Knife sharpers

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Ol'Dawg

Ol'Dawg

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For a long time, I have used different types to sharp knives but I never really liked them. What is your favorite?
 
Whetstone is best but it takes time and patience. Also depends on the hardness of the blade. A couple of my older hunting knives take a half hour or better to get shaving level sharp but would hold an edge through skinning 3 or 4 deer. They would slice through a 1/4" piece of leather like butter. They just don't make steel like that anymore unless you spend a lot of money.
 
Ranger107 said:
Whetstone is best but it takes time and patience. Also depends on the hardness of the blade. A couple of my older hunting knives take a half hour or better to get shaving level sharp but would hold an edge through skinning 3 or 4 deer. They would slice through a 1/4" piece of leather like butter. They just don't make steel like that anymore unless you spend a lot of money.
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Ps, the crap you buy on line where you just pull the knife through a set of angled rods don't work for shit. Edge won't last more than a couple of days.
 
For home sharpening, I think Dan's Whetstone https://www.danswhetstone.com/ is the best. Multiple hardness, grades, and sizes of novaculite. Not cheap, but your grandkids will be using them if properly cared for. On the trail, almost any light, cheapo diamond rod will work for me (I tend to eventually lose much of what I take packing, even myself on occasion!).

Natch
 
For most knives I use Diamond sharpeners. They are fast, easy to use and not overly expensive. However, if the blade has a convex edge I use the old mouse pad and sheets of 800 then finer wet & dry abrasive paper. You put the paper grit side up & onto the padded mousepad, then draw the knife, spine toward you, with the blade pressed downward “into” the paper so it curves around the blade…if that makes any sense. Keeping the blade oriented so that you’re pulling perpendicular to the blade. Actually good directions and videos are all over YouTube.
 
Yup. If it’s the flexcut using the gold compound it’s what I’ve used for YEARS. I think Flexcut Gold is THE best compound out there. I used it mostly for my carving tools. For knives a larger and longer leather strop is better. It’s really easy to make your own.

NOTE: this will NOT sharpen a dull knife. For that you need to recreate an effective edge. This is to “dress” an edge. This will take a sharp blade to razor blade level. The softer the steel, the faster it works. Duh!
 
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