Best sharpening method

[tomk556]

My sister's a chef and for a time had an in with someone selling Shun knives so she got me one as gifts for a while. I know there are a lot of other companies out there too. Just funny because it's like I'm using a nice knife to cut a frozen pizza...

It's been fun to learn to sharpen well, and overall, once I got the right stones not too difficult. Perhaps it's one of those boy scout learned skills, and while I'm sure I can get better at getting nearer to the ideal angle, I can feel and hear when it's not right.

[RustyIron]

Electric or stone? What do you guys recommend?

If you're actually interested in making your knives sharp, then you will use stones--not "A" stone. Electric sharpeners are an abomination. Yes, that is a blanket statement, but I stand by it. There are uses for motorized tools in sharpening, but if you have to ask, then they're not for you.

Let me start by saying that I am learning, I'll always be learning, and there are many who are far more skillful than I will ever be.

I use an Edge Pro clone, and it's taken me from having good results, to having the finest edges I've ever seen. Wait... I have a knife in my desk drawer from my sensei, and it's better than my own. The Edge Pro clones are cheap at under forty bucks off Amazon, but they're junky. If you use it for very long, you'll end up needing to fix/modify it. A "real" EdgePro will set you back 400-700, so you're best off trying the clone to see if you're going to stick with it.

Use the stones that come with your clone. Stones are hugely important, but again, you don't want to throw down a lot of cash one high-quality stones right out of the gate. Use the El Cheapo's, and don't think of upgrading until after you feel you've wrung all the sharpness you can out of your junk stones.

Use those tools, experiment, see what you can do. The next step would to get some GOOD stones. They're not cheap, but you'll do better work. Soon you'll be making your knives FAR better than they came from the factory. And if you sharpen a knife for someone else, you'll have genuine concern for their well being, as if you're handing a newbie a loaded gun.

As you're skill improves, so will your desire to use finer stones, and maybe you'll even want to dabble in slurry in the sub-micron scale. But jumping in at that level is pointless, until you've experimented and learned enough to get there.

If you decide to go this route and have questions, shoot 'em this way and I'l try to answer.

[ryno066]

Finally after forever and a day I got my survive knife.

[Win231]

I use the cheap "V" sharpeners. I'm not good at maintaining proper angle & these do it for me. They're around $25.00 for two on QVC. I just have to be careful not to apply pressure; they remove metal faster than other methods.

[NYT]

i use whetstones when i want to get fancy and have spare time to break out all the stones, tub, cloths, etc. i use this badboy when i want to sharpen all my kitchen knives (shun).

[Featureless]

Spyderco Sharpmaker, get the optional extra fine stones, under $90 shipped for the unit and extra stones.

Steels maintain the edge, stones reshapes the edge and removes metal, I steel my knives maybe 5 times more than I stone them. You don't have to be fancy like the Chef below with a steel, just a few slow passes on each side at a 15 to 20-degree angle is all it should take, if that doesn't work get out the Sharpmaker.

Friedr. Dick's Dickoron steels are some of the best in the world, typically 66 HRC, this is a good video on their steels, I use their Sapphire series steels,




MM

Agreed on the Spyderco Sharpmaker. It's almost foolproof.

But, but, but, the words 'cut' and Dick' should never be included in the same sentence.

[MeatyMac]

But, but, but, the words 'cut' and Dick' should never be included in the same sentence.

Being their sales rep I’ve heard it all many times, working in their booth at a trade show it’s non-stop Dick jokes all day...

But Friedr. Dick is a great manufacture to represent, out of the big 3 German cutlery manufactures they’re the only one still manufacturing everything in Germany. They also look at the business differently, half of their business is sharpening products, non-edge butcher tools and precision files and tools for the jewelry, gunsmith, watch making trades. Johann Friedrich Dick founded the company in 1778 to manufacture files. It continued in the manufacture of files as its main product line until 1873, when Paul Friedrich Dick took over the company and began the production of sharpening steels, in 1889 they began making knives.

[jdben92883]

I use a Wicked Edge for my non-kitchen knives. It can produce a mirror edge, if desired.

I have a set of Shun Kaji's in the kitchen and my Chef's Choice 1520 does just as good a job in 1 minute as the Wicked Edge does in 30-40 minutes of work. It works really, really well on the 15-degree "Japanese" setting for those knives.

[skilletboy]

i use whetstones when i want to get fancy and have spare time to break out all the stones, tub, cloths, etc. i use this badboy when i want to sharpen all my kitchen knives (shun).

