Try my hand at free hand sharpening

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SteadyD

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I’m also going to start trying my hand at freehand sharpening in earnest, so I got a Ladybug in H1. With such low edge retention, it should sharpen (and dull) easily enough to give me some practice opportunities, and at a cost low enough to not ruin my day if I do an awful job!

Did you ever get a KME sharpening system?
 
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I continue to be impressed with 20CV. If I had never ventured out and tried some of the very high edge retention steels like S110V and Maxamet, I doubt I would have gotten the equipment/experience that makes sharpening 20CV so easy in comparison. Next up is k390. I have a Dragonfly Wharncliffe arriving today with k390.

I’m also going to start trying my hand at freehand sharpening in earnest, so I got a Ladybug in H1. With such low edge retention, it should sharpen (and dull) easily enough to give me some practice opportunities, and at a cost low enough to not ruin my day if I do an awful job!

Did you ever get a KME sharpening system?
No I had a very expensive 2021 full of house repairs, improvements, vehicle repairs, and other costs that were due to my own poor self control. It's coming, but I may be looking for a black friday deal this year. Honestley I own enough knives that they get lightly used, and I could wait another 4-5 years before NEEDING to sharpen. But I have a set of kitchen knives in bad need, and it's a good way to practice and get good. I don't actually care if my kitchen knives look like hell, so long as they cut.
 
Most people start of with less expensive used knives in carbon steel instead of buying a good new knife...just say'n. ;)

I have a few beaters that’ll get sharpened/ruined first!
 
Most people start of with less expensive used knives in carbon steel instead of buying a good new knife...just say'n. ;)
I sharpened three knives tonight and didn’t ruin a single one! It was quite enjoyable and all ended up shaving sharp. I picked two knives in BD1N and one in 9Crxxxxx so as to make these early tries a bit easier. Next I will do one in N690 and another in 8Crxxxx. After that I’m going to try H1 and then S30V. If I’m still not ruining anything and getting even grinds and sharp knives I’ll start researching quality bench stones.
 
If you can sharpen a knife made from soft steel, you can sharpen a knife made from hard steel using exactly the same technique. The only difference is that a harder sharpening stone is required for the harder steel. If you always sharpen with diamond stones then you're good to sharpen any knife, even ceramics. The softer steel will sharpen faster, but the technique is the same. The only exception is that ceramic knives need very light pressure and finer grit or you'll end up with edge chipping that has to be ground away.
 
I sharpened three knives tonight and didn’t ruin a single one! It was quite enjoyable and all ended up shaving sharp. I picked two knives in BD1N and one in 9Crxxxxx so as to make these early tries a bit easier. Next I will do one in N690 and another in 8Crxxxx. After that I’m going to try H1 and then S30V. If I’m still not ruining anything and getting even grinds and sharp knives I’ll start researching quality bench stones.
H1 and S30V shouldn't be too bad
 
To whomever moved this to its own thread, thank you! Sorry to have drifted off topic in the other thread, and I appreciate the opportunity to discuss this guilt-free in this thread!
 
So, free-handers, Diamond benchstone recommendations? I would prefer to work without water or oil, though I do understand the benefits they offer.
 
I don't think you really can work without water or oil if you want to do the job you seem to want to do. At fine grit you want to get the material off of the surface of the plate.

My diamond are DMT and old Gatco blocks.

There are supposed to be vastly superior diamond sharpening plates as fine sharpening has become a serious pursuit.

I do have a lot of respect for burrfection. https://www.youtube.com/c/Burrfection/search?query=diamond
 
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I haven't used water or oil for years. However, the caveat is that I use virtually all ceramics and diamond stones.

With the ceramics, I clean them every so often with a white plastic eraser (like the ones Mars makes) or an art gum eraser when they start to load.

With diamond stones, I just dust them off from time to time. There's no place for the particles to get stuck so they just dust off easily.
 
I have been sharpening knives for a long time.
I consider myself an "okay" sharpener.

I have been through all sorts of gadgets and "stones".

I have tried quality diamond plates such as Dou Sharp.
The feel of them kinda puts me off. I think it is the interrupted cut.

I like a good medium and fine Arkansas. They are always handy for dressing up a blade.

That being said, my favorite thing is the Buck EdgeTek.
I can bring abused blades back up to speed fast as well as dressing up an already half way decent edge.
It is a diamond coated 3 sided "steel".

I don't chase shaving sharp in most cases.
I want a good working edge for most daily applications.
I can get there fast with this.
It will produce a shaving edge given the time and effort.

I like the length because I can swipe the entire edge of long knifes in one stroke.

I keep one in the truck, the shop & the kitchen.

They are not overly expensive when you can find them.

Optics Planet looks to have some.

https://shop.opticsplanet.com/buck-...lBH6a8Lip7yZdchrsMyzuwbTiEqbuLTwaAsu_EALw_wcB

.
 
