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Comment by peter force on February 15, 2014 at 10:40

consistent angle -YOU SURE SAID IT ..thats always been my problem..i have tons of sharpening everything ..i even collect them..i love the ones you can mount down to a bench and drw a knife through..although i almost never use them!..I COLLECT ALL THAT IS KNIFE!...LOL!.. but with me it has always been the angle..  i have even a few kits that have things to help you with the angle.litle plastic guides most of the time... all in all i just havent sat and practiced enough...im sure with a few weeks everyday ...all the piles of rocks i have and pocket stones and ceramic sliders ectect.....also touching up knives and their edge and even stoppig a straight if its for the most part honed corredctly i can do.butfrom scrath completly dull..i can get an edge...but not always and not always SHAVE READY..i  like all my knives to be shave ready-i know its a term most use for straight razors but why not have all knives hair popping sharp!..

Comment by David Selph on February 15, 2014 at 10:14

Man do I need this group.  Looking to learn a lot as I am not satisfied with the results I am getting with my Arkansas stones.  I am sure it is my lack of proficiency and inability to maintain a consistent angle. 

Comment by Ron Cooper on December 18, 2013 at 21:31

That's almost unbelieveable. To do what he claims to be doing DRY. And to go from a full beard, no less! Truly amazing!

Comment by Jack Haskins, Jr. on December 18, 2013 at 21:03

Very, very impressive.  I find that even more impressive now that I've been shaving with a straight razor for a few months.  One thing that makes that so very difficult with most knives is the much higher angle  and blade thickness.  I'd say he has a VERY sharp and smooth edge on that knife.  

Comment by Jack Haskins, Jr. on December 4, 2013 at 14:54

About my offer to sharpen knives.  It doesn't matter how hard the blade steel is.  If anyone has a knife that is hard to sharpen because the steel is hard I'll do it.  This is not an attempt to brag or anything like that.  I've heard people say some knives are harder to sharpen than others.  This is 100% true.  But I've got the stones that will do it.  So if there are knives like this out there and someone doesn't want to buy new stones I'll sharpen the knives.  Again, no guarantees except one.  I'm honest.  That's my only claim.  I also understand not trusting me.  I would have a hard time sending a knife I cared about to a perfect stranger who isn't in a business and offers no guarantees.

Comment by Jack Haskins, Jr. on December 4, 2013 at 14:48

I'd like t see Mr. Ewing's list.  My recmmendation of Spyderco stones is actually a  good choice IMO of very well performing stones at a very reasonable price.  Unless someone wants to get "into" sharpening they are all most people would need.  There are lots of great stones out there of course.  Since I wrote that someone sent me a Spyderco medium stone to try.  I liked it a lot and would now recommend it also for someone who needs a basic stone set.  I won't get one because I already have that grit range covered.  The medium grit is good but I do prefer a DMT fine or coarse instead.  As you said the stone manufacturers would love it if everyone LOVED to sit down and sharpen knives just for fun.  Especially if they  bought a lot of different stone types to try. :) The reality is of course that some considering sharpening a necessary evil so they can have a knife sharp enough to get the job done.  I was talking to a professional sharpener a while back on the phone and he said he has well over a hundred sharpening stones but only uses a handful.  For him a handful may be 10 or 15 while most can get away with one or two stones for a lifetime.  I know I could but I have 5 bench stones and several strops and more than that for the Edge Pro.  I might get a 12 grit stone for straight razors but probably not.  I just ordered some leather to make  a few strops.  I will probably get some glass to glue the leather to along with a piece of wood on the bottom.  If things work out like I hope I will have several strops I won't use and may sell cheap.  Why have stuff I don't need?   The sharpening system The systems you mentioned along with all the other choices make making a decision hard for someone getting started.  As long as someone buys a good set (and there are MANY) and sticks with it they should be happy.  I'm very happy to say my personal goal regarding sharpening has been 99.9% satisfied.  Really it's 100% but I'll want more in the future probably. :)  A friend sent me a small kangaroo strop with .025 micron polycrystaline spray on it.  That really puts a super crisp razor sharp (literally) edge on a knife.  However, a larger roo strop and a bottle of the spray would cost around $85.  The bottle of spray could spray a hundred strops or more though.  Anyone need 100 strops of the same grit?????  lol  It would be good if you sold strops I guess.

One problem I have is I don't have enough knives to sharpen. lol  So if anyone needs a knife(s) sharpened I'll do it for free.  Just cover return shipping.  I would do that for knives that are user knives.  NOT expensive knives or $10,000 swords. lol  But if anyone wants a knife very sharp and can't or doesn't want to do it I have time on my hands. NO WARRANTIES OR GUARANTEES IF SOMETHING IS LOST IN THE MAIL OR LIGHTNING STRIKES AT THE WRONG PLACE AT THE WRONG TIME.  I'm just not in the position to be replacing knives.  Also, no knives that if I accidentally scratched a beautiful blade it would be a problem.  Just good user knives.  If anyone is interested I'll put as good an edge on it as I can.  Let me know if anyone wants to give me something to do. :)

Comment by Jack Haskins, Jr. on October 30, 2013 at 7:10

This is for anyone looking for their first sharpening set.  My opinion of course so take that for what it's worth.

