Sharpening knives

B

bucklover

Guest
I'm always scanning over posts, but I don't ever remember reading about what your favorite methods are to sharpen a knife. I bought the Havalon, but I still have 2 or 3 other knives I carry. Sharpening has always been kind of a pain in the butt for me. I get the job done, but I always think there is probably an easier way. I would appreciate some of you pro's out there to share if you would. Thanks
 
Buy a Lansky, the basic kit is like 30 buck and will last a lifetime. Oh yeah they are simple to use and you can get a really sharp edge on a knife in no time.
WVBOWAK
 
Take it to a knife shop. They'll usually sharpen them for $5-10. Once sharpenen you can touch them up with a steel. A good set of diamond stones works well too, but takes time to get them right.
 
That's what I use, but that first time getting the knife down to the perfect degree of angle takes forever. Thanks.
 
LAST EDITED ON Mar-04-12 AT 12:26PM (MST)[p]Gerber and Wusthoff make lightweight ceramic sharpeners that work good. I carry double sided diamond sharpeners in my pack too. But I get them razor sharp on stones at home first.It takes some practice to sharpen cutting edges right and get the right angle for all cutting tools.
 
I've got a couple of the LANSKY kits & like them!

I also have a GERBER pocket knife that has pissed several knife sharpeners off!

Don't know what the blade is made out of but it's the most ignorant pieces of steel I've ever dealt with!


[font color=red size=redsize=18"face"]SHOW THEM TO ME![/font]
If You Love Your Country,SHOW THEM TO ME!




Hot Dog,Hot Damn,I love this Ameri-can
 
Gerber and schrade steel is weird. I have sharpened several for many friends knives and the 2 brands take me the most time and then they don't hold the edge well. I have used ceramic, diamond, wet stone, emory, and steels but still can't get the blade to sharpen easily and retain. Once I do get that blade sharpened I tell them that if anybody else puts an edge on that knife I don't ever wanna see that knife back again.


"Courage is being scared to death but saddling up anyway."
 
LAST EDITED ON Mar-04-12 AT 09:06PM (MST)[p]KME is hands down a billion times better than Lansky! It is a similiar concept but just much more refined. If everyone knew about KME, Lansky would close down today. They even have a broadhead sharpener that is super cool. Watch their videos and report back to me if you don't agree.

Edited to add; I struggled with sharpening knives til I got a KME. I have no affiliation with them either.

flyingbrass
cold dead hands
NRA Life Member
 
Well tail!

I often wondered why you've never liked me!:D


[font color=red size=redsize=18"face"]SHOW THEM TO ME![/font]
If You Love Your Country,SHOW THEM TO ME!




Hot Dog,Hot Damn,I love this Ameri-can
 
LAST EDITED ON Mar-05-12 AT 01:50AM (MST)[p]Right on Hank, absolutely agree...I personally don't put much stock in any sharpening gimmicks

I create all my edges on jap water stones, grinding them to the bevel I want on the 250, up through the grits to finish the stone work on the 4000. Then polish with a compound impregnated strop. Do this for broadhead blades and chisels as well.

Only carry strop in field to touch up with during processing of a downed animal.

I do own 3 Gerber folders...recreated the edges on each of them as soon as they were acquired, and they have served me well for years.

**edit---the above mentioned 'scalpel' type disposables certainly work well enough for those that don't want to deal with the hassle of learning to sharpen properly.

Good Luck!
 
I have a double sided ezlap that I use. I get them in shaving shape before I go out and use it to touch them up as needed in the field.
 
I carry a Cutco knife with their Double D blade. I have cleaned a moose, caribou, cow elk, and two mulies in one fall and it was still sharper than my buddy's Buck Knive and sharpening stone.

The bad thing is that you can't sharpen them in the field, but the factory will sharpen them for life for free if you send it in. I just send mine in every spring, and it is as good as new for all the fall hunts.

I have looked at the Havalons to save weight, but I like a fixed-blade knife for survival reasons.