I learned how to sharpen freehand as a kid and got better as an adult. I can sharpen now without scratching the blade and with a symmetrical grind on both sides. And of course I can get a knife wicked sharp. But I prefer to get it medium sharp. Just short of shaving arm hair. That edge seems to last longer with stainless.

I use both Arkansas stones and dmt diasharp stones. The dmt I dust them off in my pants leg ever dozen swipes or so. The Arkansas I mostly use with carbon steel, and with oil.

I can't really offer any advice on how I do it other than practice makes it easier and you get better.

I often will focus just on the tip or just the belly if that's dull, then I'll sharpen the whole edge a few licks to conform it.

It's an art sort like whittling, and it's satisfying to be able to sharpen by hand when all your buddies can't use a stone because they are 6-fingered busters.
 
I’m also going to start trying my hand at freehand sharpening in earnest, so I got a Ladybug in H1. With such low edge retention, it should sharpen (and dull) easily enough to give me some practice opportunities, and at a cost low enough to not ruin my day if I do an awful job!

Did you ever get a KME sharpening system?
I have been Free-handing Sharpening Knives for over 50 Years. It is a feel Thing that takes a while to learn. The final Edge is your highest bevel. Best Described as taking a Shallow Slice out of the stone. I always sharpen into the edge hilt to point. Also You have to lift the knife as you work into the point. Many times I have to go back and catch up the point and blend it back in. Best thing I can say is when you get it to the desired Sharpness STOP. Quit while you are ahead. That couple more strokes can undo a lot of work LOL. I really can't sharpen a knife any other way but Free-hand. I really like a good Diamond stone in Course or Medium. The don't belly out and they stay Flat. Don't use oil. Only Honing fluid or water. If I hone a knife to take down the shoulder down just back of the edge bevel a bit. On a wet stone take down one side till I see fluid rolling from the opposite side edge. Then I flip it over and do the same on the other side. Once I have them Evenly honed I then raise the blade enough to take a slight cut from the stone. Once my final angle is established then it is one stroke on each side till Done. On a DMT I like to put the final edge on dry. I just wipe it of every dozen or so strokes. I like honing fluid for harder work and it gives me a visual when honing.
 
I haven't used water or oil for years. However, the caveat is that I use virtually all ceramics and diamond stones.

With the ceramics, I clean them every so often with a white plastic eraser (like the ones Mars makes) or an art gum eraser when they start to load.

With diamond stones, I just dust them off from time to time. There's no place for the particles to get stuck so they just dust off easily.
What diamond stones are you using?
 
I will use a low angle to soften the transition between primary and edge grind, raising the angle as I sharpen, to lightly polish the edge grind. But I don't do it except on a new edge.
 
What diamond stones are you using?
Here's what I have right now.
  • Compact Dia-Sharp card type sharpeners in a few grits.
  • Compact Sharpal card type sharpener.
  • GatCo "Dogbone" in diamond--they make them in ceramic too.
  • Buck pocket retractable rod type.
  • A few of the DMT compact folding rod types in various grits.
  • A JewelStik full length rod type. Bought this as an experiment when I needed to sharpen a relatively large blade with a recurve. The bench stones just wouldn't work and the compact rod sharpeners were going to take too long on the larger blade.
  • A DMT DiaSharp bench stone that started out as a coarse but is now a fine--I've used it for a lot of different things, including flattening some ceramic stones that weren't flat enough when I bought them. This is the only diamond bench stone I have right now--probably need to look at buying another one in coarse or medium grit.
In my experience, they all seem to work reasonably well so I don't know that I have a strong brand preference. I've had good luck with DMT. I like the little compact sharpeners because they are kind of neat in that you can easily carry them along, and even though they are small, they take off metal very quickly when that's necessary.

I tend towards the ones that are a metal base with full diamond coverage. I had some of the plastic ones with the patterned coverage and it just seemed to me that they didn't work as well or last as long. You have to temper that statement with the fact that I bought those very early on, when I was really just first learning to sharpen and I was probably using more pressure on them than is required. For diamond stones, you really don't need much pressure, they will cut aggressively by their nature even without much pressure. If you press hard, it tends to break the diamonds as they are very brittle and the stone grit becomes finer and finer until it's too fine to be very useful. So I may have worn those early stones out by using them improperly. Either way, I don't buy them any more because I'm satisfied with the other main type and see no need to switch.

I don't use diamond stones very much because I primarily use them to set a bevel on knives that are very dull, and to sharpen knives that are very hard. So I tend towards the coarser stones and they work very quickly. For the rest of my sharpening I use ceramics. A typical knife, that's not very dull will be sharpened only with ceramics and maybe finished on a strop if I want a really fine edge. If I see that ceramics are going to take too long either due to the hardness of the knife or how much metal is going to be removed, then I would start out with a diamond stone to get the bevel geometry set and then transition to ceramics to finish the edge. That type of usage, combined with the proper technique (not too much pressure) means that my diamond stones now last a very long time. It's been years since I've worn one out.
 
