What do you use to sharpen your knives?

I use Japanese water stones, a medium and a fine along with a Nagura stone to sharpen at home. Touch up/finish with a steel and/or strop.

In the field, I use a Fallkniven DC4. A Ray Mears trick is to carry a bunch of little nails in the case to stabilize the sharpener on a log. Just saw a YouTube trick to use a Nagura stone to make a slurry on the DC4. Will try that since I love how the slurry helps with the sharpening.

Tonight, I sharpened all the kitchen knives, including the butcher knife.



Touched up a couple of pocket knives too. The TK3 hasn't been sharpened in a couple if camping trips. It was still really sharp. Now, it's sharper and cleaner. The convex edge doesn't do as good a job carving for me versus a scandi, but my Fallknivens do fine.

 

How do those compare to Japanese water stones? Similar?

 

i use the spider co knife sharpening set>>>...
realy works well on serated

 

Smith's PP1 Pocket Pal Multifunction Sharpener - Sharpening Stones - Amazon.com
Amazon.com : Lansky PS-MED01 BladeMedic : Knife Sharpeners : Sports & Outdoors
Amazon.com: Lansky Dual Grit Sharpener: Sports & Outdoors
Amazon.com : Lansky Nathan's Natural Honing Oil : Hunting Knife Sharpeners : Sports & Outdoors

These above four tools keep the following favorite knives sharp (each one is a Nutnfancy recommended knife): Spydercos (Amazon.com : Spyderco Resilience Black G-10 PlainEdge Knife : Hunting Folding Knives : Sports & Outdoors and http://www.amazon.com/dp/B003CH77WW/?tag=survivalmonke-20), our Leathermen-Victorinoxes (Amazon.com: Leatherman Juice S2: Sports & Outdoors and http://www.amazon.com/dp/B000MLU8PE/?tag=survivalmonke-20), our K-Bars (http://www.amazon.com/dp/B001AIAIP8/?tag=survivalmonke-20), and our Cold Steels (Amazon.com : Cold Steel G-10 Espada Knife : Hunting Knives : Sports & Outdoors

 

I use a couple (sometimes even three or four) 1x30" belt sanders with a variety of grit belts that may start with 600 or 800 and progress up to 1200 to 3000 grit with a final pass or two on a leather belt with some compound on it. I can get a razor edge in about 1-2 minutes. When we do a family get together and butcher 8-10 hogs I generally sharpen all the knives over the course of two days. Usually do something on the order of 150-200 knives, kind of have to be quick about it. Here is a bit more I wrote on this in Jan.

Knife Sharpening FAQ | Page 3

Have fun.
AT

 

That's a lot of knives to sharpen!

 

Saw a thing on some site and had to try it, and it actually worked. You can use the unglazed bottom ring on a ceramic coffee cup to hone your blade.

 

Yes, you can, but it is a lot like using chocolate to polish aluminum into a reflector mirror. It is slow, and not as good as some other methods, but it does work.

 

Every week or two, I touch up our kitchen knives. And pocket knives as needed.

Because the knives never get too dull, it is a breeze to get them back to shaving sharp. And I find the Japanese water stones therapeutic too.

Pocket knife didn't need touching up.

 

just found me a japanese water stone on a wreck the other day

 

Sweet. How'd that work out? Still good or degraded?

 

still good as far as i knows

it was in the dry wen i found it

 

I have Japanese water stones that I use for my straight razors. I used them on my knives as well but recently acquired cardboard wheels on an electric grinder; one with silicon carbide surfacing, the other with jewelers rouge. The silicone carbide wheel is used just to bring a wire edge to the blade, the rouge wheel polishes the wire away and I finish whetting on my leather sharpener's apron. This system takes a little learning, so don't start with a fine blade. I used Old Hickory butcher knives until I mastered the touch. Now, I use it on all my blades, including serrated Spydercos and my best hand-made blades. I have developed 100% confidence in this method and achieve a superior edge in only moments so now, all my kitchen and carry knives remain razor sharp. I have always been a traditionalist but always intrusted a master knife smith friend to sharpen my best knives with this method and after several years of catching this guy at gun shows with three or four carry knives and watching him with questions, he finally sold me a set of the cardboard wheels. You have to be very careful not to over heat an edge, it usually only take one or two passes on each side with the silicon carbide wheel then maybe two-three passes on the rouge wheel and it never leaves a mark. You cannot tell that a knife has been sharpened by sight, I carry a small diamond steel in my GOD (Get Out of Dodge) kit but rarely use it more than a pass to straighten an edge.

 

I just use a red diamond sharpener from the hardware store, and then the top of my drivers side window to finish it off. Gives a durable and sharp edge without a lot of work, and will slice paper.
Question: How do the knife makers get my knives so sharp when new? I know they can't use a drawn out process on mass produced knives, yet every new Oso Sweet I buy has a razor edge.

 

I am old, out of shape and lazy. I use a Work Sharp electric sharpener. Works great, quick, has multiple belts for different levels of sharpness. I used it on my kitchen knives about a month or so ago and haven't even needed to tough them up with steel since then.

Kajun

 

I have several stone and ceramics but for the most part I use sand paper of varying grit ranges depending on the need.

 

I just use an Eze-Lap pocket sharpener for everything.