This isn’t me but this is a link I have saved and direct anyone that asked me towards, very helpful basic / beginners info:
CK, That’s SICK! 
I just got a Strider clone stupid sharp, like an hour ago. Wonder if it’ll do that….
A strop will make your blade razor sharp.
Honing on stones is good to bring the knife to sharpness. Really sharp if you’re good.
As you move down in coarseness, the edge will look (under a microscope) serrated. The serrations are jagged and uneven in size. As you get to the fine stone, the serrations begin to be more evenly spaced and uniform in size, making it good for a smooth sharp cut.
Using leathers to finish it off, the serrations get even more even…like a razor blade.
Stropping with bare leather doesn’t really do anything but polish the blade, perhaps straighten some bent serrations after use.
You need stropping compound. The compound is rubbed onto the leather…then you strop. I have a strop for gold compound, which is a little courser, and then move to a strop with green compound which is fine. This will get it wicked sharp.
Red compound (extra fine) which is known as jewelers rouge, will mostly polish the edge.
Get a piece of wood about 2-3 inches wide and a foot long, go to a shoeman and get some leather, and glue it down. (He can do this for you also). I use it with the fuzzy side up.(it gives better bite) you can have fuzzy leather on one side of the board, and smooth on the other.
Get compound and strop! It makes a difference.
CK, I checked my Strider clone and by gosh if it doesn’t do similar to that with a page out of the phone book! Supposedly a 440 blade, it’s 3/16” thick! I used the 600 stone last in my Lansky kit, then used a strip of leather I have fastened on an old stone to “strop” it on the Lansky. Not quite a mirror finish on the edge, but getting close.
I seem to recall that stropping by hand with a loose strop, barber shop style, will put a convex edge on the blade that is tough and extremely sharp. My Katana is sharpened in this way, not a flat edge coming together but two convex curves meeting in a razor sharp edge the full length of the 28” blade. (similar to the shape of an acorn if imagined in a cross section of the blade.)
Jack that’s is what I have just started doing lol and I have noticed a difference in guess I am trying to get rid of the folded over part of the blade and thanks Cera l _ killer Chloé and everyone else’s I just remember I think 8steve88 and xatu mentioned leather stop to get that razors edge … I mean I can get them sharp enough to shave the hair of my arm and slice through pages of magazine but somewhere I seen video a of a knife slicing through loose sheets of toilet paper .I have found quite a few st ropes on ebay and amazon I just don’t know what the difference is or the technique on how to use either the 3 ’ barber stops or the Lansky stiles or the various compounds.
Even with a Lansky hone that has guides to give you the “perfect edge” you have to develop a technique that works for you. I push the stone/diamond into the blade, never dragging it back. So in a sharpening session like todays, cutting a new edge on both sides of a new blade, it can take hours to recut the bad sharpening job the knife came with. After that it’s easy.
Work on developing a consistent style, and find the proper way to hold the blade, whether fully manual or on a guide, and stick to that. Consistency yields the best results, whatever your style may be.
Edit: I just took this Strider clone to the 3” leather strop with some Wenol metal polish rubbed in and it now has a mirror finish edge that is just too sharp to shave with! It’ll slide under the skin trying to shave.
You have to love it when it’s stropped sharp like that. I always keep alchahol swabs and bandages nearby.
LOL
When they’re this sharp you can show it off by sliding it through the hair on your arm about 1/4” above the skin and watch it grab and slice hairs without danger of slicing yourself. I think this is the sharpest I’ve had this level of blade…most of mine are ATS34 or equivalent. Looking hard at that newish ZDP189…
ZDP-189 is amazing as a dress up knife steel but if you do any sort of work with your knife run away. I literally had it chip from stripping insulation off romex. ZDP also rusts (worse even that D2). I recommend M390 as a super high end, high hardness super steel that’s much more rust resistant and a lite tougher. Remember hardness and toughness are two completely different (and opposite) things.
My current favorite steel is M4 like on my spyderco Gayle Bradley but I’m not scared of having to prevent rust, just another aspect of daily knife care.
This was after a 3 hour reprofiling to 18DPS (from factory edge) on my diamond plates when I first got my GB (factory edges are never good enough for me). Both of the raw spots are where I make contact withthe stone to ensure I’m using a consistent angle/stroke and since I flip the blade over, not swith hands to do the other side the same 2 fingers are in contact the entire time.
Btw I sharpen back-n-forth, I don’t lift on the back stroke.