I prefer diamond for everything at this point. My KME and Wicked Edge chew through material FAST. I’ve been free-handing completely dull (so dull I can rake them across my skin with no fear) old kitchen knives today. I won’t switch over to my expensive/super steel knives until I can feel confident in nice even edges and I have a setup that will adequately do the job. It’s not like I’m hurting for options, I just really enjoy sharpening and the tactile feedback of the process.

I don’t really want to use water with any of my non-stainless tool steels though.
 
Some people never learn to properly
sharpen. No shame in it. Not everyone
can fix their own car, not everyone can
weld, some can't cook, etc.
I'm lucky in that I can sharpen freehand.
I can tell you that if you learn how, you
don't need any expensive stones or jigs
or machines. You should be able to get
a proper edge in a couple of minutes.
Most people that have trouble don't
quit when they get an edge, and keep
whacking at it for no reason.
I use plain Norton type stones and
natural arkansas stones on occasion,
and occasionally touch up with plain
steel or cheap ceramic rods
Also, many modern knives are made
from hard brittle steels that are too
hard to touch up afield as needed.
I personally don't care for those.
People that cut meat for a living don't
use miracle steel knives

Good Luck
 
For me maintaining the blade angle is critical to edge life. No matter what the sharpening media. I do have all diamond stones I use for VG10 and D2. If I could maintain the edge angle while sharpening freehand I would free hand all of my knives but I can't freehand well enough. I have a discontinued Wicked Edge Go which I use on all my knives using 200, 600, 800, and 1000 grit diamond stones. The sharpness and edge retention I get from it is very nice. And certainly I can free hand with stones and ceramic or whatever and get my blades shaving sharp. But when I started controlling the blade angle my edge life improved dramatically. I can field dress two deer and still shave the hair off my arm (proven). Before I started controlling my blade angle I couldn't do this.

We all have bench marks on edge quality. Edge life is one of mine. And this goes for my kitchen knives also.
 
Just so I’m clear, “free hand” sharpening simply means using a stone to sharpen knives?

So a rod or ceramic sticks wouldn’t count?

I’ve sharpened knives a lot of ways. I learned from my grandfather to sharpen knives on stones when I was around 9. It is a great skill to have. I went through that phase but never really paid much attention to specific stones, always had a medium and a fine grit oil stone.

I was taught the key to getting a great edge was consistency and patience. That hasn’t changed regardless the method I use.

Gave up my wetstones a long time ago and moved on to Diamond and ceramic sharpening tools I could carry afield and sharpen as needed. I’ve had this for many years and it’s still capable of sharpening a knife to a decent edge when needed:
https://smile.amazon.com/Smiths-CCD4-Field-Sharpening-System/dp/B000N35D2E?ref_=ast_sto_dp

But to each their own. If you enjoy sharpening knives and like using nice stones, that’s very cool! It is a Zen kinda task!
 
The dmt stones with the plastic bases and hole pattern, I believe is designed to catch the swarf. I've been using them 20 years, and using the same stones now 6 years. They sharpen those super steels but I still prefer easier to sharpen steels. The beauty of the dmt is that I can quickly dress my edge during deer processing or any other task.
 
Just so I’m clear, “free hand” sharpening simply means using a stone to sharpen knives?

So a rod or ceramic sticks wouldn’t count?
I think the contrast is between guided sharpeners and non-guided sharpeners. If the blade is held in position and the stone can only contact the blade at a specific angle, that's a guided sharpener. If the user is holding the knife and stone and can vary the angle at any time that is free-handed sharpening.

A stone, rod, stick--any of those can be used to sharpen free-handed.

There are some systems out there that I think of as being semi-guided. The Spyderco Sharpmaker is one of them. While the user can vary the angle at any time, if the blade is held perpendicular to level, the angle to the stone is controlled. There are other systems like this where the user only needs to hold the blade at an easily managed angle and perform the sharpening stroke. They won't give results as consistent as a true guided system, but most people will find that they give a more consistent edge than free-handing.
The dmt stones with the plastic bases and hole pattern, I believe is designed to catch the swarf.
I seem to recall that's what the advertising said. Problem is that I've never had any issue with swarf on diamond stones. It just never seems to cause any problems and when I'm done sharpening, it dusts off very easily. The only real effect I could see was that it reduced the amount of blade contact with the sharpening media (diamond coverage) during the sharpening stroke which would seem to mean slower progress--though I never tried to do any comparison.
I've been using them 20 years, and using the same stones now 6 years.
That's good information. So I probably just wore mine out by using too much pressure. They are definitely a lot lighter than the solid metal type--so for something portable they are a good choice.
 
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