with jknives + EP + some J waterstones - credit blamed to KF & BF. 2011 to presents - a journey to attain sharpening skills, a.k.a sharp procrascination.
 
My first stone was a $200 DMT Duo 10". If I had to do it again, I'd start with the $5 economy stone that HH recommends. :D :D :D
 
My first stone will be the so called "ultimate oil stone kit" when it finally ships out. It has been a month since I ordered it, hopefully it will arrive shortly so I can get started.
 
My first stone was a Cabela's Washita stone, soon followed by a soft Arkansas stone. Both were 8"x2" and they came in a cedar box. I learned how to freehand sharpen with these stones and I'm glad I did. I have no regrets at all.
 
My first stone was one used and then given to me by my grandfather when I was about 7 or 8. No idea what brand it was or anything, but it was about a 1"x4" medium arkansas stone in a little leather pouch. It was great for me to learn on. It wasnt fancy, as grandpa wouldnt have spent a lot of money on something like a sharpening stone, but it got the job done for him for years and taught me the basics of freehand sharpening and the importance of a sharo edge at an early age.
 
It looks like a lot of people have played with diamonds at one point. I had a three stone set from harbor freight before i moved onto dmt. I thought they were great stones, even after using the dmt's. Well worth all of $15. One of these days, i'm gonna play with some waterstones like a couple of you guys, and see what the hype is about. I love how there are so many different routes one can take to get to a hair popping edge. Thanks for all the answers!
 
My first stone was a Bear of some sort. Its still around somewhere up at our summer place in the hills.
 
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