Knife Sharpening Tips

[Mij]

I have at Least 6-7 different sharpening system, from stones to manual to electric. What I have found to be the most helpful are two things. First, you need to understand what you are trying to do. Getting a burr is important and you are basically trying to bring two edges together. The second is simply practice. Get cheap knives and ruin them. Eventually you will get good at it and then you can sharpen your more expensive ones. This applies to stones, clamp type systems, and electric ones as well.

Good post. My barber uses a leather strap, hasn’t cut me in 30+ years. I’m thinking practice is an important factor.

Understanding what you’re trying to do and the quality of the mettle has got to be high on the list for success.

 

[Doug]

It is vital to understand what you are trying to do; otherwise, you're just grinding steel.
Therefore, read and understand The Razor's Edge Book of Sharpening.
You can buy it several places on-line and this link will take you to a version you can read on-line. https://archive.org/details/Knife_Sharpening/mode/2up
I recommend buying the book to have a quick reference handy.
Good luck and mind your angles.

 

[DadSmith]

 

[DadSmith]

Broke the tip off my Kershaw Leek.
What's the best way to get the tip back on it?
It took a good 1/8" off the tip of the blade. Kinda tougher poking bags, and plastic containers, etc to open them now.

 

[WhitleyStu]

Broke the tip off my Kershaw Leek.
What's the best way to get the tip back on it?
It took a good 1/8" off the tip of the blade. Kinda tougher poking bags, and plastic containers, etc to open them now.

Slowly grind the spine down a small amount then remove a small amount of stock from the rise (belly). Eventually you will create a new tip by repeating the two processes.

 

[DadSmith]

Slowly grind the spine down a small amount then remove a small amount of stock from the rise (belly). Eventually you will create a new tip by repeating the two processes.

Thanks for the tip.
It looks pretty easy to do. I was looking at it from the wrong side of the blade.

 

[jsharmon7]

I’ve tried repeatedly to get good with a whetstone and have never had better than average results. I finally just bought a Worksharp Angle Adjust system and now I can get anything screaming sharp. I also used it to reprofile a Buck knife that had some wildly different bevels and it turned out better than new.

If you can do the whetstone method, then great. For the rest of us, just invest in something that helps keep the angles consistent like I did.

 

[sadclownwp]

Broke the tip off my Kershaw Leek.
What's the best way to get the tip back on it?
It took a good 1/8" off the tip of the blade. Kinda tougher poking bags, and plastic containers, etc to open them now.

This is the easiest question ever. It is a Kershaw... Send it in for warranty repair. That is the easiest way to get your tip back on it.

 

[sadclownwp]

They repair even if I did something stupid with it?

Dude... I snapped a ZT(owned by Kershaw) stabbing into walls looking for hot spots after a fire because our reader kept telling us there was a hot spot in the wall. Total knife abuse. They just replaced the blade and sent it back to me. Took 6 weeks.

 

[printcraft]

Keep your knives sharp to avoid cutting the tip of your thumb off when chopping onions this weekend... Oddly specific pro tip.

 

[Kdf101]

Keep your knives sharp to avoid cutting the tip of your thumb off when chopping onions this weekend... Oddly specific pro tip.

I can back that up. A few years ago I was cutting sticks for toasting marshmallows and my dull knife required too much effort, combined with poor technique. The result was a slashed pinkie finger. I can confirm that bones are indeed white.

 

[dvd1955]

This thread has me wanting to add sharpening to my skill set. Pretty bad at it right now. Wondering if getting something like this would be a good place to start. Not ready to drop a lot of money on a fancy set.

https://a.co/d/aFfGGs5

 

[Timjoebillybob]

I can back that up. A few years ago I was cutting sticks for toasting marshmallows and my dull knife required too much effort, combined with poor technique. The result was a slashed pinkie finger. I can confirm that bones are indeed white.

I can back up that bones are white. I'll also say that really sharp knives combined with idiotic techniques is a good way to find out. And really sharp knives don't hurt as bad. And that ER nurses don't consider that you were fishing as a valid reason for waiting 5 hrs to come in after said idiocy.

 

[BRHiker]

Broke the tip off my Kershaw Leek.
What's the best way to get the tip back on it?
It took a good 1/8" off the tip of the blade. Kinda tougher poking bags, and plastic containers, etc to open them now.

If you are ever near Anderson I would be happy to fix that for you for free, it would only take a few minutes. I make knives so I have all the necessary equipment.

 

[BRHiker]

I’ve tried repeatedly to get good with a whetstone and have never had better than average results. I finally just bought a Worksharp Angle Adjust system and now I can get anything screaming sharp. I also used it to reprofile a Buck knife that had some wildly different bevels and it turned out better than new.

If you can do the whetstone method, then great. For the rest of us, just invest in something that helps keep the angles consistent like I did.

I second this. I personally don't have the patience to use stones, although i know some people prefer them and enjoy the process. A worksharp or even a cheap 1x30 belt grinder can do an excellent job in a fraction of the time.

 

[ghuns]

I just picked up one of the work sharp elite systems. I thought my knives were sharp before but I can get them a lot sharper with this than i can by hand and it helps me get a more uniform angle. I sharpened all of my pocket knives this week. Love it.

I am a toolmaker by trade so sharpening, polishing, cutting steel is kinda my jam.

I can do it any number of ways, but for sharpening at home I prefer to do it the fastest way possible that results in the sharpest edge I can get.

I use the Work Sharp elite pictured above for my pocket knives and smaller fixed blades. I sharpen different knives at different angles depending on the steel type and what I want them to cut, but the one thing I always do is sharpen up to the final ceramic stone at whatever angle I've picked. Then with the ceramic stone I turn the adjustment screw a quarter to a half turn. That takes them from 'sharp' to 'I just cut myself and didn't even feel it' sharp.

For kitchen knives and bigger fixed blades, I have a paper wheel setup on a bench grinder in the garage. Use the grit wheel until you feel a burr, and the plain wheel with buffing compound to finish. I have found nothing faster and nothing that gets high carbon steel sharper. The only downside is it doesn't work well on 'fancy' steels. The grit wheel builds too much heat.

 

[Kdf101]

This thread has me wanting to add sharpening to my skill set. Pretty bad at it right now. Wondering if getting something like this would be a good place to start. Not ready to drop a lot of money on a fancy set.

https://a.co/d/aFfGGs5

That will work, but if you are not good a free hand sharpening, you may become frustrated with it. i would recommend one of the guided systems. Something like a work sharp precision guided would work pretty well and is not as expensive as some of the more Gucci systems. I have a work sharp precision, among many others, and it does a really nice job of getting a very sharp knife pretty quickly.

 

[DadSmith]

If you are ever near Anderson I would be happy to fix that for you for free, it would only take a few minutes. I make knives so I have all the necessary equipment.

Thank you for the offer.
I really appreciate it.
I'm close to Friendship Indiana so it would be a ways to go to get there. I filled our a form to send it back to Kershaw, and I'm using one of my backup knives for now.

 

[nate77]

Just got a work sharp professional precision adjust.

Haven’t been blown away by the other sharpeners I have like the sharp maker, or work sharp belt sander.

So far so good, sharpened a ZT0350, Launch 3, Leek, ESEE 6, and a cheap kitchen knife. The knives with the softer steel were a breeze, the Launch, and the 0350 were a bit more work.

 

[Alamo]

This guy has some nice close-ups using a microscope of a knife edge before and after sharpening, and the burr resulting from sharpening:


A more recent vid from him on stropping, and it has some good pics of the edge and burrs: