Can sharpening become trendy?

Gatco and Lansky are excellent tools.

I suppose it’s absolute heresy, but I use the Vee ceramic crock sticks. Takes just a few seconds to a minute and gets them shaving sharp.

To me, sharpening a knife is kinda like going to the bathroom. Something I gotta do, but I’m not going to make it last any longer than necessary

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.

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I miss him, too...a man with a wealth of knowledge and a heart of gold. Use his method of testing the edge of a knife by slicing Kroger register tape. If your blade is sharp enough to slice that thin tape without tearing it, it is exceedingly sharp, but the key to keep it sharp is stropping it after sharpening it.

I use a dual-sided paddle with coarse and polished leather panels. Sometimes a little polishing compound on the coarse side to help remove tiny, microscopic burrs helps produce an edge which is near perfect when stropped on the polished leather panel. Not only passes the register tape test but the blade-on-thumbnail test with flying colors.

For those of you without a leather strop, you can substitute a piece of corrugated cardboard or even the cardboard from the back of a tablet of paper. Clamp it to a flat surface and pull your knife edge over it to strop and polish the edge.

Register tape is good, specifically the type used for heat printing.

Kevin

mcb said:

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.

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Even before that, we were sharpening stone against stone, i.e. the Aschulean hand axe.

If you cannot hold a consistent angle, and most of the folks I know can't, any device that holds it for you will work, and serve you well.

The Edge-Pro and Wicked edge are the top of the line IME, but the Lansky Crock Sticks or Spyderco Sharpmaker will get the job done as well.

There are many tests for sharpness. A quick test that works well for me, is to try to "dry shave" facial hair. If the blade will dry shave my face without pulling too much, I consider it sharp enough for my use.

Every time the urge gets to strong and I sharpen the kitchen knives I have to make a big deal of it to SWMBO or there will be blood and questions!

For some reason she always seems a little cautious around my favorite Old Hickory....

We had a room mate at one point that dragged the old hickory through one of those crossed steel "Quick Sharpener" things and could not understand me setting a post in the back yard and piling sticks around the base. SWMBO stopped me before the Joan d'Arc re enactment.

-kBob

I've gone full circle on this. I started out sharpening 40 years ago with 2 Arkansas stones, which I still have. I then switched to various jigs which worked but I concluded they were a consumerist trap to spend a dollar to fix a nickle problem. I am back to stones with 2 additions- a holder to hold the stones and a leather strop. May even venture into Japanese water stones to get a fine polish.
With Youtube and such getting skills is easier than ever. 2 channels I have been watching lately are Virtuovice and Kyle Noseworthy

I use regular stones including a hard Arkansas and the back of a leather belt glued to a piece of maple plywood. I check the sharpness on a Stewart McDonald guitar supply catalog. It is similar to a telephone book and the paper is really thin.

My Buck and Spyderco are pretty sharp.

Have a blessed day,

Leon

I have set of Lansky rods, diamond, medium, and fine. They are my standard for touching up kitchen knives although I just touched up a few with the leather strop and it looks promising. The stones are needed for new or heavily worn knives.
My strop was made from a $1 belt from a local thrift store. Green honing compound was purchased online.

I own and can use stones freehand. Spent a lot of otherwise empty hours making a Buck 110 purchased at the ship's exchange into a shaving instrument back in 1972 when I was riding around on the USS Mobile. Never lost the touch.

I own and can use a Lansky to good effect.

But these days - it's Chef's choice for me. Every knife comes out a razor in under a minute. Just too good, too fast and too easy.

My Dada taught me how to use an old double sided Carborundum stone when I was about 10.Since then I have use hard & soft Arkansas stones and now a Norton 6 inch diamond stone and a leather strop. I can put a shaving edge on any of my knives and I have never even considered buying one of those fancy and expensive sharpening "Systems".

mcb said:

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.

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I’m not that old I won’t be over 60 until next month,but I was taught that a good man kept a sharp knife and a clean gun “Sharp ment shaving sharp “I still try to pass that on

MTNSTRYDER said:

I’m not that old I won’t be over 60 until next month,but I was taught that a good man kept a sharp knife and a clean gun “Sharp ment shaving sharp “I still try to pass that on

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Yes, although I am probably not as fastidious with my guns as I once was; my knives on the other hand are sharp and I sharpen them when needed. That said sharpening things can become second nature. This weekend's project was finishing a block plane I made from scrap, the body was scraps of plywood glued together and the blade for the plane was cut out from an old plowshare. Cut off with a right angle grinder with a cut-off wheel, ground to shape on a bench grinder and small 1-inch belt sander and then finish honed on a stone. Far from perfect but for a block plane made from scrap I am very pleased. Sharpening is a skill that can become intuitive with enough practice. Grab some cheap blades and practice.

mcb said:

This weekend's project was finishing a block plane I made from scrap,

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COOL!

I have the stropping bug really bad! Recently added a horse butt strop which is pure magic. This after some very basic freehand sharpening on a Norton India stone followed by a a Shapton pro 2k.
I do however still envy some of the edges I have seen that have come off the Wicked Edge and some of the other high quality guided systems.

streak said:

I have the stropping bug really bad!

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Not a bad thing........

Try diamond dust on your leather before your last strop on plain leather.
Don't know why I am posting this, just a possible hint to a finer edge.........

Don't ask me how I know........

Sharpening a knife to the point it slices your eyeballs just by looking at it is a fun academic exercise but usually has reached vastly diminishing returns a few stones before that 16000 grit water stone.

Keeping an edge that sharp is time consuming at best and an utter waste of time at worst. Striving for some middle ground of edge sharpness, longevity and durability should be the ultimate goal. Different blade steels will help provide that ratio.

I stop at 2000 grit then polish. With good steel, and the proper angle, it meets my definition of scary sharp.

Sharpening by hand is a definite skill to learn. Something to be proud of in a time where hands-on skills are diminishing among the younger generation. The bad part is the inconsistency that can be seen between makers and ones self when it comes to the task. Was able to do it yet like shooting, this takes practice to drive into muscle memory. Doing them in succession it can be a bit numb. I liked the Lansky system that I did this. Is consistent and quick. A bit of stropping with some white polishing compound following.