Ordered some sharpening stones to try...kinda stoked
 

My wife gave me a really nice kitchen knife Christmas before last and it kinda opened my eyes to just how dull our 25 year old Henckels had become. I do have a steel and also one of those V type draw through sharpeners. But this new knife was just another level of sharp and much better even though it wasn't as expensive as the Henckels.

So I ordered the Spyderco sharpmaker thing and tried it. Kinda tough for larger knives. After watching a few videos i've decided to try a full size stone and went with the Shapton Pro series. 'splash and go' style that don't require soaking.

Should be here in about a week. Anxious to see just how good i can get my old knives! I've ordered the 320 and 1000 to start. It sounds like the 1000 is a good all around grit.

Pic from some random site-

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1705002219.jpg

I think you will find you can make even a cheap knife stupid sharp. Enjoy!

I also had a set of 20 year old Henckels that were shot.

When my kids asked what I wanted for Christmas, I asked that they take the knives out for sharpening.

It wasn’t cheap for a full set but the results are fantastic.

Once sharp remember to use a steel on them to keep the edge in shape.

I use a Lansky and then strop them. Our old butcher knife can shave off 1/32 of an inch along the papers edge. Maintain the edge once sharp and it is pretty easy to keep them sharp.

We also dont put anything with a straight blade or wooden handle in the dishwasher.

Yeah, just how long they stay sharp is what you pay for.

The draw through thing is for your wife and cheap blades.

I use wood chisels quite a bit along with wood planes. I've tried every method and I found that patience and the stropping will do an incredible job. The strop is so good that I'm reluctant to use the steel.

Does anyone make oil anymore? I hate that watery stuff.

i thought oil was the way it's done but when i started my search everything i found was water.

I use Arkansas oil stones. I get them here:

https://www.bestsharpeningstones.com/category_details.php?category_id=59&gclid=Cj0KCQiA wP6sBhDAARIsAPfK_wa_85H9ToNEYpA7fSAgd-YIz_0EtDjfhztb9v1aJE_UmL4HS8bcqBAaAsmlEALw_wcB

For my wife’s kitchen (Wusthof) knives I use a KME

I spend about 45 minutes per blade

Me too...only have one oil stone, bought decades ago, from an ad in Field & Stream magazine. Carved a cutout in a 2X4 to hold the stone in the vise. Never did bother with a special honing oil...just use a cheap 10-30 dino oil. I hold the blade at 20 degrees, like trying to cut a small slice from the stone. A small oil wave will show in front of the blade, tells me the angle. Mine a uniform gray color, so guessing medium hardness? Has worked well on my pocket & hunting knives..

I've wanted some of the Shapton Pro series for a while. I started with a King wetstone. It's something like 300-350 on one side and 1000 on the other. It does a good job. I can get our Shun's shaving sharp. I bought a DMT 2 sided diamond stone for some of my tools (chisels & hand planes) and have used that on knives and it also does a good job, probably easier to use than the King stones.

The Shaptons are supposed to be excellent. Let us know when they come in and how well they work.

You may also want to get something to use to strop the blade with after you sharpen it.

I've got these
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B08LLBN36V/
a piece of leather, but you need something under it unless you just want to use the edge/corner of a table/workbench.
or this guy
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07TWMRC15/
Comes with leather on 2 sides already mounted to a piece of wood. This is about half as wide as the one above.

I think either works OK. The one is convenient because it comes mounted to wood, but is narrow. The other is nice that it's larger, but it would be nice if it was mounted to wood (which you could certainly do).

Stropping with the compound is a lot like using a 5000 grit stone to polish the edge after the 1000. In my opinion, stropping is worth the price of admission.

Being able to create, recognize and then remove the burr is #1.. without being able to do this, all is a waste of time

I have some oil stones still on a shelf somewhere...I have an assortment of water stones now.. I use water with a few drops of dish soap...

Be careful checking out the knives that this site sells..

https://www.korin.com/knife-accessories?page=1

My experience with a steel is that if the blade metal is fairly soft and gets rolled over, you can improve the situation with a steel. Also, most steels that are ridged or textured, will give a blade fine serrations which then allows a dull blade to saw through food. I haven't used a steel in a long time. You don't need/want to use a steel right after you've sharpened a blade (unlike) stropping. And it's so easy and useful to strop...