Grizzly
 
In the field I carry a Eze-Lap fine 600 grit diamond sharpner. It is about 1/2 inch wide by 5 inch long and fits in a shirt pocket. It does a super job on very hard steel knives in the 60-61 RC range of hardness. Great thing is that the price is under 10 bucks.

RELH
 
We have a ritual, every year the night before the Elk Hunt, (the only time we are all together) we break out the knives and my dad touches them all up, with each one he makes some comment like... what the $%^& have you been using this for stripping cable? Or who s%$#ed this one up they make saws for cutting wood...... I have stones and steels and Lanskys and such, but I sure wouldn't have it any other way. Dad is in his late 70s and you never know....
 
Well, Greatwestern wins the "over the top" knife sharpening guru award hands down.

I've spent hundreds of hours with knives on top quality Arkansas stones, plus an old boot as a strop for polishing. It gets old after a while, especially if I'm crunched for time.

Once you get a blade to match the angles of a lansky, they work fairly well.

My wife is quite the chef and used to do some catering. That being said she has & uses a bunch of kitchen knives and I got tired of sharpening them all the time for her and bought an electric knife sharpener.

Although these electric sharpeners work good for kitchen knives, because it's easy and quick to touch them back up, don't make the same mistake I did and try to sharpen your good hunting knives with an electric. It destroy's the edge holding ability of quality knives.

I guess the bottom line is if you want the best, go with GW's process, next best depends on how much time and experience you have. If you have both, go with good stones, if not a lansky type sharpener works well.

Another possible option is to check with the Mfg to see if they offer resharpening. I know Gerber and Outdoor edge both do.
 
LAST EDITED ON Mar-05-12 AT 07:07PM (MST)[p]Good thing I didn't mention the floatglass with 6000 grt paper I use to finish chisels and plane blades....you guys can just send those knives you don't like or can't sharpen to GW and me I guess. Practice makes perfect my grandpa used to say. Oh and 1fastgambler,my ex is a chef and I used to spend hours sharpening those knives too.
 
I have about 15 knives, and am pretty anal about sharpening them.

I have used Lansky, they work great, but are slow.

I really like the, Spyderco Triangle Sharpmaker

It will cost you about 79-99 dollars.

It is fast, and will give you a razor edge.

Mike
 
It is amazing just how many sportsmen have problems putting a sharp edge on a field knife. So I will not tell you how I can put a hair popping razor edge on a very dull knife in less then two minutes just so I will not tick off some who has worked their butt off getting a sharp edge.

RELH
 
RELH, I like your style. I'm not sure I use the same exact method, but I bet it's close.

I am a full time taxidermist, and an outfitter, so I get to cape hundreds of animals each year. Also get to either gut, quarter, skin, and bone out around 35-40 elk, deer and other animals in the field.

I prefer a fixed blade knife, and for larger jobs like moose, elk, and bison, I like a larger fixed blade knife.

To sharpen a knife, I run the blade on a bench grinder to establish the proper angle. This takes approx 30 seconds.

I then have a three sided stone with the three different grit stones each on their respective side. I whet the knife on the roughest grit a few strokes on each side of the blade, then I repeat this with the medium grit, and to finish it off to a razor sharp, hair shaving edge I have a high quality sharpening steel that I quickly put the finishing touches on the blade with.

All that takes less than 3 minutes tops. And it produces a razor edge every time.

In the field I carry the steel with me at all times to maintain the edge. It's light, and easy to carry, and it keeps the razor edge on the knife all the way through as many jobs as I want to do. I like the edge a steel produces because it's a very fine sharpness, unlike the raspy sharpness that a diamond steel or diamond stone produces.

Havalons are sharp, but they aren't for me. I find plenty of them broken off in the flesh, and hides of animals I skin at the shop. Good if you can't sharpen for chit though. I hear all the time guys telling me they gutted three animals with their Havalon, or they skinned a bull elk, and a deer with the same blade. All I have to say is, I have skinned over 400 deer and elk with my fixed blade knife, and it's still got a lot more left to go before it gets retired.

DeerBeDead

DeerBeDead
 
Deerbedead;

I have a horizontal belt grinder that uses 2X48 inch belts to do mine. If it is one of my customs that does not have the edge ground yet, I start with a 100 grit belt and work though to a 1200 grit then the polish belt with Jackson 51 white polish compound.
If it is a dull blade coming in for re-sharpening, I start with a 400 or 600 grit belt, depends on how dull the blade is, and work though 800, 1200 then polish belt. I prefer the convex edge on the knives due to more toughness and less chance of it chipping on hard bone.
My knives have a hardness of 59-61 RC and will go though 2-3 deer, field dressing and skinning, before they need a touch up.
havalons are nice for the guy who does not excel at sharpening a blade, but I also have seen too many of them snap the blade off if any side pressure is exerted on the blade.

I also use my knife to rip the rib cage open while field dressing and you can not do that with a havalon.

RELH
 
I am not one of those who has much skill at sharpening knives, though I can seem to get a decent edge, but it doesn't last. IDK if that is relative to the quality of the steel or the edge I am putting on it. I find the same with my Gerbers, Bucks, and Kershaws over the years, as well as my wife's Chicogo cutlery. I expect that I am not getting the right angle and from what I read above I expect I am not finishing the edge with a fine enough grit. That being said:

What is the best edge angle for a general purpose hunting knife that one will dress, skin, and bone an animal out with in the field?

What is the best angle edge for kitchen cutlery?

I for one would appreciate if some of you guys who do know how to put a great edge on a blade would start a thread with detailed how to do its...
 
What is a good edge angle for a general purpose hunting knife that will be used to dress, skin, and bone out an animal in the field?

I've Kershaws, a Gerber, and a Buck and get a decent edge on them, but they don't seem to hold an edge very long at all.

Best angle for kitchen cutlery?
 
I too would like to know the best angle for a fixed blade field knife, I dont have much experience so I always use my lansky. I was given a really nice Knives of Alaska fixed blade for helping a buddy out on an elk hunt and dont want to mess with the factory edge until I know what I am doing. Any help would be appreciated.

Teryn

Hunt Hard. Shoot Straight. Kill Clean. Apologize to No One.
 
MONEY BACK GUARANTEE! I have an offer I'd like to make. Starting today, the first person to buy a KME knife sharpener (whetstone version) with the base and isn't happy can send it to me with the receipt and I'll give your money back to you including tax and your original shipping. The only risk is you will be out what it cost to ship the item to me. This is only for the first person that notifies me they want a return on the product. I don't know the owner of the company and have nothing to gain but I'm so confident your life as an outdoorsman will be more complete I want to offer something to a website that has given me much information and help. The first person who tells me they are not happy with their KME sharpener will get their money back from me. Again, there is a limit of 1 on this deal but I think it will give the forum an idea of how long it takes before we have someone who doesn't like the KME that has tried one. Also, it says alot about a product that has a customer so happy he is offering a money back guarantee on an item!

flyingbrass
cold dead hands
NRA Life Member
 
I've looked at the KME system and it seems to be a fine piece of equipment. It is pretty similar to the original Lansky system, just a bit further refined as stated above. They are both a guide rod system that clamps the knife in a jig to get repeatable stone angles.
I've used a Lansky system for so long I have actually worn out a few stones and bought a second kit. These are excellent, economical systems. I may very well upgrade to a KME system in the future, but believe either system will work well for almost anyone. The KME just seems to be the cadillac version of a Lansky, with the associated higher price.

Gerber knives are known for soft steel. Trying to put to fine an angle on a Gerber just leads to trouble. Buck knives, on the other hand, have such hard steel that sharpening can be a chore, but they hold a really fine edge 10X longer. I have come to prefer quality buck knives over most other reasonably priced knives.

