Knife Sharpener

[troyboy94]

All of my knives have gotten horrifically dull over the years, and I just cant seem to find the right knife sharpener to get them sharp. If someone could tell me a good sharpening stone to use and how to use it correctly that would be appreciated.

 

[offroaddiver]

DMT http://www.dmtsharp.com/

I use them almost exclusively. I have stainless and titanium bonded (dive knife) that I can maintain an angle with and get them surgical sharp. When on trip I take their "aligner kit".nice roll up pouch with serated rod, fine medium and coarse.

I only use true wet stones on a few knives.

 

[troyboy94]

When I try to use the wetstone I have I dull the knives insted of sharpen them. I was wondering if i could use a stone or sharpener of any kind and them all work. I didnt know if it had to be a specific type of sharpener for a specific knife.

 

[biblefreak]

I am a fan of the Lansky Deluxe diamond version. It will run appx $50 or so, but is very much so worth it. It puts a perfect angle on both sides of the blade and will likely sharpen anything you can throw at it. The hardest thing I have sharpened was a Spyderco with S30V steel and didn't have a problem in the least.

 

[bikerdoc]

For a beginer sharpener the Lansky helps maintain angle.

Once you get the hang of it you can go freehand. Get a junk knife and practice.
As an aternative to stones - once you learn to mainntain angle you can use emory wet/dry auto sandpaper in progressive grits for a scary sharp edge.

BTW read the sharpening stickie at the top of the page, joe has forgotten more about sharpening than most of us will ever know.

 

[LeverGunJunkie]

The Lansky system is great. It made me a fairly proficient knife sharpener after the first use. Allowed me to throw out the other 4 sharpening devices I had in the workbench.

 

[Romey]

I wrote some articles for a leather working group on blade sharpening. They are on my website on in the LINK page. They are not so much a "how to" as much as a "why and what for"
Here is the site I hope they are of some use to you.
http://www.highcountryknives.com

 

[ricebasher302]

The fastest, simplest sharpener I've used is the Crock Stix ceramic rods. They're so simple to use they shouln't work as well as they do, but I've sharpened kitchen knives, D2 blades, AUS8, and a host of others and simply love it.

http://www.lanskysharpeners.com/LCS5D.php

 

[franconialocal]

I'm a big fan of Spyderco's "Tri-angle Sharp Maker". Very easy to use, does serrated and straight edge.....and as Sal Glessner said "[makes them] SCARY SHARP!!!"

 

[sawhitt]

Or, you can just go to Wal-Mart (or anywhere else that carries them) and pick up a Wilson pocket sharpener for about $8. I use mine for most of my knives because it's quick and I can literally shave with them after a few strokes. It works almost as well as my various sharpening stones.

So long as you can hold the sharpener perpendicular to the blade (or vice-versa) you can sharpen almost any knife with it.

 

[hso]

see the sticky on sharpening at the top of this forum

 

[JVoutilainen]

I would do it the hard way and learn how to sharpen without any device. Once you learn how to hold the right angle, and just one angle, you will be able to sharpen just about anything, even with improvised equipment (sandpaper, metal or stone surface, edge of a car window etc.).

What I found most demanding in the beginning was to keep on grinding the bevel (??) long enough to produce a burr (which forms on the opposite side), and to do so without cheating = changing the angle to make the process faster. To make things easier I would first buy a really good coarse whetstone (I use grit 220 "suntiger", which I love) to speed up the first phase. If you use too fine a stone you will probably get bored and cheat - which usually means that the bevel will get "round" and thus, not that sharp, at all.

A set of good quality japanese stones (king, for example) does not cost that much and will last years.