I think you can still get oil stones, but they aren't as common. My dad had an oil stone that came from my grandfather.
Water stones and/or diamond stones definitely seem to have the market cornered these days. With my King water stones, I use water. With my diamond stones, I use windex, yeah, the blue stuff. I think there are also companies that sell honing fluid.

Lee Valley still sells oil stones.

https://www.leevalley.com/en-ca/shop/tools/sharpening/stones/72834-arkansas-oil-stones

I have a Carborundum stone(silicone carbide)

Rough side and fine side, oil stone. Instructions say if it it is cutting too rapidly, soak in hot petroleum jelly, for cleaning, wash with kerosene

Valve grinding compound works well on the leather. You can get both grades in a 2-sided can. I use an old belt nailed to a piece of wood.

Look into folks using cardboard.

I really like those Japanese water stones. We have a Makita blade sharpening machine it has the typical Japanese water stone with control water drip. Its quick and make sharpening very, very easy. Oil stone isn't too bad but a little messy. I also use an old fashion trick, sand paper glued to a small piece of glass. depending on the condition of the knife or tool, I start with 800 grit and finish with 1000 grit and simple soap and water. When things are dull and beaten a bit, I don't waste time, it goes to the grinder then my makita, finish up with water or diamond stone to get rid of the burr.

Kind of.

I use a "draw through thing" because of my wife. She has no respect for knives and even complains if they are "too sharp." Putting a lot of effort into keeping knives sharp around here is a waste of time. I do what I can to keep them usable, but it's a constant struggle. The "draw through thing" works for me under the circumstances.

Case in point:
Just the other day she baked a frozen pizza on a pizza stone. She even got out the wooden pizza cutting board - then dragged the pizza stone and pizza on top of the cutting board and proceeded to use my best chef's knife to cut the pizza against the stone. :mad:

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1705065631.jpg

I have a Ken Onion belt sharpener for roughing in knives and bigger stuff when they've gotten really bad.

:eek::eek::eek::eek::eek:

To cool your jets, you probably went and looked at your racy photos of the missus, lol.

In a situation like that I'd have "my knives" and "your knives".

We could all pitch in and get you a pizza cutter. LOL!

That is my wife!
I bought the most expensive knife I ever have (from Pelican advice) and the first time she uses it I see the tip sticking in the SS sink Drain. I lost it a couple of times and now I just don't give a s#it.

Here as well...use the oil stone for pocket & hunting knives. But Cindy insists on cutting on ceramic plates with the kitchen knives. I bought an electric "diamond" sharpener for those. "Chef's choice" brand...not perfect, but makes 'em sharp enough for what she does...

i think i spent about $1,200 on knives for my wife just before we got married because she is quite the chef and deserves nice knives. the first time she used them she cleaned them all with the rough side of the sponge. all the blades looked as though she cleaned them with sand paper. she had no idea why this would upset me. but, her knives so i’m done worrying about it.

Yeah, it's as if wives feel they can use/abuse knives as they see fit. All the while thinking that we are some kind of magical elf who can easily keep them razor sharp.

The electric sharpener saved my sanity...like I said, it sharpens good enough and does so easily.

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.

<iframe width="1280" height="720" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/QuZJ1vEuScA" title="The Sharpest Knife On YouTube - HOW TO SHARPEN TO DOUBLE HAIR WHITTLING" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" referrerpolicy="strict-origin-when-cross-origin" allowfullscreen></iframe>

Here's an entertaining video where he describes what he thinks the "7 levels of knife sharpness" are.

<iframe width="1280" height="720" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/8A_U5puolbE" title="The 7 Levels Of Knife Sharpness EXPLAINED" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" referrerpolicy="strict-origin-when-cross-origin" allowfullscreen></iframe>

I haven't converted to this method yet. But I am going to...


<iframe width="1280" height="720" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/8gKzjAxiGoQ" title="Why I use a drill and a hammer to sharpen now." frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" referrerpolicy="strict-origin-when-cross-origin" allowfullscreen></iframe>

Yeah, I've seen that video and thought it was pretty cool.

This is the stropping compound that the other guy recommends.
They make it in various sizes (grit size)
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B083FSFMWY/