So sharpening

[HarleyXJGuy]

I know there is no blanket method that works for every knife.

But I am willing to bet a number of us do all of our knives pretty much the same way.

My question being what is your method?

Which stones you work through and angles you like?

Polished or not?

[bh49]

I am using WE Field & Sport Pro to set-up bevels usually @ 13 degrees. This is how low it goes. Grids from 100 to 1000. Than I am maintaining microbevel on sharpmaker at 40 degrees inclusive. For S35VN and S110V I am using only medium rods. Blades can shave. VG10 pocket knives sometimes getting treated with fine rods. VG10 kitchen knives always medium and fine. I have UF, but didn't use them for a long time. Most likely will use, when my friend will send his ZDP Caly3.5 to me for sharpening.

[HarleyXJGuy]

Does the 1000 grit give you a polish on the edge BH49?

[bearfacedkiller]

A lot of people on here use some other device for reprofiling such as the wicked edge but many of us maintain our edge/microbevels on the sharpmaker. There are also plenty of people on here who use bench stones and freehand sharpen. I only freehand when not at home.

My first piece of advice when it comes to the sharpmaker is to always purchase the diamond rods along with it and hold off on the UF rods until later if ever. I take my Super Blue down to the UF rods and it is amazing but for most of my knives I stop with either the medium or fine rods. If i am in a hurry in the morning I have no problem with stopping on the browns. That toothy edge can cut very well. Tomatoes being a good example, the medium finish will cut through the smooth skin effortlessly but when taken all the way to the UF stones it has a tendency to just slide on the surface. My wife uses a funny term. She says that she prefers our kitchen knives "tomato sharp" which means a clean apex on the browns for us. I would refine the edge a little more but what mama wants mama gets and in this case it is kitchen knives finished on the browns. There are quite a few on here who only finish on the browns for many of their knives. For me this really depends on the steel and how much time I have and what I am going to be using it for. I appreciate and enjoy a variety of finishes.

A sharp edge is an edge that has been cleanly apexed, that is it. The finish you choose from there really just depends on your desired level of refinement for the steel and application you have at hand. When I am trying to explain sharpening to newbies that is the concept I try to emphasize. Having your edge cleanly apexed with good undamaged and unstressed steel is paramount to what level of refinement you choose and really the level of refinement is pointless if you haven't cleanly apexed your edge and removed any damaged/stressed material. I do not mean to devalue refinement totally. You can't apex your edge at 40 grit and call it sharp but once the grit gets small enough they are all technically sharp regardless of your level of refinement.

As far as angles go I mainly run the standard 30/40 setup that the sharpmaker is designed around but I do have a few knives that I run a 25ish/30 setup on. I set the 25ish angle freehand and then maintain the 30 on the sharpmaker. Works well for me and I haven't really done anything with angles lower than those. Mainly because I lack a good way to do it. My wife says a Wicked Edge is on the Christmas list this year.

[mb1]

Are there any clamp type systems that work with narrow blades? Or are stones your only option if it it won't fit in a clamp?

[bh49]

Does the 1000 grit give you a polish on the edge BH49?

No. I believe that sharpmaker's medium rods, which supposed to be around 600 are giving me finish the same or better than 1000 diamond on WE. recently I purchased ceramics for WE, but I didn't try them yet.

[bearfacedkiller]

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After:





I run a 23-26ish ? freehand primary on this one with a 30 degree microbevel and finish it on the UF rods and it is usually my scariest sharp knife. It is the one I show non knife people when I want to show off. Most people have never seen a hair whittled before and this knife will usually do it for me. This level of sharpness is really a novelty for me though. I do it just because I can. The rest of the time my S30V para2 finished on the browns is all I need or want. I mix it up just for variety.

[Fancier]

Oddly enough I find that I get more even bevels freehand than I do on the sharpmaker. I set the bevels using DMT fine (or coarse if there is a lot to remove) and leave it there for the designated tomato knife. The rest get polished up on the UF Spyderco bench stone using the corners and the flats gently. I drop down to a coarse SiC stone if a new knife needs the plunge lines cleaned up or if the bevels are really uneven. Anything serrated is sharpened on the sharpmaker using the corners.
The pizza restaurant in town trades me beer for sharpening and their knives get DMT extra coarse followed by DMT coarse since they like a lot of bite and the "pizza swords" are tedious to take to a more polished edge. Their main problem is point and edge damage from dropping knives onto the concrete floor and from cutting on stainless steel counters, so anything that will slice paper impresses them.

[xceptnl]

Are there any clamp type systems that work with narrow blades? Or are stones your only option if it it won't fit in a clamp?

AFAIK, the Apex EP and the DMT Aligner will both work very well on narrow blades, but it will depend on your desired edge angle.

[bh49]

many of us maintain our edge/microbevels on the sharpmaker.
I am using sharpmaker since 2005. IMHO this is a great tool for touch-ups. Not so much for reprofiling. Back than diamond rods were quite expensive and I tried several thing additional to medium rods for reprofiling. The latest were congress tool stones Ruby in 80/150/320 grits and moldmasters in 120/240/400 grits. Even with help of these coarse stones reprofiling of VG10 or S30V was taking long hours. It took me may be 20 minutes to reprofile S30Vn Native. About the same amount of time for VG10 caly3.5 or big Persian. May be an hour and half (watching movie at the same time) to reprofile my S110V Native. I tried many options and spend probably at least couple hundred $$ for experience until I decided that I need WE or Edgepro. After some research I decided to go with WE.

