time to try whet-stone sharpening again.

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I too have a Ken Onion, what I have learned is This sharpener is great to sharpen a knife, I have pumice, cermanic, Arkansas hard stones, even diamond stones & strops too. The Onion Sharpener saves me a solid week of sore arms from sharpening manually the the new knife for the first time to achieve the angle I want on a blade. BUT the best thing for a knife is a steel.

Once you achieve a good angle on your blades edge, just constantly when using it, hit it a few times with that steel. it takes that burr off the blade.

Now a days I do have some nice knives, but its the steel that keeps them in the game. I sharpen mine usually once maybe twice a year if a lot of processing. Its the steel that allows that to work that way.

Look for you a steel, they are worth the cost.

006.JPG
 
I too have a Ken Onion, what I have learned is This sharpener is great to sharpen a knife, I have pumice, cermanic, Arkansas hard stones, even diamond stones & strops too. The Onion Sharpener saves me a solid week of sore arms from sharpening manually the the new knife for the first time to achieve the angle I want on a blade. BUT the best thing for a knife is a steel.

Once you achieve a good angle on your blades edge, just constantly when using it, hit it a few times with that steel. it takes that burr off the blade.

Now a days I do have some nice knives, but its the steel that keeps them in the game. I sharpen mine usually once maybe twice a year if a lot of processing. Its the steel that allows that to work that way.

Look for you a steel, they are worth the cost.

View attachment 516130
Thanks. I have a steel that came with my Chicago set. Can they wear down? Or just buy a new one? Watched a few steel videos last night
 
Get a ceramic steel, they straighten the blade & take a tiny bit of metal off too!
Al
I like the ceramic honing rods too (I have a couple of grits), and I have a set of angle guides. These guides allow you to stand the rod up vertically, and set the angle of your knife, then draw the knife toward you. Because you are dialed in closer (within 1° or 2° ) to the exact angle you have on various knives, honing only takes a couple of passes. I keep the 16° on my hone and it's easy to slightly decrease the angle for my slicer, or increase it for chef's knives.
RhtJXPZ.jpg
 
remember most just starting to sharpen dont know if 30% is per side or 1/2 per side. in fact lots dont know. 60 degrees is a happening angle. lots of good info on bladeforums.com
 
Well, it got here. Would have been a lot more tickled if they would have put in at least two of each type of belt. Got started with an old chefs knife from a brand called good cooks. A Walmart $40 full set given to me probably 20 yearsago.
Not slicing paper yet, as this is going to take a lot of practice at $17.95 a belt. Don’t think my Whustof Will get anywhere near it for a little bit.
 
Well, it got here. Would have been a lot more tickled if they would have put in at least two of each type of belt. Got started with an old chefs knife from a brand called good cooks. A Walmart $40 full set given to me probably 20 yearsago.
Not slicing paper yet, as this is going to take a lot of practice at $17.95 a belt. Don’t think my Whustof Will get anywhere near it for a little bit.

Oops, I guess we forgot to mention saving a little bit on shipping by loading up on the belts with your initial order. And it's good to use a generic knife while you learn the 'rhythm' of this sharpening machine. One tip, when you use (or abuse) the first couple of belts.... try your best to stay on the sanding surface. This sounds weird.... but if you get careless and nick the edge of the belt it will fail prematurely.
 
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Oops, I guess we forgot to mention saving a little bit on shipping by loading up on the belts with your initial order. And it's good to use a generic knife while you learn the 'rhythm' of this sharpening machine. One tip, when you use (or abuse) the first couple of belts.... try your best to stay on the sanding surface. This sounds weird.... but if you get careless and nick the edge of the belt it will fail prematurely.
yup
I dug deep and found chef's knife on the level of Farberware. still got a good edge on it. bought from Amazon because they offered overnight delivery on my prime. and when i get my mid set, there's no brakes.
 
yup
I dug deep and found chef's knife on the level of Farberware. still got a good edge on it. bought from Amazon because they offered overnight delivery on my prime. and when i get my mid set, there's no brakes.
The pro-tip in the manual, and on the Worksharp videos about stopping your stroke with the tip of the blade in contact with the belt is something to work on. You can always use another sharpening technique/method to fine tune the tip.
 
Wet / dry sand paper on a 2 x 8 inch board with a leather strop glued to one side. Cheap, easy and just as effective as any wet stone without the wet mess. Use 400 grit for heavy work, start at 800 grit for normal sharpening then move up in grits as you see fit. I go with 800, 1000, 2000 then leather strop with jewelers rouge then leather strop. Sharpening isn't really that hard, all one has to do is pay attention to the angle.
 
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Wet / dry sand paper on a 2 x 8 inch board with a leather strop glued to one side. Cheap, easy and just as effective as any wet stone without the wet mess. Use 400 grit for heavy work, start at 800 grit for normal sharpening then move up in grits as you see fit. I go with 800, 1000, 2000 then leather strop with jewelers rouge then leather strop. Sharpening isn't really that hard, all one has to do is pay attention to the angle.
Cut up a computer mouse pad and glue it to a 2x6 by however long you want. Then pin a piece of 400# on up to 2000# paper strop on that. Will give you a convex edge, and works well.
 
I sharpen LOTS of knives on a vari speed 1x30" belt grinder (over my vari speed 2x72) and that little unit you got will do very well after a little practice. The one key thing to remember with a sanding belt is they can cause extreme heat, especially with super hard blades. A lower speed and nice uniform pulls....IE many uniform fast are better than one or two slow....If you super heat (ie turns dark) the tip of a chef knife the tip is toast and will have to be reprofiled. Second many try to "stretch" the belt life out, but old belts don't work and cause greater heat.

My process is much like muddys above,....Ie a clients knife.... I start with 400, 600, 800, 1000, then 1500 stone, finished on the buffer (leather with some polishing compound will work too). On my personal kitchen knives I stop at 800 and run it across the buffer once (green compound)....it will easy cut paper at that point.... note that 600 & 800 are polishing and not cutting (800 is a dull mirror).....the rest above that is mirror polishing

This is also why I always start at 400 and work my way up because it saves on belts.....creating a new edge on a higher grit burns belts fast and can cause excessive heat. The 400 cuts a nice edge then 600 & 800 to polish it....
 
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