Newbe sharpening question

[rc51kid]

I usually sharpen my knives on a stone that my girlfriends dad bought me. One side cores and one side fine. He showed me how to do it and mostly I get very good results. Some days I feel like I just put a lot of work into it and just cant get a edge I am happy with. But I know it will work because it is the system he has used for 60 years and his knives are hair popping sharp all the time. I know the spyderco system is probably better but I want to try to get this way down first. So for know I am sticking with the old-fashioned way. But recently I started stropping the knives on a piece of card board after sharpening them. I had some polishing compound from a old project laying around. So I rubbed it into the card board. Then I make about 6 passes on the cardboard as the last step of my sharpening. They appear to turn out very nice and sharp. I was wanting to know if there is any harm in doing this? Is this a bad idea or going to hurt the edge holding at all?

[Shike]

Hi! No harm at all. You can make a nice strop fairly cheap. Get a paint mixing stick (You know the kind they give for free when you buy a can of paint) A piece of leather large enough to cover most of the stick. Glue the rough side of the leather down unto the wood, when dry trim even with the stick apply some buffing compound (the fine red stuff) to the smooth leather side and rub it in with an old cloth. There you have it.

Shike

[yablanowitz]

Sometimes stropping is all you need.

If you do it correctly, it shouldn't hurt the edge at all. If you use too much pressure or get the angle too high you can round off the edge, though. Just be careful.

It does take some practice to develop free hand sharpening skill, but I think it is worth the effort.

[jugg2]

I have always hand sharpened my knives on a stone. I started around 10 years old, and I'm 17 now. It takes some practice to learn, and get the feel. I enjoy it though, because it is not something just anybody can do. With my new Spyderco fine grit benchstone it is much easier to get a true edge, instead of a wire edge. Finishing off with a plain leather strop, produces very nice results for me.

I am going to get some compound to put on my leather strop soon, but for right now spending a while on the leather does a pretty good job.

[SimpleIsGood229]

For what it's worth, I've played around with different freehand sharpening techniques. What I've arrived at is holding a DMT Diafold upside down in my right hand, with the knife in my left hand. This way, I can actually see the stone engage the edge, which makes it MUCH easier to keep the angle consistent (as opposed to putting the stone flat on a table/bench).

Diafolds:
http://www.dmtsharp.com/products/diafold.htm

[realitycheck]

rckid you said that the spyderco system was probably better. Honestly it all comes down to how consistently the angle is held while going across the stone. It doesnt matter what system you use as long as it it consistently the same angle. Thats why some people can create a edge that will split hairs on just a bench stone and other like me it requires stropping to get there. Stropping takes up the slack of not being able to hold that angle so consistent. The system that works best for you is what you need to use.

[Shike]

A word about buffing compounds. Get as small a piece as you can for this purpose, it will probably last you a lifetime. Another is if you have a dog keep it out of reach. A lot of them have a animal grease base that dogs love but it tends to have a very bad and unpleasant result :eek:

[jmp]

Some days I feel like I just put a lot of work into it and just cant get a edge I am happy with.

I think I can remember this - the well known bad sharpening days aka bad hair days, when the only way to have a freshly sharpened blade to remove hair is by abrading skin :) .

Stropping does help, if the knife's already reasonably sharp. But I think the
problem's earlier:

During sharpening I sometimes cut / slice the blade thru a piece of end-grain wood, which should get rid of some burr.

If necessary, you can also get rid of weak steel on the edge itself - very useful after reprofiling with diamond - by cutting/slicing directly into (the small side or possible the v-grove of) a sharpening stone. This dulls the blade and the microbevel, but it also does get rid of burr and weak steel on the edge, so resharpening afterwards is quick and easy. I first read about this trick in a post from Cliff Stamp - and it DOES work nicely.

cu
Peter