Your story and mine are quite similar Jack :) The real fun is that the journey never really ends :eek: So many other factors like material, geometry, surface finish, interaction of sharpening medium and blade material etc................ continue to chime in and keep the lessons much more interesting than just making edges meeting in the middle :Djackknifeh wrote:I've become obsessive about the sharpness I get. I think you could say I've always been amazed and desired sharp edges. I've also felt good about being able to sharpen a knife. I thought I was obsessive back then. I also thought I was getting my knives very sharp. And I was getting them sharp based on a non-knife person's expectation. Then I got more active in the knife hobby. All I wanted was a knife that would stay sharp longer. After getting over the shock of knife prices I bought some. Then I found out my old dirty stones wouldn't sharpen the harder steels. So after getting over the shock of sharpening stone prices ( :) ) I started buying stones, systems, strops, etc. As I was buying, selling, using tools trying to establish a set I was happy with I learned a lot about edges and how to get them. As dbcad said, I've learned tons from people on this forum. After putting all that together along with a lot of practice my edges got sharper and sharper. Also trying differen't angles on a given steel and/or for specific use in addition to just being sharp.
Now I am not happy with the knife in my pocket unless it is as sharp as I can get it. No more using my knife untill it was dull and almost useless. I will often just hit the edge of my EDC knives after carrying them with a Spyderco UF stone. Two - three passes will return the edge sharpness. When people consider my knife very, very sharp and I want to apologize because it isn't cutting good enough I think I have become obsessive.
I have learned there is much more to this sharpening game than just sharpness. You have edge angle, edge smoothness (or coarseness), bevel finish, multiple bevels, etc. Even though I am not an expert I can put an edge on a knife that is more appropriate for the intended use of the knife. This is very satisfying. But when someone changes an edge back bevel from 13° per side to 12° that is considered obsessive because they know it won't improve the performance enough to matter. Of course I would never do anything like that ( :) ) but some people would. :)
Jack
Sharpening is a very satisfying and useful skill to have in your set :D
Anyone new challenged in sharpening as I was:
Get a Sharpmaker, lose your fear, and over time enjoy your edges. It's a journey as enjoyable as the knives themselves :D
