Oh. I thought you were alerting us to a troll in our midst.
Still. My knives are dull and pitted. Advice dully noted.
For knives, I generally use either a belt grinder or a rock (depending on whether I’m at home or not).
But the cheap diamond sharpeners really are pretty awesome. I use rotary ones (5/32 burr, 3/16 burr) to sharpen chainsaw chains, and they don’t erode away and ruin the angles like the stone ones do.
(@jlw, feel free to edit in your affiliate link, I haven’t got one myself. )
I consider myself to be pretty handy but one thing I absolutely SUCK at is knife sharpening! I’ve tried every possible device - electric grinders, ceramic rods, whetstones…I can never get a decent edge.
Now I just wait for my uncle to come over at Christmas. He gets so peeved at the condition of my knives that he spends a couple hours sharpening all of them for me.
I actually carry a hone about with me for this very purpose. Blunt knives upset me greatly.
I’ve tried to get the hang of sharpening my knives myself with stones, but I find it really difficult. I’ve watched other people do it, seen videos, etc…
I have a couple that I can do OK, but not my two high carbon chef’s knives. I take those to be professionally sharpened.
These diamond things are not as magical as some make out. But the basic skills don’t change.And I could sharpen a scythe before I left school. That’s been more use than an English O-level, though not many people need to sharpen scythes.
Same here. I just don’t think I can get the angle & pressure quite right on both sides.
I just found out about these little guides you can put on your knifes to help maintain the correct angle against the whetstone.
Get one of these, they’re $8 and great.
Jinxies!
Yeah, I’ve gotten great results out of carbide sharpeners on knives I don’t really care about longevity with. They’re pretty awesome for sharpening machetes too, as long as you file the blade angle enough for them to fit in the notch.
No way. What if a monkey gets hold of them?
It’s just so hard to get people these days interested in harvesting souls.
I got a harbor freight 1"x30" belt sander and sharpen all my knives at once. 600 grit -> 1000 grit -> 2000 grit. 10 knives in about 25 minutes, near shaving sharp. I suck with stones too.
Ive tried most ways but have come to prefer wet-dry sandpaper backed up with a piece of thicker glass.
Its pretty easy to ruin a blade by over heating the fine edge.
Maybe have a look at the Edge Pro sharpener
I did a lot of research before getting one of Apex 2 kits.
It’s expensive and overkill for most people, but different knives require different angles and it takes most of the guess work out of it. Pretty much fool proof if you want something to be able to sharpen at lots of different angles.
Check youtube for videos if you want to see some people testing it out.
I have a Lansky kit, which is similar, but still have gone back to bench stone style sharpening.
I’ve given sharpeners as just-for-the-heck-of-it gifts to a couple of my friends, so that when I’m in their kitchen I’ve got something handy to deal with their knives. They don’t seem offended, so I’m guessing they think of me as their uncle.
