Using a Culinary Sharpening Stone

or you could buy one of these:

http://www.tormek.com/en/

I have one but it's been packed up for a few year. need to unpack it. after sharpening a knife, you can pretty much lay it across an upturned knife and it will cut.

sharp! very sharp! i have not tried it on a kitchen knife but will have to this summer. my knifes are getting dull

Another tip is to buy a GOOD finishing steel and learn to use it.  Once you get your knives sharp , a few passes on the steel each time you use them will keep them that way.

The procedure is very good but I seriously think this picture over exaggerates the knife position for demo purposes. The back of the knife is much to high off the Stone. This will create a wide angle Chisel edge on the blade, durable but not very sharp. A good sharp edge is obtained by tilting the blade so the back of the knife is about 1/4" to 3/8" up off the stone...JJ

appox. 25° , just your finger width...I'm looking at getting a Tri-stone.

It sure does take a heck of a lot of practice to sharpen correctly with a stone, I've seen many folks nearly ruin a knife that way.

I think the Gatco sharpening system (not the Lansky) http://www.gatcosharpeners.com/ or the fancier KME http://www.kmesharp.com/kmeknshsy.html, are best for beginners or the occasional sharpener.
Add a razor strop to get the edge razor sharp and a good steel for maintenance (use it often) and you're all set.

Un-scented baby oil makes a perfect honing oil, it's a light mineral oil....regular mineral oil from the pharmacy is too heavy.


~Martin

I have the Gatco in my motorhome and a 3 stone at the house 

Both work well 

I did a course at a Japanese knife shop for an afternoon. I learnt how to use water stones.I am by no means an expert but I can get a good edge on all my knives,Japanese & European. Grey is 80 grit,blue 220.

use soapy water for urlubricant!  Will help keep everything clean and no smell!  U can use it on any stone.  Stones get full of knife shavings this way all u have to do is rinse them off!

I love my Edge Pro

I like my Edge Pro, but prefer the KME.


~Martin

Gatco for me too. I've had mine for many years. 

Myself I have found I quite like DMT diamond sharpening stones.  The continuous surface solid metal one specifically.  My norton water stones are nice too for a finer polish(I only have an extra fine not an extra extra fine DMT stone)

The worksharp knife sharpener is the best yet. Check it out, shave your arm in about 30 seconds of sharpening.

I'm fortunate, I don't need to sharpen arrow heads, hatchets, fishhooks, hunting knives, or axes; only a few kitchen knives.  I have a Spyderco V-Sharpener and it works fine for most of my needs. So easy, a caveman like me can use it.  

My problem has always been keeping the correct blade angle on a stone. I can mess up an edge in a hurry, become frustrated and give up. 

However, I saw that DMT now has an adjustable blade guide ($11.99 USD) even a novice like me can use, I think I will dust off my stones and give another try to honing my sharpening skills. 

I gotta tell you, I see some really great new items that made me think about spending more money!

Thanks for this great thread, lots of great hints! GOOD LUCK!

Really everyone, the worksharp knife sharpener is the best thing they ever came out with. Check it out. Simple, fast and Razor sharp. Its a realy well built tool.

I think a lot depends on how much you practice.  

To get good at sharpening knives (or wood chisels)  first thing you need to do is see what you have.  if the blade has any nicks in it then these need to be removed.  for this purpose you can use a file, a belt sander or even the grinder in the garage.  What you don't want to do is to get the edge hot so that you cause a color change.  It will go from silver, to straw to blue really fast so go easy and have a nice bucket of water to cool the steel before it gets too hot.

Once you have got the shape restored now you can roughly reestablish the vee shape to the edge.  The sharper you get the blade, the more likely it is to get hot so go easy if you are still on the power tool.  You can judge your progress by looking at the edge to see the reflection of the flat at the point of the vee.  To see this, orient yourself and the blade so light will reflect to your eye as you would a regular mirror to see the reflection of the light.  On the blade what you will see is a line that gets narrower as you approach sharp.  once you cant see the line that is it is sharp.

So now you are close, now go to the stone or what I find works really fast is this: http://www.harborfreight.com/4-sided-diamond-hone-block-92867.html   this is a 4 sided diamond hone that has coarse to fine grit. I have had mine for over 6 years and it still works great.  A few strokes against the coarse grit, and then work right on down to the fine grit.

Now as you have been looking at that reflected line getting narrower all through this process it is best if it was always equidistant from the the side of the blade and it this point you should not be able to perceive any reflection.  Being really fussy what I then do is to find a coffee cup that has a nice smooth white bottom and give it a final hone on the good ceramic.

At this point you should be able to shave hair off the back of your hand with ease and slice a 1/6" slice on a fresh ripe tomato.

Before you start slicing use your steel to burnish your edge and loose the plastic cutting board in favor of the wood one.  If you don't have a steel get a good one, you won't regret it.

I suggest to practice you pick up some old knives at the thrift store.  Look for ones that have the blade carry all the way to the hilt, and ones that are thicker at the back of the blade than the cutting edge.  (Made in USA, or Germany are usually good, avoid China, but quality Japanese can be good also. Also avoid the ones that are stamped out of thin sheet metal.)  If you see hammer marks on the back of the blade or if it is stained or a bit rusty that shouldn't scare you away if it is a good knife, the beauty is in the quality of the construction and the composition of the steel.  I have picked up some really good knives this way and they clean up just fine with a bit of elbow grease and some good 3M wet or dry sand paper 400 to 1200 grit. the carbon steel blades need to be dried right after washing and kept dry or the rust and stain will return.  A product call barkeepers friend is good as it actually chemically reverses the rust back to steel if it is not too far gone.

Worksharp Knive sharpener.  Im not saying that there is not another method to getting your knive sharper. But to be able to go from dull knive to shaving hair in about 30 seconds. Not that I am not guilty of spending hours with my stones and ceramics on a rainy day just being anal about getting the perfect edge, its just that I found an awsome tool that works and find my time more valuable the older I get.

I got this Work Sharp kit today, and I have to say it's the fastest and easiest sharpener I've ever owned. The acid test was a 20 year old Buck 110 folder that had a blade that just wouldn't sharpen right. Buck knives have always been my downfall, the steel is so hard. After 15 minutes I had a shaving edge that hasn't been on it since the original edge. I highly recommend it if you're like me and just can't sharpen a knife properly.