12-14-2017, 11:51 AM
Thanks. I wouldn't worry about the delayed welcome. I'm pretty sure we've talked before. I think I remember seeing you on the KnifetalkOnline forum, which seems fairly slow lately. I have not tried SB steel, and regret missing out on the Spyderco models using it. I am not terribly familiar with Murray, other than his sharpening videos on YT and his time on Forged in Fire. Perhaps you can provide some insights into his methods and theory if questions arise.
Do you use a guide when using bench stones? I've had a couple for years that I use, though I've retaught myself to freehand sharpen as well. It's not too bad as long as you don't care what the edge looks like when you're done.
My focus lately has been on speeding up stone based sharpening with simple steels used in inexpensive kitchen and field knives and using as little equipment as possible to get as high a sharpness as possible. It's a small portion of knife users that have higher end steels that respond to sharpening like Super Blue or White #1, #2 or similar.
I have most of my kitchen knives sharpened on a Norton Economy stone coarse/fine, and only recently added in a ceramic rod. I also use a DMT Aligner clamp set as low as possible with the Norton. These cheap steels get tricky sometimes, but I can usually get an edge tree topping sharp with just that set up. This set up was about $8 for the stone and $15 for the clamp. It still suffers from the long sharpening session for the initial rebevel, but subsequent sessions are very quick from the repeatability. I had so much trouble from power sharpening I've abandoned it in all but the root cutting blades and setting initial bevels on thick knives. I've even begun to prefer steels that can be filed easily for certain uses.
Do you use a guide when using bench stones? I've had a couple for years that I use, though I've retaught myself to freehand sharpen as well. It's not too bad as long as you don't care what the edge looks like when you're done.
My focus lately has been on speeding up stone based sharpening with simple steels used in inexpensive kitchen and field knives and using as little equipment as possible to get as high a sharpness as possible. It's a small portion of knife users that have higher end steels that respond to sharpening like Super Blue or White #1, #2 or similar.
I have most of my kitchen knives sharpened on a Norton Economy stone coarse/fine, and only recently added in a ceramic rod. I also use a DMT Aligner clamp set as low as possible with the Norton. These cheap steels get tricky sometimes, but I can usually get an edge tree topping sharp with just that set up. This set up was about $8 for the stone and $15 for the clamp. It still suffers from the long sharpening session for the initial rebevel, but subsequent sessions are very quick from the repeatability. I had so much trouble from power sharpening I've abandoned it in all but the root cutting blades and setting initial bevels on thick knives. I've even begun to prefer steels that can be filed easily for certain uses.