Best value knife sharpening system?

[OnionsAndDragons]

Carter Cutlery used to have some good YouTube vids in stone sharpening. Something like that is a good place to get some first principles. Then I would honestly watch a bunch of Japanese guys maintaining their kitchen knives.

I used to have a couple vids of an American guy that spent ten years at school in Japan, who loved knives. Spent a bunch of time learning water stone work from sushi chefs and some bladesmiths. I can't find them now, but I will see if I saved them to my drive when I can.

Get the basic use and principles from a reputable source like a Knifemaker or one of the good cutlery vendors mentioned above. Then watch the movements of people that do this as part of their profession, like master butchers or sushi chefs, to get a better idea on refining technique.

I use a block designed to hold different sand papers specifically for knife sharpening. Mostly I use it as a variable grit stropping instrument. If you strop your steel every few days or every week, you rarely need to sharpen unless something bad happens. You could easily build a DIY leather strop out of some scrap leather, tacked to a wood block, that you apply some polishing compound to. Green rouge is a good general purpose for most steels. You can get a bit at any hardware store where the buffers or grinders are.

[nycnoob]

So, while there are probably dozens of knife-sharpening videos out there, it'd be useful for me to get a few pro tips.

Could you share a few pointers to start me off?

My last freehand sharpening attempt was in Boy Scouts, uh, a while ago.

Knife is a Benchmade minigrip with combo serrated / smooth blade.

For best results
use this tool -> Benchmade: warranty-service

There's never a dull moment with a Benchmade... That's right! We will gladly re-sharpen your Benchmade knife to a factory razor sharp edge (service does not apply to any serrated portion of the blade). If you prefer us to sharpen your blade, or if you may have neglected to maintain your edge for a while, simply ship your knife to us. We'll not only sharpen it, but we will also inspect the knife for any warranted repairs and "tune" the knife for optimum performance.

[newyork]

Wicked Edge. Done.

[redbone]

Wicked Edge. Done.

Except for the "value" part.

[BobLoblaw]

Spyderco makes a tri-angle sharpener that works for straight, serrated, and combo blades. Easy, quick, and cheap. No moving parts either.

[Tuesday]

Lot of knives and tools? A belt sander that takes 1x30 or 1x42 belts and a sharpening fixture.

Few knives? Send them out to a reputable knife sharpener once or twice a year and steel them between sharpenings.

[Malamute]

So, while there are probably dozens of knife-sharpening videos out there, it'd be useful for me to get a few pro tips.

Could you share a few pointers to start me off?

My last freehand sharpening attempt was in Boy Scouts, uh, a while ago.

Knife is a Benchmade minigrip with combo serrated / smooth blade. Is it more complicated than steady even pressure, at the angle of the current blade, as if I was trying to slice a sliver out of the stone? Does the blade move in angle? (I assume not.)

Thanks!

Rich, Id suggest starting with kitchen knives to start out and get the feel for it. If the edge is pretty bad, I sometimes use a stone rather than my diamond lap steel, and use a circular motion. Besides allowing you to get more time and pressure on the stone per stroke, it makes a different pattern on the edge. You want to make a few passes, then look at the actual cutting edge from the sides, the part that was on the stone. If you are trying to match the factory bevel, you can see by looking at the part that was stoned and if it matches, then you can adjust the angle as desired. You also want to look at the cutting edge straight on and see if its still blunt in some or all parts of it or is taking the blunted edge off.

You may need magnifier glasses depending on your vision. you have to be able to see something very small and fine to see how your angle is doing. Once you get the wear pattern even from side to side, and all the way from the cutting edge to as far back as your angle will be, then go to a couple strokes one direction instead of circular. Youll see the difference on the pattern on the edge right away. get that even on the stone and both sides matching, then as the edge comes along, one stroke per side, then lesser pressure. It sometimes takes several goes to get it figured out, but after a few different knives, youll start getting the feel for what your doing. Ive always liked being able to actually see the work progress as I described. If the knife wont take a really fine edge, you may want to change the bevel to a thinner cutting edge. I tend to like a fairly thin cutting edge.

In doing the initial circular motion, I work the blade up and down the stone tip to handle to tip and such to maximize time and get the feel for the bevel angle youre working on. Gettinga good edge freehand is a matter of being able to understand the angle and keep it consistant. a couple passes at the wrong angle makes more work to get the worked edge back to the right angle again. Its frustrating at times, but it takes time to get the feel for it.

The tip often requires what seems like a different angle to keep the bevel/cutting angle right. Time will help get the feel of it.

If others have more experience and different techniques I'm happy to learn. This is whats worked for me.

[RJ]

For best results
use this tool -> Benchmade: warranty-service

Thanks Nyc; I printed out the forms and am going to send my mini-Grip in to Benchmade for the Lifesharp service and tune up.

Much appreciated!

[newyork]

While this is a great example of customer service and the knives probably come back to you fast, sharp and clean, it's good to have sort of system to learn and sharpen on yourself with instant gratification.

You wouldn't have to ship out and wait a week. It also is satisfying to resharpen yourself.

If you have other knives from other makers, you'd have to get those sharpened eventually too. I'd spring for, and learn a sharpening system of some sort eventually.

My .02

[JCS]

That is great customer service. Spyderco does the same.

My knife needs truly sharpened every few weeks. My main carry knife, pm2 with s30v gets daily use. Nothing crazy. I like to keep it razor sharp. That's another thing about having a sharpener, you get spoiled by a sharp knife. Once my knife can't cut paper smoothly it gets sharpened. It's still plenty sharp to do almost any task. But I like it being that next level of sharp.


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