What Ya Using for Knife Sharpening Tools?
Stones, wet or oil techniques, Tri-honing system, ceramic rods, machines, or other?

I have a couple of Arkansas stones, one is a soft and the other is a harder one.
Gotta little black one around the house somewhere too.

Thinkin' about gettin' one of those Smith Tri-hone ones though, and one of those razor straps too.

I know that there is a definate art to knife sharpening.

 

I've been using a Lansky kit that is pretty much idiot proof (which is perfect for me!). It came with a series of five different stones, a clamp for the blade and a guide. You can select from about five different shapening angles depending on how sharp you want to get it. Keep in mind, the narrower the angle, the quicker it gets dull.

 

Use a fine stone, make sure it's wet. Keep the edge on it with a steel.

My father was a butcher for many years, taught me how to sharpen a knife. Not that I can do it as well as him but I know the basics. Never saw him use oil and his knives were razor sharp. He always used a wet stone, it was a fairly large one, about a couple inches wide and a foot or so in length. It sat in a heavy base half submerged in water. Every few strokes you'd turn the stone into the water and back out. That would wash away the cuttings and re soak for more sharpening.

 

My understanding of the process is to keep the stone wet, similar to final sanding of a painted surface, as a lubricant. Oil or water, dosen't matter but, oil will keep the stone wet longer than water. Because your father was a butcher, he probably prefered water over oil because the oil might 'taint' what ever he was cutting.

 

green stone and spit!

 

Due to the stainless steels in many of today's knives, I finally got a machine to do the work. I was surprised at the quality of the finished edge. It will even do serrated blades.
http://www.gandermountain.com/modper...+&merchID=4005

I highly recommend it.

 

Oh-Boy! In the tool world this is a "What oil do you use?" question.

Been through a lot of ways, and some are time consuming.
Oil stones, water stones, Lansky stone and diamond, diamond plate, steels, strops, etc.
Each has their place but today I and am more relaxed about the process. I mostly save the stones for fine edge making when making an initial tool profile, and always for those tools that require a fine edge (Chisels, plane blades, extra sharp knives etc. )

My "regular Sharp tools will be maintained with a coarse and fine steel to keep the edge straight, followed by a charged strop lap for a decent but easily repeatable sharpening. I have been known to use a carbide pull through Accu-Sharp even on some decent quality Chefs knives (Then Steel & Strop) when doing sustained cutting that requires a more complete touch up while working.

Really, the steel does most of my chef's knife sharpening touch up these days for my basic needs and I only go to more extreme measures when the edge requires that it be re-profiled. Then I break out the other tools.

And a Micro-bevel helps to provide a stronger cutting edge to a shallow angled blade.

I suspect that hollowpoint's Gander mountain tool will do most of what I require these days for my day to day tools, and it is motorized. I am going to look these up the next time that I am in the store.

 

I have a Norton Crystolon Combination Oil Stone Fine/Course for my better knifes and hatch/axes, and two redi-edge sharpening tools for my utility knifes.

 

Older version of this one, works great for me.

 

This Is as good as it gets, no oil no water
http://eze-lap.com/products/diamond-...pocket-stones/