One time I did an 8-3 romex chopping test, M4 of my Spycerco vs D2 of my Benchmade 710 (D2 ain’t no joke either) but the M4 blade still shaved after making 5 threw cuts (took a fair amount of chopping) of the 4x solid strands (8-3 is 8AWG each 3 conductor/1neutral) but the D2 was destroyed, so much so I packed it up and sent it back to BM to let them deal with it lol.
I’m a user, will cut almost anything and it’s likely that just about anything will need to be cut. That said, I’m not out there like I used to be. It’s hot as hades here and we sweat. Salty sweat can really get to a blade. So rust resistance is important. But no, I don’t like a hard blade that chips. I can’t stand chips, because while it’s easy to sharpen a blade that’s gotten dull from use, it’s a pita to re-profile a blade with nicks and chips in the edge.
Ixnay the 189. Nuff said there, I’ll fugetaboudit.
M4 huh?
I’ve been carrying an ATS34 Buck Strider mini. The blade is thick, comparatively short, and I like Titanium liners and G10. Gotta have a liner lock, if not a frame lock, as I’ve been carrying them so long now I’d hurt myself with anything else. This Strider clone seems to have a much larger blade, but it’s actually only about a 1/4” longer than the Buck. (3” cutting edge) This one too has a thick blade, so it should be able to take some abuse. And it was only $16.98 shipped. I have no idea how they do it. I also don’t know if it’s 440A or C or 7Cr17Mo or what it is. It’s hardened pretty good, was not exactly easy to sharpen. It’s even got the BOS heat flame stamp on it, but it’s missing the little indention where the machine actually tests it. Go figure.
I use a cheap strop, £2 leather belt from a charity shop, Solvol Autosol or Peek or whatever metal polish you use, spread on the grainy side of the leather belt, strop away.
You can use 12 to 18inch lengths of the belt glued to a piece of timber or use it whole and hook the buckle over a hook or lever type door handle.
Recently I’ve been going for the more toothy edges as I cut Paracord quite a bit and find the tiny serrations of a toothy edge cut better. Dragging the blade across the Paracord it’s better with a toothy edge but a sharpened until shiny edge push cuts better.
EDIT………I must add that you have to be careful if you are going to strop slip joints or the SanRenMu detent locking knives, dragging the knife spine first over the strop might be enough for the blade to close, it shouldn’t because you don’t need to apply a lot of pressure when stropping but when first starting it’s tempting to push too hard and a slipjoint isn’t meant to have pressure on the spine side of the blade and stay open.
Want and yes I understand the lifting if the stone on back stroke I guess I am just frustrated because I have been stuck at this level and can’t pass to the next level of sharpness like I believe it was a youtube video of a mora fixed blade slicing through sheets of toilet paper effortlessly.
That is not an easy thing to accomplish and quite rare. The right combination of blade design, blade steel and expert sharpening techniques is a difficult combination to achieve. Very few will ever get to that level.
Can you completely and totally disassemble and reassemble your Glocks? Can you make the Glock have a 3 1/2 lbs trigger pull? Once upon a time I achieved that, wasn’t easy, and I was told very few Glock armorer’s could do it. I certainly wasn’t a Glock representative! But I had friends…
The point being, there are skills that few master, and sometimes it’s just impossible for others to duplicate what might come naturally to another individual. Cereal Killer has found a way to create an incredible edge. And he’s admitted it takes hours sometimes, with advanced techniques. Keep on keeping on and perhaps you will find yourself doing things you never dreamed possible.
I can vouch for CK’s knife skills, he elmered me a big ol honkerin’ blade…sharpest thing I own…
Oh CK, my bro in law can get those drilling well collar hardened steel plates (they use them in the well and use to lock the collar under ground in the rocks and angle the pipe over) very very
rotary slip wooley I think is what they call em
Back side is flat and hardened steel, can these be used to sharpen a knife…I need someone to teach me to keep my knives sharp…I can sharpen somewhat but not like you did
Found this
Lansky Sharpeners any good?
Im either to stubborn or to dumb to quit maybe about 1/2 &1/2 so next and hopefully last question, should I buy barbers stops off line or try 8steven88’s sugestion of just getting a. Old belt and nail it to a board, I also have some “Metall” aluminum and stainless steel polish, will that work?
I used to use the Lansky system but found it to have very limited merits.
