Knife sharpener progress

[Waylander]

You can buy diamond or boron rods for the Spyderco Sharpmaker for reprofiling.

[gunnerblue]

I use.two Japanese water stones (ceramic)- a 1000 and a 4000 grit. Sharpening free hand isn't particularly difficult, it just takes practice and is slow. For quick touch up jobs on cheap knives I usually just use a 2x72" grinder set on its slowest speed with a fine grit belt. The trick is not to let your blades become so dull in the first place. This is where stops come unto play. The Spyderco system or similar is nice to have in the kitchen for quick jobs.

[bigsapper]

You're over thinking this. Knife sharpening does not require extreme accuracy. I've gotten knives to razor sharp with the Spyderco Sharpmaker that were just above butter knife sharp before I started.

Once upon a time I had an online retail shop focusing on selling knives. By an order of magnitude, the Sharpmaker was my #1 seller. Even my distibutor couldn't keep them in stock.

[Adrenaline_6]

You can buy diamond or boron rods for the Spyderco Sharpmaker for reprofiling.

Your right, you could, but it will still be painstakingly slow compared to an Edge Pro Apex or Edge Pro system.

[Adrenaline_6]

I use.two Japanese water stones (ceramic)- a 1000 and a 4000 grit. Sharpening free hand isn't particularly difficult, it just takes practice and is slow. For quick touch up jobs on cheap knives I usually just use a 2x72" grinder set on its slowest speed with a fine grit belt. The trick is not to let your blades become so dull in the first place. This is where stops come unto play. The Spyderco system or similar is nice to have in the kitchen for quick jobs.

That's exactly what I use it for. Touch ups or a quick easy 40 degree microbevel to get rid of a burr.

[JackFanToM]

Under NO circumstance should you get a belt sander or paper wheel to sharpen your knives. They remove too much material too swiftly for proper control and are only capable of convex edges unless they have a backing plate. I have rescued too many "work sharp" edges to sit by and not respond. I have a wicked edge system, and have about $2500 worth of stones for it, and that is what I use for customer knives. When doing my own I use a 10" dmt fine stone, a spyderco UF stone and a strop bat with 1.5 micron, 1 micron, .5 micron and .25 micron diamond paste on it. There are several good systems out there KME and wicked edge are the most recommended, as edge pro has kinda fallen off, and ts prof is coming on strong.
https://photos.app.goo.gl/qf1yKpSY3qFU44VM7
https://photos.app.goo.gl/P2UTNbDGSaFhnWd47
work sharp edge
https://photos.app.goo.gl/yWB7vGdjvg9jDbr87
after repair and a sharpening choil added at customer's request
https://photos.app.goo.gl/gECEPkb2YnjNVYWW9
another work sharp, but better, still created a smile I needed to flatten
https://photos.app.goo.gl/kEtK5R8AYzuX17mr8
removed some DLC as well
https://photos.app.goo.gl/hL9xGoHJCzNY6UFe7
sharpening kit
https://photos.app.goo.gl/P6CigeNLE7GN2afKA
what a good edge should do

[RioGrandeGreen]

Well f*ck me, I just bought a Work Sharp.

[ndmiller]

One must understand the level of patience you posses before choosing a sharpening method. The sharp maker requires very little and results can be very good to excellent depending on how careful you are with knife angle during use. Flat stones require more patience and consistency of angles but will reward you with consistency excellent results taking more time than a sharp maker.

Knife care is the other side of sharpening to ensure they stay sharp. For kitchen knives wash dry and return to block or whatever storage you are using. Every month after about 4-5 uses for prep/dinner/etc, realign the edges with a honing rod for a pass or two. Using this method, I sharpen my steak knives 1-2 times a year, but hone the edges 8-12 times a year as they are cutting food on plates that deform the edge. For my prep knives I sharpen once a year and hone maybe every other month.

For outdoor/pocket knives, use, abuse but clean them regularly of gunk accumulated from items cut (boxes, tape, packages, etc.). I choose hard stainless steels for these knives (i.e. S110V) so they require less care and sharpening than carbon steel knives. My carbon knives I sharpen almost every time I go camping or outdoors. My harder stainless knives maybe once a year sharpening but monthly gunk cleaning with wd40 or another spray solvent (no food on these knives).

[jsbhike]

I have the Sharpmaker also. I like it and use it a lot. It cannot do what an Apex or similar can (in a respectable amount of time). Damaged..chips...reprofiling...etc..that job will suck with a Sharpmaker.

A couple of adds on the "why" is the flats on the rods aren't cutting a lot of material and the edges/corners that will remove slightly more material are used for sharpening serrations so it would have a similar affect on chips. Add in that the medium stones don't cut a lot of material even using the edges/corners.

For normal sharpening I really like it for everything other than convex and rarely use it flat for Scandi grinds.