Can sharpening become trendy?

My grandpa would stone knives razor sharp his CASE XX still has an edge. I've been practicing with cheap knives no way will try my CRKT and BOKER

Sure, but what's next - the lost art of putting your own socks? That "Japanese art" of sharpening knives WAS the only way to do it as little as some 20 years ago. He was "thinking about investing in a whetstone". For weeks. For weeks... Life changing decision, I can bet! I'm sorry for being so sarcastic, but this incapable-of-doing-simple-tasks human is a disgrace to mankind, not a trend-maker.

For those that lack the fine manual dexterity, the Edge-Pro and Wicked Edge will provide an edge WELL BEYOND straight razor sharp, even on a bif survival knife.

Pretty much the very second I got into woodworking, I learned of Japanese waterstones. There are other ways to do it just like sharpening a knife but using old school stones is the first thing that is covered and at one time or another any and all hand tool woodworkers use stones. I still use mine but I compliment them with a Tormek.

Also traditional sharpening is used in the straight razor world as well very often. When I first delved into straight razor sharpening the very first instruction was manual sharpening using waterstones. The guy in the video mentioned he had purchased the waterstones from Lee Valley. A woodworking supply house among a few other things.

With today's hard steels I have to use a diamond stone to set the bevel. Then I use a medium or fine india stone to remove the burrs



But the most important tool, is a magnifying glass. The one on my Swiss Army knife works just great.



With the magnifying glass I can see just what I am doing to the bevel and the edge. Without the magnifying glass, I am clueless. Seeing what I am doing allows me to get the muscle memory to keep the same edge to stone angle, and to stop removing material once the edge becomes unsymmetrical. Then I center the edge by restoring symmetry by removing material from the other side of the blade. If you can monitor a process, you can control the process.

And I have lots of cuts on my fingers, attesting to how sharp my knives are!

I probably have 200+ stones in my shop. Japanese water stones, carborundum, India, Washita, Arkansas, ceramic, diamond, and more that escape me memory. I am currently fond of the ceramic waterstones.

Kevin

I can't maintain an angle worth a flip with traditional stones. I can get it coarsely sharp, but not scary sharp by hand. Lansky guided diamond kit for me. Scary! And taught my son with it, so I'm encouraging the trend...

I sort of feel like they guy that wants his kids to learn to drive a manual stick shift in case they ever have to. (shoot my Dad would not let me drive the nice auto trans car until I mastered the old station wagon with "Three on the tree")

fact is most cars and light trucks are automatics these days.

There are a lot of tools that make knife sharpening easier for the never got the hang of a manual transmission crowd and there is not a thing wrong with them....except most are leave at home or in the truck things. Not near as handy as a file in the hip pocket and a pocket stone in the front left.

On the other hand most folks today did not have a butcher for a Grand dad that insisted they not use anything but the bench stone for sharpening the shop knives.

When my best bud, who after a couple of years of my teaching still could not sharpen a knife, went out and bought one of those things that clips onto your buck knife to keep the angle right, I was appalled! Guy had an IQ of 140 + but could not hold a knife against a stone and drag it at a decent angle! Imagine my shock when I found out MOST guys in my Infantry outfit did more damage to a knife than sharpening it when they applied steel to stone!

Fact is that knife sharpening which some of us have done with and old brick, a concrete curb, the bottom of a ceramic coffee cup ect. ect. actually is something of an art form.

Finding the right "crutch" can be an expensive outing, though folks sharing on here can be helpful. Me I do not run worth a flip and never had yet I know folks that do 10k fun runs for fun. I can sort of waltz and fake a two step but any other ballroom dancing is beyound me. Juggle? I don't think so. Why would I poke fun at someone that can not sharpen a knife?

Find what works best for you and use it. Don't worry about critics or fashion, just....get'er done!

-kBob

Very proud all my grand kids can sharpen a knife and shoot a weapon - safely.

I have been sharpening my own knives, axes, and saws since I was 11. Learned in the Boy Scouts. Not sure why it's seen as such a difficult skill? We humans have been sharpening bit of metal into cutting edges since the bronze age.

^^^^^ Knowledge taken to the grave unabated is wasted.

I was looking for some videos I saw earlier in the year where people were making very, very sharp knives from paper and I came across this video. This guy has a sharp knife:



In the comments of the video they mention surgeons knives with sharpnesses in the nanometers made of diamond and obsidian:



https://www.cnn.com/2015/04/02/health/surgery-scalpels-obsidian/index.html

https://obsidian-scalpel.blogspot.com/2012/12/surgeon-use-for-obsidian-scalpel-blades.html

https://www.fluther.com/13416/whats-the-deal-with-obsidian-scalpels/

The sharpness tests in Sharp Dogs video is what I use. It was taught to me by an old guy here on the forum, RCModel. He also liked using supermarket register tape instead of regular paper. I miss our calls RC, RIP my friend.

I think sharpening is becoming trendy along with polishing the edge. On the blade forums sharpening by hand seems to be what most do. The two biggest things that contributed to my blade sharpening ability was controlling the angle and burr. These two things give me the sharpest and most durable edge. I admire those that can free hand sharpen on a stone. An ability I can't seem to master. Even as forgiving as chain saw blades are I have to have something to control my sharpening angle. With a chain saw blade the angle makes a difference. As far as polishing the blade (strops, diamond paste, etc.) that may or may not be overkill. I haven't seen the need to go that far. I purchased one of these sharpeners a couple of months ago. It is a very nice sharpener:

bikerdoc said:

The sharpness tests in Sharp Dogs video is what I use. It was taught to me by an old guy here on the forum, RCModel. He also liked using supermarket register tape instead of regular paper. I miss our calls RC, RIP my friend.

Click to expand...

Try phone book paper. Or better yet, polymer fishing line. THAT'S a challenge! That knife in the video was cutting relatively thick paper...easy peasy.

Thanks Sparkyv, will give it a try!

My test is ripe tomatoes. If it will easily cut a ripe tomato you're good. Have to admit though, I learned to sharpen a knife working as a bus boy in a restaurant where part of my job was stocking the salad bar. Man people can eat a lot of tomatoes …

bikerdoc said:

^^^^^ Knowledge taken to the grave unabated is wasted.

Click to expand...

Now, where have I heard that before?

Kevin

^ You are a smart man