Many of the problems people have learning to sharpen knives are related to working on knives with inferior steel.Some of the cheap junk out there today isn't worth the aggravation.

Bill
 
As for the question what angle is best for a all around field knife, 20-22 degrees will be a good start. 17-20 degrees for kitchen knives. I use 17-20 degrees for my hunting knives for better slicing, but the steel I use is noted for toughness and with a convex edge will not chip out easy at that fine angle as most other steels will.

As mentioned above, most knives will not hold a good edge for any lenght of time is because they are using inferior steel that is cheap in cost and they can sell the knife cheap. Even the newer Buck knives have fell into this inferior steel in order to offer customers a cheap knife. The older bucks used better steel and was heat treated to hold a darn good edge. I have a older Buck folder model 110, over 30 years old, that I would not trade for 5 of the newer ones. Buck does offer S30V steel knives that are top of the line. It's their economical line that most buyers want because of the cheap price.

Most knife companies are using steel that is marked "400 seris" or "440". It is 440A or 440B steel and has a low carbon content and will not hold a edge worth a damn. But it is a easy steel to stamp out blades from and easy on their machinery.

When it comes to knives, you do get what you paid for after all the hype is over.

RELH
 
Learning a lot here, thanks. How is D2 tool steel as far as quality goes?

Hunt Hard. Shoot Straight. Kill Clean. Apologize to No One.
 
I'm no expert on the different types of steel that knives are made of, but I can offer up a few pointers that will help you guys maintain the edge you put on your knife.

Say you have a lansky or some other knife sharpening system to get you started with a razor sharp knife. The problem I see with most guys is that they cut stuff that they shouldn't cut while they are skinning that dulls the edge.

Hair is dirty and gritty and if you use your sharp knife to buck into the hair on any animal you will quickly lose the edge. Take the point of the knife and cut or poke a hole in the skin and you can cut from the underside of the skin to lay it open. This will preserve your edge.

Bone is the worst on your knife edge. As you cut, avoid cutting the bones that you pass by. Make an effort to slice only the skin or the thin layer between the skin and the fat or meat of the animal. As you cut the legs off the animals, remember that the tendons are what holds the leg joints together, so only cut the tendons, and avoid sawing into the bone with the edge of the knife. Same goes for other areas as you bone the animal out. Avoid cutting the rib bones as you cut the backstrap out of it's place.

Last tip is this. Get a steel, and brush up the edge as you go while you are skinning. It's much easier to maintain a sharp edge with a few strokes on the steel every few minutes than it is to try to bring back an edge that has been destroyed. In fact, a steel is for maintaining an edge, not obtaining the edge. Lastly, all steels are not created equal. Cheap junky ones don't work. I have one from Solingen, Germany that is really nice. Can't remember where I got it, but that's the brand.

DeerBeDead
 
LAST EDITED ON Mar-06-12 AT 08:59PM (MST)[p]D-2 steel is one of our older steels and if given a good heat treating to around 59-61 Rc will out preform a lot of the newer steels. I still use D-2 along with S30V and my personal hunting knife is a skinner model made out of D-2 and heat treated to 60Rc.

Bob Dozier is a famous knife maker that loves D-2 to the point they call him "Mr. D-2". R.J. Martin also uses D-2 along with S30V in his tactical knives.

D-2 is not a true stainless steel as it only has 11-12% chrome and stainless must have 13%. But D-2 has enough chrome to be higly rust & stain resistant.

RELH
 
I read a review of the Work Shop Knife and Tool Sharpener in "Fur, Fish and Game" a couple of years ago. I ordered up one and have been extremely satisfied with the results. It works great.

http://www.worksharptools.com/index.php?option=com_virtuemart&Itemid=90

After just looking at their site again, I see they now offer a ceramic retractable honing rod for field touch up use. I guess I will be checking that out shortly, ha ha.
 
a little off topic, but I just wanted to add... If you are looking for a really good skinning knife, get a AG Russell beef skinner. they are cheap, easy to sharpen, hold an edge fairly well and make skinning bigger critters like beef, elk, and buffalo much quicker.

