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Spin Off on the Knife topic

Sharpening is one of those things that takes dedication to get right. I have the good fortune of knowing several knife makers, one in particular has the sharpest knives I've ever used. They also hold their edge better than other makers. It comes down to so many factors that it would make you go blind, what kind of steel is it, who or how was it heat treated, what angles does the maker of the knife think it should be sharpened at, what is the knife used for, etc, etc...

Generally speaking I use a belt grinder (1" x 24" belts), 120 grit if its bad, but usually start at 220 grit, 400 then a cork belt, after that you can strop it with a good leather belt, I skip the leather belt and use a ceramic rod.
For quit on the go stuff a nice little stone or one of the hundreds of stone, diamond grit blocks on the market followed up by a ceramic rod.

It's taken me a few years but now everyone at work brings their knives to me for sharpening, that in turn gives me more practice which helps me with my own knives.

Bottom line practice with knives that it doesn't matter if you screw them up a couple times, then move on to ones you rely on.
 
How do you avoid taking the temper out of your knife with a bench grinder? Touchy at best, unless you have one of those fancy low RPM grinders and white wheels.

Doc.
 
I've got a super fast system that I learned from an old Knife magazine. Apparently what most knife makers use to sharpen is a slack belt sander.
My brother has a crankshaft polishing machine that is just the ticket. It's a 1" wide 320 grit belt that is suspended between two pulleys about 2 feet apart.
What I do is very carefully run one side of the knife across the belt, looking at the edge. When a "wire" edge forms, I know I've got that side done. I repeat on the other side.
This method is really nice because it also takes out all the small nicks, etc. It also only take about 1 minute to do, and the results look like it came straight from the factory.
Then, I take the knife to a medium buffing wheel and polish that "wire" edge off. After that the knife is scalpel sharp and will stay sharp longer than any other method I've
ever used. I've got a Benchmade knife with the S30V steel that seems like it'll stay sharp forever. The only downside it you can't use it on serrated knives.
 
Devil Doc said:
How do you avoid taking the temper out of your knife with a bench grinder? Touchy at best, unless you have one of those fancy low RPM grinders and white wheels.

Doc.
Click to expand...

My mistake, I meant to type belt grinder, it sits on my bench so I always call it a bench grinder. Yes you do have to be careful with it in regards to the temper. I keep a glass of water next to it when I'm sharpening. If the knife is going to require a bunch of work you need to keep it cool. I have burnt a few tips, usually my leathermen blades and such from just being in a hurry.
 
I never could get the angle right using a whet stone. My youngest brother is a genius with his but not me. So I found this link and have been using it for a couple of years now. I love it and it does really well for me. The 30 degree angle is great for my field knife, and the 25 degree is great for my Uncle Henry 3 blade I carry. It is worth the money in my opinion. YMMV
 
I like DMT stones. They are relatively cheap and stay flat. I agree that learning the technique is the hardest part. I am fortunate to have a bunch of old knives that I can mess around practicing on. Still improving, but much better than when I first started.
 
I'd like to talk about honing oils for a bit. The reason one uses oil or water in a pinch, (we're not talking about Japanese water stones) is to suspend the metal fillings in the oil, keeping it off the stone, and getting the maximum amount of abrasion. Now, there are lots of honing oils out there and most of them are ridiculously expensive. Buck Honing Oil comes to mind. Last time I looked it was about 5 or 6 dollars for a few fluid Oz's. All it is, is ATF. You can buy a lot of ATF for 5 bucks. I've also found that baby oil works well. It smells nice too and you can buy a Qt of generic baby oil for a couple of bucks. So save yourself some money and keep your stones it tip-top shape by using lots of it.

Doc.
 
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