I've shaved with a straight razor since I was 16 (45 on Nov 5th) and use stones. HOWEVER, a straight razor has a built in spine that guides your angle for you. Assumed I could sharpen a knife with stones - I fail miserably. I tried stones, Lansky and Smith. I have the base model Work Sharp and can get a mirror finish on the edge in moments. I let my buddy who's as bad at sharpening as me borrow mine and he immediately went out and bought the Ken Onion model. I get everything I need out of the base model. You can take the angle guides off and use it kinda like an angle grinder as well. I FINALLY got a decent edge on a hatchet and also use it on my mower blades. I've also made blades out of worn out sawz all blades and wrap the handle in paracord. Nifty item.
things like the work sharp do work, but I would NEVER use one on a knife with really good steel, EVER
A "Work Sharp" is great for your Buck knife or your hatchet but on my "good knives" nothing but a good ceramic stone.
I'm also curious, not good at sharpening, and was looking at different tools. I use a Buck knife myself and am very pleased with it, when sharp! Was given to me by my brother just before my first ever hunt, over 20 years ago. So, can someone explain why the Work Sharp is good enough for "some knives" but, you guys will not use them on really "good knives"? Does it ruin them? Does it take off too much metal? Does it just not get them sharp enough? Do you just like the control of doing it other ways?
I love my lansky kit. I can get a shaving edge on any knife with decent steel. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
i have a lansky also and love it. Takes a little practice to get all the tricks down but put it this way, im the guy at work who has a pile of everyone elses knives to sharpen. But the best system out there for the average joe is the Wicked Edge. check it out on youtube.
to start I am NOT a knife or steel expert, I do own some expensive high quality blades though and what I'm telling you is of what I remember from the guy who made my knives. on high quality hardend steel you normally don't actually need to sharpen them, most of the time, based on what most guys use their knives for a simple honing is all they need. trying to sharpen a knife too much could destroy the steel's temper, remove too much material, move your cutting edge into a softer part of the steel etc. When you have a knife made of high quality really hard steel and you use it just during hunting, or processing I'd bet you wouldn't need to have it sharpened but MAYBE one every year or two, maybe. Learn to hone, or find someone that can do it for you, it will straighten out and bent edges on your blade making it sharp again without removing steel I have a electric knife sharpener that I use on my gerbers and cheap kitchen knives works great on that $18 gerber knife.
I have the work sharp electric and hate it. It screws up the tip on every knife I tried.( It does get them scary sharp though) I bought the guided manual system and that works great, ( the stone pivots to match the shape of the tip) Shaving sharp in minutes, I also got the extra course and extra fine stones.(upgrade kit) The guided sharpener is about $60.00, the upgrade kit was about $35.00.
I've had the same Lansky kit for 15 years. Before that I used my dad's Lansky kit that he's had forever. Bought a friend one for Christmas just yesterday. The first sharpening takes awhile to get the factory edge to the angle you want (I like 20 degrees), after that unless you chip the cutting edge the follow up sharpenings are quick. I always strop with leather as my final hone. My hunting knife isn't razor sharp...it's sharper than a razor.
If your rounding tips off on a belt driven sharpener it's because you are pulling the blade through at the tip end. Stop at the end and lift the blade off the belt rather then pulling it trough.
Couldn't agree more with that. People take a stone to their knives way too often and destroy the edge. Best knife sharpener I've found was an old German dude and some wet stones.
I agree with several others that a knife rarely needs sharpening. Regardless of what you use, learn how to do it the right way. "sharp" is an opinionated term and can mean a wide variety of things to different people. The main knives I use are packing house knives. Some of the best knives out there. All I have ever used on them is an Arkansas stone and honing oil. For the final touch up the ceramic steel comes out. The knife I carry hunting is a Buck I was given more years ago than I care to remember. Use it for field dressing and that is all. Rest of the time it stays in the sheath.
I use a simple diamond sharpening stone to sharpen all my knives. I touch up the edge after each time butchering game just to make sure they are sharp for the next round. In all actuality they do not need sharpened all that much, my buck knife and filet knife keep their edge very well.
It's retarded easy. Get a shop stone, something in the 400 grit range and set the bevel/angle. Then get a strip of leather, I have a strip of roughish leather.. and load it up with some green chromium oxide. Polish to a mirror finish and then go shave with it.