I think the best performing sharpening stone and strop set that performs GREAT is a Spyderco medium and fine grit stones and a strop block from knivesplus.com.  I haven't used the Spyderco medium stone but others have and say it works good and removes steel pretty fast.  I use a DMT fine and extra fine grit instead of the Spyderco med. because I already had them so I didn't get the SP med.  Before buying diamond stones you need to know how to use them.  They are great but you can't just lend them to your friend or they may ruin them.  I have the Spyderco fine (6 micorn approx.) and ultra-fine (3 micron approx.) grit stones and I SWEAR by their performance.  The fine grit puts a great edge on a knife.   The ultra-fine grit puts a very refined edge on the knife and is unneeded really.  Personally, I think I would rather have a DMT fine grit (25 micron) stone instead of the Spyderco medium grit but that is based on never using the Spyderco med.  So, Spyderco med. (or DMT fine), Spyderco fine grit stones.  Add a strop block from knivesplus.com ($20) if you want to.  This strop never needs more compound added.  You rejuvinate it once in a while with a few drops of olive oil.  I recommend cutleryshoppe.com for the stones for prices but you may be able to do better on ebay.  But if you want just about guaranteed good service and immediate shipping you can't do better than cutlery shoppe.com IMO.  The set should be under $100.

I  suggested an inexpensive strop because with some practice you can get the edges very very sharp using only stones.  But for a while a strop will give you that crisper shapness until you CAN get it with stones.  Of course after that the strops can get the edge crisper but you better just stop and be happy with your sharp knives. :)

From my experience I know these suggestions work.  If anyone who is learning to sharpens gets these stones and can't get the edge sharp they just need more practice.  PLEASE don't buy other stones thinking you will do better with them.  Again, just my opinion.

Jack

Comment by Jack Haskins, Jr. on October 29, 2013 at 15:43

Steve,  I switched back to my email and read your post again.  I drifted from a question I think.  Leather smooths and diamond spray (or other abrasives) abrades.  So the combination of different leathers (horse, cow, kangaroo or whatever)  combined with different abrasives will produce different results.  Or maybe the same results but you don't need to try every combination.  I'm going to try to determine what I would use as a bare minimum sharpening/stropping set and still getting the super smooth truely razor edge.  Some of the straight razor honers use two or three stones and one or maybe two strops and that's it.  Some of them may have tried lots of things.  Some may have been told what to buy 20 years ago and only used that.  Who knows.  Gotta cut this short.

Leather smooths and abrasives abrade and the combination of them is interesting but not something I'd recommend. lol

Comment by Jack Haskins, Jr. on October 29, 2013 at 15:19

I have to admit I am loving experimenting with the different strops and sprays.  The thing I REALLY HATE is the differences in the edge they produce (and there is a significant difference if you look for it) makes absolutely no difference in the use of my pocket knives.  Well, it does IF I LOOK OR FEEL FOR IT.  But if my edge has a tooty 1k edge or a super smooth 16k stone stropped with a roo strop edge the package UPS just brought gets just as opened. lol  And I don't spend enough time cooking to appreciate what the chefs appreciate in the different edges they (some of them) like on different knives.  I guess a toothy edge is better for breaking through the skin of a tomato than a smooth edge.  But a very smooth edge is better for other things.  I guess I'll have to take up cheffing to appreciate my edges. lol  Actualling, taking up straight razor razor shaving is the first thing I'll be doing to actually appreciate a SMOOTH edge that I'll be creating.

The thing about the "raises more questions" issue is your (I, we) can't really get any decent understanding of an answer we get until we actually DO IT.  Leather "smoothing" steel instead of abrading or grinding it sounds stupid.  Ask anybody.  You can't "smooth" steel.  It's just that using the word smooth instead of grind can be pictured easier (to me anyway).  I think what is really happening is the tops of the hills on each side of a valley (THE VALLEYS ARE SCRATCHS) are "smoothed"  (ACTUALLY GROUND OR ABRADED).  The hills aren't actually smoothing into the valleys like butter would but at this level of abrasion I guess that is how using leather bare with no diamond spray or paste or anything else is explained or understood.  Here's an example of a question I think.  I have a new horse strop that I've been using bare.  3 or 4 strokes per side put a crispness on an edge that wasn't there after using a balsa strop with one micron boron carbide.  That leaves a bit of a toothy edge and is great as a final step for pocket knives IMO.   So after using the horse bare for about a week I sprayed some .25 micron diamond spray on it.  I did that because I have some .1 micron CBN spray coming with another roo and nano-cloth strop to use after the horse with .25.  There seems to be a delay with those items though.  So I think to really understand what all this means is I need to get (yup, buy) this stuff and use it.  Then feel the difference in the results.

Here is something to consider before buying stuff for a really refined edge.  If your ability isn't good enough there is no way to get the results the really fine grit sprays, pastes, etc. will give you.  I only say that because two years ago my kill was not good enough to get the results I'm getting now.  In fact I've had the .25 micron spray for about a year I guess and remember KNOWING I had wasted my money on it because it didn't dhange my 1 micron strop edge.  Now the same edge off the 1 micron strop (which by itself is better) the .25 micron spray refines the edge even more.  The spray hasn't changed.  My ability to hold a consistant edge angle on a stone or strop has.  This has come from practice which I have plenty of time to do. Two to three hours a day sometimes.  Sometimes none but most days I do some sharpening or stropping just for experimentation or practice (fun lol).  Just like anything ability improves with practice.  I kinda hope no one thinks I'm bragging.  One thing is for sure.  This new ability I have is for all practical purposes useless.  Unless I start sharpening knives for money.  Sometimes that takes the fun out of a hobby.

Jack

Comment by Alexander Noot on October 8, 2013 at 2:06

Maybe I'll give the Roo a try sometime in the future. For now I'm still fighting with my Cowry-X A.G. Russell to get it near the sharpness that I want.

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