How to sharpen a knife

[mickri]

I finally got a leather strop belt and realized it has a smooth side and a rough side. No idea which side is used to strop a knife. Help me out.

 

[mickri]

Been searching for an answer to my question and I think that I found it in the comments to a video on leather strop belts. What I found is that the rough side is to the inside and the smooth side is used to strop the knife. Is this correct?

 

[pontiac428]

Been searching for an answer to my question and I think that I found it in the comments to a video on leather strop belts. What I found is that the rough side is to the inside and the smooth side is used to strop the knife. Is this correct?

I prefer to use the rough side (traditionally called the Russian side from their split leather strops) with heavy pressure to bring the edge to a mirror shine, then use the smooth side for the final few licks.

 

[mickri]

Had another go at sharpening a knife this morning. This time a folding 3" knife that gets used and abused on a daily basis. Heavy on the abuse. It has never been very sharp even when it was brand new. Very lightly cleaned up the edge with a 300 grit belt which is the finest that I have. Then put it to the strop. Wow is all I can say. After stropping I was able to slice clean slivers off of a piece of paper. Never been able to do that before with a knife that I had sharpened.

 

[Billhilly66]

Get a good grasp of the "burr". Once you understand what you need to accomplish and why, the various methods will make sense whether you're using traditions Japanese waterstones, a belt sander, or a paper wheel rig, creating and removing the burr is your objective.

 

[pontiac428]

Agreed! The burr is the key, whether using 100 grit or 4000.

Also, today's google term is Wicked Edge: https://www.google.com/search?q=wicked+edge

 

[aliva]

Check this vid by Kramer knives, he explains the process of sharpening a knife including the burr.

Sharpening - Kramer Knives

Sharpening What is Sharp? * BOB KRAMER ONLY SHARPENS CUSTOM KRAMER KNIVES. IS YOUR KNIFE SHARP? Magazine test Slice a folded magazine page. A sharp blade will easily slice the paper, a dull blade will not. Food test The ultimate edge will grab onto the skin of a tomato or onion. If the blade...

kramerknives.com

I use this method with a 1000 then a 4000 Japanese water stone along with a 6$ knife guide. sure beats 300$ for the wicked sharp system in the link, which functions the same as a Lansky sharpening system. I had a Lansky system, PITA gave it to my brother

 

[pontiac428]

The Lansky is good enough, and the Galco is better. The Wicked Edge with its rigid fixture, granite base, and flat stones is just a luxury. I have all three, so I can say that. I also have an 8 drawer Gerstner fully packed with folding knives so I stay in practice. If you have a couple knives, get a Lansky or Galco. If you need intervention for your knife collecting problem, you're Wicked Edge material.

 

[Billhilly66]

The wicked edge is going to be the beta video version of sharpeners. They're already consolidating stones on the edge pro format and there's some new sharpeners on the market tsprof, jende, etc with that use the edge pro format stones. You can get a full set of Naniwa choseras and other Japanese water stones or cbn and diamond as well. The wicked edge has great clamping and a solid build but it uses 2 proprietary stones for each grit. The edge pro has a great build as well but has no clamp. I see both falling to the wayside as other companies improve and standardize their designs.

 

[pontiac428]

Sharpening systems aren't a very fast moving sector of industry. The Lansky system has been around since at least the 1980s, and they had little competition for two decades. Nobody was lining up to get in on their action. The Galco system was a knock off, but I don't think it hurt Lansky much. Since Wicked offers exotic stones and cheap blank stone holders for custom applications, I don't expect them to go out of business over some competition.

I like the idea of a water stone in a guide rod setup, but water stones need to be level or else the water will run off and the metal dust won't float out of the stone's pores. I wasn't a big fan of diamond knife sharpeners until I got some good ones with the Wicked setup. Now I love them. I wash them with isopropyl alcohol from a squirt bottle after use and they stay good as new.

I would like to make a guide system for kitchen knives and a single Norton water stone. One of these days I can put all this equipment to work on that. Hmm, side project...