Anyone ever tried using sandpaper for sharpening knives? Also what do you guys think of cheap sharpening stones like this one : http://www.linenchest.com/en/combination-sharpening-stone.html Worth it or nah?
I made a hone wheel from dans blog. Dcknives.com. Works amazing. Sharpen all my friends and my custom knives with it now Razor sharp blades with it and best pet was it was made with a scrap pcs of mdf
I use up to 2000 grit wet and dry paper or the lansky system. Long time ago I had sand paper glued to strips on the lansky stones because I had no money for new stones and not available locally.
I've also used sandpaper for sharpening. I had a block with leather glued to it for backing. Some 1500 on it worked well for keeping blades sharp. Of course you can always use your belt grinder, too.
I've tried a lot of things over the years, oil stones, water stones, ceramic sticks, mini powered grinders with some famous knifemaker's name on it and expensive proprietary belts, diamond coated steels, Samurai Shark, Edge Pro knock-off, Lanksy and Gatco multi-stone products. It must be a billion dollar industry keeping knives sharp. Being a sucker for gadgets, I spent a lot of loot looking for that ultimate tool. Kind of like exercise equipment, something new is always coming to market, hey look the Thorax Master 2000 (drool). I do take a stone like the one you linked to with me camping for use on the axe. The coarse/fine combo are good for touching up the edge, but the fine is still nowhere near fine enough for a knife IMHO. The only contraption I still use is the Edge Pro knock-off to set the edge at the precise angle I want on a newly made knife. After the initial edge is set I like fast and effective. Belt grinder slack belt 600 grit AO for the wire edge then MFD sharpening wheel. In the house, I keep a leather strop in the kitchen. That's what works for me. Of course, everyone has their own tools and methods they are accustomed to. Dan
I also have the edge pro knock off and it works better then my friends edge pro haha his don't seem as sturdy
Was reading the title again and thought of a time I left my stone at home and found a flat chunk of granite for sharpening my hunting knife, now that would qualify as ghetto
I have a KME sharpening system and you can read the review I did of it,I also have many different stones for it I have a set of Chosera's and and Shapton stones as well plus I have some Nubatama stones coming to me as "m typing this and also have a Suehiro 10 and 20K for finishing if I'm looking to put the sharpest edge I can on the knife before stropping. Here's what it really boil's down to what kind of steel are you going to be sharpening if it's Elmax S30V S35VN 440 440C they are easy to sharpen and a Chosera will cut threw the steel easily,now if you talking M390 D2 20CV ZDP-189 they are harder to sharpen and if you used the Chosera stone's it would take a longer for sure and you would not get it as sharp as with the Shapton stones,what people often forget is that the particle's in the sharpening stone's need's to be as hard and better yet if the particle's are harder then the steel your trying to sharpen. From what I have found you get what you pay for when it comes to sharpening stones although the odd time you will come across a cheap stone that work's fairly well on most steel's.
I have the edge pro knock off too, I haven't used it yet, I just got done doing some mods placing earth magnets on it the hold blades, and drill bit depth stops to govern the action and angle.
If any of you guy's want better stones for your edge pro's look in my thread about the KME sharpener and look up Ken Schwartz he has always treated fairly and has never given me a reason to complain and is extremely knowledgeable about sharpening stones and stropping emulsion's,he has Nubatama Shapton Suehiro and Chosera plus other stones for the edge pro,I'm only recommending his stuff if you want finer grit's or stones that will cut the harder steels faster.
i've been guilty of trying all kinds of gadgets too. I've used edge pro knock offs (they're ok), the lansky (still very reliable, but slow), i have a DMT aligner that i like very much too. I have a razor sharp wheel that doesn't work as well for me. Overall, i'd say that i rely on the lansky and the DMT the most, they work well for me. But, i often have a problem with new knives where i don't grind to a thin enough edge and it takes me some time to get it sharp. I'm working on a jig to be able to go back and redo a few knives on the grinder w/o messing up the whole blade. Although, i can't seem to keep a blade poslished for more than 10 minutes before i get a scratch from the kydex sheath or something anyway. : ) I should just give up and write a disclaimer for my knives indicating that they're knives and if you don't expect a scratch or two on them, then you're not using them properly.
I am with you Todd about the scratches...that is why I plan to keep my finish at around 220/240g like my last knife. Looks fine to me...looks like a usable knife meant to work hard as a cutting tool, and get scratched! I will however go mirror on a set of chefs knives I am planning on
I just found out about these stones from Russia the website is called Gritomatic and they have a lot of sharpening stones for the KME Edge Pro. I'm looking at getting their Diamond bonded stones for my KME,when I was younger I got a Lansky threw Cabela's I think and I remember I got the basic kit with the ceramic stones as I don't think Powdered metal was around then and I always wanted the diamond stones they sold and that's what they called them but when I got a job and could afford more I started doing more research and found the KME and other sharpener's and they all said the same thing they are not stones they are plate's of steel with diamonds welded to them. The bonded stones they have on the Russian website make more sense to me and I have heard good thing's about the diamond bonded stones that have diamonds put right into the mix and bonded in with the Ceramic or whatever the material is. They also have a lot of natural stones as well to. https://www.gritomatic.com/collections/kme-stones
