masraum |
10-03-2024 05:07 PM |
I've been acquiring (and using) more woodworking hand tools that require sharpening, plus I've got knives (whether pocket or kitchen) that I like to keep sharpened.
I had a cheap King brand combo water stone (1000/6000). (I've since seen some folks say "buy stones like X and Y, but whatever you do don't buy these," and it's the stones that I had. I also bought a Trend combo steel diamond plate (325/1000) which gets lots of recommendations. I then had an issue that some other folks have run into where the 1000 grit side delaminated from the plate. The 325 grit side is fine. I don't know if it's a problem with the particular plate/batch that I got or if it's something that I did wrong (pressing too hard maybe?). I still use the 325 grit side. I got a DMT combo plate that's on a plastic base, so it's not machinist flat, but it's good enough for sharpening knives. It seems to work really well. I like it.
But I recently decided to up my game a bit and bought the Shapton Pro/Kuromako 1000 (orange) stone and 5000 (wine). These are MUCH better than the old King that I had (but then they were 3x the price. I'm using the old Trend 325 grit as a flattener for the Shapton stones. I pretty easily get the anything that I sharpen (chisels, plane blades, knives) sharp enough to shave hair. Something that I've realized is that stropping is a pretty vital step to getting a knife sharp. Last Christmas, I got a strop kit online that came with the strops as well as one of the wax strop compound sticks. What a pain in the rear, but it does make a huge difference in the blades. After seeing a video online I want to take my sharpening to the next level so I'm going to get some better stropping compound.
I stumbled across this guy the other day. He gets knives pretty insanely sharp. He can actually lay a hair over a blade (only the weight of the hair) and split the hair down the middle or cut it. I've never seen anything like it. Other than that he's great at knife sharpening, I think the real key if you're reasonably good at sharpening is stropping with a good stropping compound when you're done.
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