A knife maker buddy made me a copy of one out of an old saw blade that was the best dang knife I've ever had. I ended up giving it to an old cowboy named Harley who sadly passed away not too long ago, and he sure loved that knife too.

I spent several years helping out a buddy that has his own meat shop and I could skin an elk with this knife by myself in 15 minutes or less after the "old man" showed me the right technique.
 
Sorry about the double posts above, sometimes it doesn't show posting for some time and I think I need to try again...

Great information in this thread. Thanks for the replies!
 
Nah Gambler, I ain't no guru :) Just had to learn how to properly sharpen stuff during my formative years as a woodsmith way too many moons ago

Definitely agree with RELH on the flatter angles, as well as the establishing a slight convex 'roll' to the bevel...though I don't use a sander to grind or sharpen (I like hand work), I can still whip out a paper slicing edge in about a minute off a dulled but clean edge. If I gotta hit the coarse stones to recreate a comprimised edge, it might take a couple minutes more ;)

I don't much mind 'cheap' steel for field knives...just build a nice cutting edge on it and maintain it frequently with the strop BEFORE it starts to break down, and it works fine. I ain't the kind of guy that spends hundreds of bucks on a dang knife...a nice shipwright's slick, maybe ;)

All in all, I think many folks start out under the wrong premises, and with the wrong shapening tools...which understandably leads to a great deal of frustration. The 'gimmicks' out there are a Band-Aid that may patch, but not correct this basic problem.

And no, Hank, I ain't takin no sharpening orders...you can have em all! :)
 
>I've looked at the KME system
>and it seems to be
>a fine piece of equipment.
>It is pretty similar to
>the original Lansky system, just
>a bit further refined as
>stated above. They are both
>a guide rod system that
>clamps the knife in a
>jig to get repeatable stone
>angles.
>I've used a Lansky system for
>so long I have actually
>worn out a few stones
>and bought a second kit.
>These are excellent, economical systems.
>I may very well upgrade
>to a KME system in
>the future, but believe either
>system will work well for
>almost anyone. The KME just
>seems to be the cadillac
>version of a Lansky, with
>the associated higher price.
>
>Gerber knives are known for soft
>steel. Trying to put to
>fine an angle on a
>Gerber just leads to trouble.
>Buck knives, on the other
>hand, have such hard steel
>that sharpening can be a
>chore, but they hold a
>really fine edge 10X longer.
>I have come to prefer
>quality buck knives over most
>other reasonably priced knives.
>
>Many of the problems people have
>learning to sharpen knives are
>related to working on knives
>with inferior steel.Some of the
>cheap junk out there today
>isn't worth the aggravation.
>
>Bill


I'll make you one Guarantee,the Steel in this GERBER Knife ain't Soft Steel!

What the Hell it is I haven't a Clue?

One more thing,You won't never sharpen it using a 20 degree angle,takes way more angle,30 degrees!

You can Hone on this SOB at 20 degrees for a week & it ain't nothin but a Butter Knife!

It's kinda Funny when a So Called Pro takes it & says:I'll Sharpen it for you,I gladly hand it to them & they always bring the Knife back with an attitude!

Last Guy that tried Sharpening it said:We'll just call that knife the 'John Wayne' of all knives!

I'm just wondering WTH kind of Steel it is?



[font color=red size=redsize=18"face"]SHOW THEM TO ME![/font]
If You Love Your Country,SHOW THEM TO ME!




Hot Dog,Hot Damn,I love this Ameri-can
 
Not sure the problem people are having with Gerber knives.

I have a half dozen of them that I use. They keep an edge well and 95% of the time can be brought back up to speed with a steel.
They all will shave the hair on my arm before they go back in their case.

I like the gerbers because they are reasonably priced, light, and they have a good handle for a folding knife. Better than most fixed blade knives I have seen in the field.

If I need to re create an edge on a knife I use an oil stone.
 

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