Just pulled mine out yesterday and sharpened up all my kitchen knives!

I have stones, but honestly I find them more difficult than they are worth. Some guys are really good at them - I'm not.

[Kyle1886]

Steel for kitchen knives.

Since I often work with mule tape, I gave up on knives and just use a utility "knife" that I can change blades in. Mule tape kills knives.

I still carry the old Schrade pen knife I had in high school back in the '50s. One blade is a bit short due to very hot wire. The Schrade I stone---sometime.

Kyle

[MeatyMac]

Stones for me.

I haven't tried one on a knife yet but my guess is that improper use of a knife belt sander/grinder can ruin a knife a lot faster than any damage you can do w/a stone. I've ruined a few things w/a circular grinder so I'll just stick to hand sharpening w/stones UNLESS I get into the business and need to sharpen a lot more knives much faster.

If I ever do buy a knife sander/grinder, I'll be sure to "practice" using it on cheap/disposable knives before attempting to sharpen anything valuable. Suggest that anyone considering such a purchase do the same.

Stones for me too, and steels and strops...I saw a new, untouched $5,500 Japanese natural stone yesterday at Hida Tool in Berkeley across the street from REI, have you ever been in that place? Fun little shop to check out on San Pablo a half block south of Gillman.

Yes, the belt eats up the blade faster, a skilled operator tries to reduce this, hopefully, but the angle of grind can be quickly altered w/a belt, the stone not so much unless you really try. I sell Friedr. Dick sharpening machines and they manufacture both belt systems and stone wheel both flat an horizontal stones. In high volume processing they mostly use a water cooled belt for speed, then to a 1000 grit vertical stone or sanding wheel then to a cotton polishing wheel with compound. This is one of the machines, there are several optional fixtures that go on these machines depending on what you are sharpening.



Here's a belt and honing wheel fixture, a lot of grinders will do these operations free-hand but some want to be exact with their edge grinds






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I recently sold one of these machines to Harris Ranch on I-5 to sharpen their Buffalo chopper blades which have a 10" curved edge and a convex blade so they actually use a belt with a fixture to dress the convex about a 1/2" behind the edge after they sharpen the edge; all German made machines, beautiful, shiny toys for knife guys

On this machine they have the option of using the top grinder, a belt and a paper honing and polishing wheels, this pic shows the Buffalo chopper knife fixture installed on top, the operator holds the two black knobs and swings the knife's edge across the wet stone.

[Air]

I have a Worksharp. I'll use that for kitchen knives and knives I generally don't care about that much. Lansky System for the knives I care about or that I want to get scary sharp. Sharpmaker for maintenance on the EDC knives.

[ngnrnlo]

no one uses Belgian coticules?

[reverser]

Fun fact about them. They offer knife sharpening but they send all of their work out to someone else (guy drives around with a truck and sharpens - is often at the Farmer's market). He's a hack that doesn't know how to sharpen Japanese knives at all.

It's sad because I like the shop otherwise.

Stones for me too, and steels and strops...I saw a new, untouched $5,500 Japanese natural stone yesterday at Hida Tool in Berkeley across the street from REI, have you ever been in that place? Fun little shop to check out on San Pablo a half block south of Gillman.

[MeatyMac]

Bernal Cutlery does wet stone sharpening by hand exclusively but even they will use a belt to shape a convex edge, they will finish the edge on a wet stone though. I'll have to ask Mark at Golden State Sharpening how he sharpens Japanese knives now, he's the mobile sharpening guy you're referencing, he's always offered belt/wheel sharpening but I believe he's now offering wet stone sharpening as well for an extra charge.

Very few of the sharpening services in the Bay Area do wet stone sharpening exclusively, most of them are using some combo of belt/stone wheel/strop or paper wheel or just stone wheel/strop or paper wheel. Belt sharpening is typically just the first step, if the edge is established a good grinder will skip the belt and go right to a stone wheel, a good grinder tries to removes as little metal as they have to. What concerns me the most about using a belt is the heat and possible temper loss which can greatly effect edge retention, if the grinder is controlling belt speed and using a water cooled belt that's the best method, a water cooled belt going through a bath of water is what's usually encountered but some grinders and knife manufactures will use a bath and will also mist water from a nozzle at the grind point, some will use a water additive to cool the water that's being misted at the grind point.

Fun fact about them. They offer knife sharpening but they send all of their work out to someone else (guy drives around with a truck and sharpens - is often at the Farmer's market). He's a hack that doesn't know how to sharpen Japanese knives at all.

It's sad because I like the shop otherwise.