Razor Sharp Edgemaking System

[Aukai]

The only thing I hate is my wife now wants her knives sharpened regularly. She never had a problem before, just made it work, now "the knife isn't sharp, can you...... Maybe the stropping will extend the life also.
I'll check this out, thanks Mike

 

[mikey]

... now "the knife isn't sharp, can you......

Yeah, I was getting this a lot, too. My problem was that her favorite knife is serrated and they are not easy to sharpen along each and every gullet. This Razor Sharp thing does serrated knives fast, well and easy so I'm good with it.

I knew about strops and never really paid much attention to them before but they definitely got my attention now! I suspect a few seconds on a strop will deal with her requests from now on, Mike.

 

[darkzero]

Stropping is great. Many times if the edge is not chipped/damaged & is just going dull, there's no need to resharpen it, stropping will usually refreshen the edge. I strop with leather followed by balsa wood with diamond paste on my Wicked Edge. Besides the common leather strops, denim jeans loaded with compound makes for a good inexpensive strop also.

Here's a blade that I just sharpened for my lil brother last week. He bought it used, edge was badly chipped, it was so dull it wouldn't even cut warm butter!

Got the chips out, went through the grits all the way up to 2000 grit @ 18° (per side), then stropped from 14μm to 3.5μm. It was hair popping sharp with a mirror edge when I was done with it.

 

[mikey]

Very nice, Will. I read about the different mediums guys were using and it seems that you can go through a lot of options in search of the ultimate edge. Maybe when I have more time I can experiment more. When I do, I'll ask you first.

 

[darkzero]

Thanks Mike. Yeah knife guys are crazy, they always looking for the next best medium out there to get the most extreme edges they can. I'm not one of those guys, all that stuff can get pretty expensive.

I just use diamond up to 1000. Then use 1500 & 2000 grit sandpaper mounted on blank blocks. Leather & balsa for stropping. It works for me so I just stick with that. I tried ceramic stones but was not impressed with the ones I bought.

If I were to just buy or make a hand strop I'd just stick with leather or denim & use your favorite rouge. As you know, don't even need a mirror polished edge to have a razor sharp blade. I only do it cause that's the result I get with my strops. It depends on what you use the knife for. Some people don't sharpen their blades past 600. The fine "scratches" act like mini serrations.

 

[homebrewed]

Yeah, I made myself an eternal "honey, can you touch this up" job too. But since I like to eat, that's OK!

In the absence of a real strop, I've found that ordinary newspaper can serve as a temporary substitute. There appears to be enough siica in it to act as a mild abrasive.

As a kid, I sharpened my pocket knives freehand and learned to feel when the edge started to catch on the stone. Got a few to the shaving stage, but that in general was an aspirational goal (what beard!???).

This is a great thread, thanks to everyone for all the different approaches! I think it just goes to show that technique is 90% and the tool is what's left.

 

[jcp]

Well Mikey, you convinced me.......ordered a Razor Sharp yesterday.

 

[mikey]

Well Mikey, you convinced me.......ordered a Razor Sharp yesterday.

Let us know how it works for you. I'm pretty sure you'll like it.

May I suggest you also make or buy a strop? You can get the leather pieces already cut on Amazon and they aren't too expensive. They even sell kits that come with some polishing compound, usually green. I've come to view the strop as the final step when sharpening a knife. It really makes a difference.

 

[jcp]

Let us know how it works for you. I'm pretty sure you'll like it.

May I suggest you also make or buy a strop? You can get the leather pieces already cut on Amazon and they aren't too expensive. They even sell kits that come with some polishing compound, usually green. I've come to view the strop as the final step when sharpening a knife. It really makes a difference.

Dad always finished with a strop.
I'll check out your suggestions....thanks.

 

[ACHiPo]

I bought a Razor Sharp (from the inventor I think) at a woodworking show probably 20 years ago. It worked great. It definitely taught me the value of stropping. I wish I still had it (May have to pick up another grinder and Razor Sharp set, but I’ve been working on my manual technique with stones). I ran it on my 1750 RPM 8” grinder so I could keep the guards on.