-good for sharpening few and small knives. Longer knives require too much labour, repositioning of the knife on the clamp, angle changes towards the far ends.
-high risk of injury because the motion requires you to pass over the blade continuously. A moment of inattention and you’ll slip an cut yourself
-takes tooo long to put new profile on the edge, even with the diamond kit.
-clamping system sucks.
Took me about an hour to reprofile and sharpen 5 knives - a cleaver, santoku, and other smaller knives. That’s just not good enough!
Now I just use a belt sander/linisher and go through the grades. For kitchen stuff I find finishing with 400-600 grit to be perfect even though it won’t shave your arm. I’m never going to hand sharpen again! My advice to anyone is to get a Worksharp knife sharpener as it takes the guess-work, skill, and labour out of the equation.
The Ken Onion model looks especially appealing. Gonna have to give that one some serious thought.
My buddy has a WSKO (worksharp ken onion edition). It’s a good tool no doubt but don’t think for a second your gonna get one of those, learn to use it (cause like any sharpening technique it still requires practice) and then have any skills that transfer over to hand (or guided hand) sharpening.
Any paste that is slightly abrasive will work, even the leather on it’s own will polish the edge to some extent. If you are nailing the leather to a board make sure to fix it on the sides not the top so the blade can’t come into contact with the nail or screw heads. Gluing would be much better, contact adhesive is good as it doesn’t harden the leather and remains a bit flexible.
There are some really excellent strops available as well as diamond paste. there are also sheets of micro mesh, abrasive sheets with very fine abrasives in grades of 500, 1800, 2400, 3200, 3600, 4000, 6000, 8000, 12000 and higher. not at all expensive when you consider the price of strops and abrasive pastes Amazon has a set of nine grades size 6” x 3” for £7 and they last very well.
I have a Lansky hone system, actually several sets including the diamond and given practice and a couple of clamps and mounts it’s amazing the length of blade that you can sharpen. The single most important extra, a mount of some sort, the plastic one from Lansky is good - this allows you to concentrate on the sharpening. A close second is a black Sharpie, put a coating on the bevel to allow you to see where the hone is removing metal from the blade.
I recently bought a Lansky four rod turn box and I’ve been impressed with the way it sharpens, very good edges without a lot of effort, for my needs at the moment just the brown medium grit ceramic rods are all I need to get a working edge. The white fine ceramic rods get a good sharp edge a stropping after that and it produces a very sharp knife.
All the systems require practice and time to produce good results, there’s no short cut, take your time and get it right.
I was gonna email this to WH but I decided to post it for everyone.
The lansky turn box isnt bad per say, its cheap and easier to learn but I suggest spending a little more and getting a spyderco sharpmaker, reason being with a turn box there are no flat surfaces, if/when you’re ready to switch over to stones you cant do so with the turn box, you have to buy new equipment, with the spyderco SM you simply lay the triangle rods down on the bottom of the unit and thee you go- a flat stone. It also has points for getting smaller serrations.
For anyone wanting to start out freehand my #1 suggestion is a 4-sided diamond block (cheese greater looking thing) from harbor freight, its a surprisingly well build piece of equipment for being from HF. The thing only goes up to 4 or 600 grit so it’s very course DO NOT START OUT ON YOUR GOOD KNIVES, go out and pick up some cheap knives from the thrift shop, you will make the first ones worse before you get better.
The biggest aspect of sharpening is angle control, you have to hold the blade at a steady angle, any angle from ~10 up threw 25DPS (to 20-50 total) will give you a sharp edge as long as its properly apex’d and the burr removed, different angles are better for different steels and different tasks, you wouldnt want to sharpen your camp chopper to 20* and you wouldnt want to sharpen your paring knife to 50* but you can at first, much more important than angle is getting down to new steel, getting a proper apex and fully removing the burr. Make sure the burr fully forms on one side BEFORE flipping it, if your not bringing it to a burr EVERY TIME your not accomplishing anything but wearing steel off your blade, n omatter how much steel you remove if you dont get that apex your knife will not get sharp. Start out by getting yourself a piece of paper, fold that in half so you have a 45**, now fold that so you have a 22.5, use that to visualize how to hold the blade and go from there, a 45** angle (overall, 22.5DPS) is a good place to start, learn to hold that angle perfect and you can go from there.
More later if anyone has any questions, gotta go pull a head off a truck to have it sent out by noon today…
Note I’m busy and didnt proofread, will go over it later when I have time to revisit…