My wife says a Wicked Edge is on the Christmas list this year.

Congrats on your wife. MY WE is my wife's present as well for my last year b-day. I have the great wife.

[HarleyXJGuy]

Before:



After:





I run a 23-26ish ? freehand primary on this one with a 30 degree microbevel and finish it on the UF rods and it is usually my scariest sharp knife. It is the one I show non knife people when I want to show off. Most people have never seen a hair whittled before and this knife will usually do it for me. This level of sharpness is really a novelty for me though. I do it just because I can. The rest of the time my S30V para2 finished on the browns is all I need or want. I mix it up just for variety.

Something like this is my plan for when my Dragonfly 2 get here. Make it stupid sharp and use it as a back up show off piece. Plan to keep something more toothy on my Millie for day to day work.

[Nick Herrera]

I sharpen all my blades freehand. If you frequent the Spyderco fan page on facebook, you probably have seen my work! I try to keep my angle similar to the bevel on the blades, so unfortunately, I can't give exact angles!

Method:

180 grit oregon stone (only if full reprofile is needed.)
400 grit generic stone
600 grit oregon stone
1000 grit generic stone
1000 grit Shun Ceramic stone
1200 grit generic ceramic stone
Spyderco Double Stuff MED
6000 grit Shun Ceramic stone
Spyderco Double Stuff FINE

Then comes the strop(s)

5 micron paste on a Tormek rotating leather strop
3 micron diapaste in Balsa wood
3 micron red paste on leather paddle
0.5 micron green paste on leather paddle!

*phew!* that took long to write. Lol

My results:

[Evil D]

General Use:

Edge Pro with Atoma 600, then Edge Pro 3k tape very lightly on the edge in a "stropping" fashion just to refine the teeth. This will whittle hair very easily.

Internet Showoff Use:

As above, but from Atomas to 1k Shapton Glass, then on to the EP tapes, then 16k Shapton Glass, then strop, then back on whatever grit I want the edge apex to be, which is typically the 3k EP tape depending on if I actually want it to cut like a polished edge or not. This will struggle to whittle hair because it tends to pop completely through the hair the instant it cuts into it. This kind of edge (in my world) has absolutely no use other than for impressing your friends unless you're sharpening a straight razor to shave with.

Gratuitous internet showoff pics:





I did the Leek freehand on the EP stones.

[HarleyXJGuy]

NIce looking edges Nick. What grit is the double stuff fine? 10k?

Evil D. I am seeing a lot of this in my research. Going to 400 or 600 then polishing it up some. Look forward to getting a sharpener and trying out some different techniques. For general use you don't strop your edge?

[Nick Herrera]

NIce looking edges Nick. What grit is the double stuff fine? 10k?

Nope,

I think it's closer to 6K, I find it does a better job cleaning my edge up than the 6K shun. I don't know why. My technique doesn't change when I swap stones lol. Although, It might be even less. I think it's the same grit as the Sharpmaker fine rods, although I could be very wrong.

also, thanks!

[Evil D]

NIce looking edges Nick. What grit is the double stuff fine? 10k?

Evil D. I am seeing a lot of this in my research. Going to 400 or 600 then polishing it up some. Look forward to getting a sharpener and trying out some different techniques. For general use you don't strop your edge?

I avoid using strops, not going to go into why because it's a mess every time we talk about stropping around here but if you do some searches you'll get lots of threads on it. I do strop my serrated knives though but I use a Dremel for that. As for skipping from a low grit stone up to a high grit stone my philosophy there is that it essentially gives you a similar effect as stropping does but at a much more accurate way than a strop will. The higher grit stone doesn't cut aggressive enough to remove the teeth left by the lower grit stone, but it will clean them up and refine their shape more than the lower grit stone can do on it's own.

[HarleyXJGuy]

"The higher grit stone doesn't cut aggressive enough to remove the teeth left by the lower grit stone, but it will clean them up and refine their shape more than the higher grit stone can do on it's own."

Gonna be honest here you lost me.

You said a higher grit stone will clean up the edge better then a higher grit stone will?

[Evil D]

"The higher grit stone doesn't cut aggressive enough to remove the teeth left by the lower grit stone, but it will clean them up and refine their shape more than the higher grit stone can do on it's own."

Gonna be honest here you lost me.

You said a higher grit stone will clean up the edge better then a higher grit stone will?

Typo, meant to say better than a lower grit stone can.

[spyderg]

I picked up a "Ken Onion edition Work Sharp" and it works really well. Nice even edge, easy to use, even if you don't have the steadiest hand, and does the job quickly. Only issue I've noticed is that the guide sometimes scratches the side of some blades, not all...? Oh well, doesn't really bother me as I USE all my knives and they get marked up anyway. Might not be the best choice for display knives though.

[Trout Hound]

I have a Lansky kit, and lately I've been doing some sharpening with sandpaper adhered to 1/4" plate glass. I really like the results. For outdoor/gen. purpose knives, I like 30 deg. inclusive on 320x wet/dry paper. Leaves just enough tooth in the edge.