Do you sharpen your own knives?

[spindoc]

Kinda reminds me of this Doomer:

 

[doomer]

Doomer's cousin:

 

 

And brother-in-law :laugh:

[spindoc]

And brother-in-law :laugh:

On the wife's side.

[Jim Schue]

I could use a good sharpening stone. My chef's knife and slicer do not hold an edge well, and the slicer has a ding in it I'd love to get out of there.

[Musketeer_alum97]

My dad has always sharpened his/our knives by hand. He has an old leather pouch with his stones in it. I remember, growing up, that the week before deer season, he would set about sharpening everyone's knives. He would always test them by shaving a little bit of hair off his arm or leg with each one. so by opening morning, we all had sharp blades, and dad looked like he had mange.

[TAC]

I had mentioned a buddy of mine sharpens my knives for me. Well he just came down the house and delivered so new gifts for me. He bought some old steak knives, tore them down to fit into some old antlers. Added some wood trim, Brass, etc. Made sheaths for all of them. He is amazing! The bone splitter was a refirb project as well. Thing must way 2 pounds!

[lawildcat]

I had mentioned a buddy of mine sharpens my knives for me. Well he just came down the house and delivered so new gifts for me. He bought some old steak knives, tore them down to fit into some old antlers. Added some wood trim, Brass, etc. Made sheaths for all of them. He is amazing! The bone splitter was a refirb project as well. Thing must way 2 pounds!

[ATTACH=CONFIG]49523[/ATTACH]

 

Your friend is a talented guy! :up:

[BirdBrain]

I had mentioned a buddy of mine sharpens my knives for me. Well he just came down the house and delivered so new gifts for me. He bought some old steak knives, tore them down to fit into some old antlers. Added some wood trim, Brass, etc. Made sheaths for all of them. He is amazing! The bone splitter was a refirb project as well. Thing must way 2 pounds!

[ATTACH=CONFIG]49523[/ATTACH]

 

Some of that antler looks familiar....hmm....

[Colonels_Wear_Blue]

I sharpen and strope my straight razor periodically, does that count?

 

Amazing the shave you get with a freshly sharpened and well stroped straight razor.

 

While I am decent at it, when I go into Heimerdinger's Cutlery and have Mr. Heimerdinger do it, those next shaves, the whiskers just about jump off my face he has that thing so sharp.

 

Hey Watisu, when you sharpen your knives, to get the "shave the hair off your arm" affect, do you have to use a strap of leather to strope the blade?

 

Just dropped off an old Case trapper knife at Heimerdinger's. It was my grandpa's. He had that thing in his pocket for probably 50 years or more. Only one of my brothers carries a pocket knife, and he carries a Marbles barlow that belonged to one of our great grandfathers, so I ended up with the trapper from grandpa.

 

Anyway, one of the blades had the very tip snapped off of it (no doubt grandpa was trying to use it for a screwdriver), and the other blade has a little bit of corrosion starting to form on it. I think I have more than enough knowlege to sharpen a blade, but I figure for something like re-tipping a blade, I'll leave it to a pro so I know I don't do anything to the temper in the process of grinding it down and re-shaping the new tip.

 

They said it should be a couple of weeks. I'm excited to go pick it up and see what it looks like all cleaned up.

[Bert]

And if you do, about what age group do you fall into?

 

Turn 40in two weeks yesterday (cue the geezer jokes)

 

For those that don't, how do you get your blades sharp?

 

I used an old stone my dad had when he was a Boy Scout. I did OK with it. Having a Leatherman Surge multi tool as part of my Every Day Carry, I used to think that the multi tool's was more than sufficient to use in a pocket knife's place until some I know damaged their multi tool's blade simply using too hard. Looking around for a pocket knife, I was planning on getting a Lansky Sharpening System but after reading reviews, read about the Spyderco Sharpmaker and have decided to get one. If you can hold a knife half way perpendicular, you can put an amazing edge on pretty much any blade. You can see videos of it on You Tube. Oh, the knife I got was the Emerson Kershaw collaboration CQC K6 that comes with the Emerson Wave feature. Nice knife for 30 dollars.

[Bert]

Another thing probably worth mentioning, if you struggle sharpening knives and blades, don't ever...EVER let your frustrations cause you to turn to an electric sharpener of any kind. Electric sharpeners always run the risk of getting the blade too hot from friction/grinding. Blade gets hot, the temper goes kaput. Temper goes kaput, your blade gets soft and loses an edge after 15 seconds of cutting ANYTHING.

 

Exactly what I found out I was doing while researching pocket knives. An electric knife can make an expensive knife become almost useless. It also highly recommended not using carbide sharpeners. While they are quick and easy, the just remove too much metal. Ceramic sharpeners or stones are a much better option. If you need to touch up a knife, the bottom of a coffee cup (the traditional ceramic ones) work well in a pinch.

[Bert]

Just dropped off an old Case trapper knife at Heimerdinger's. It was my grandpa's. He had that thing in his pocket for probably 50 years or more. Only one of my brothers carries a pocket knife, and he carries a Marbles barlow that belonged to one of our great grandfathers, so I ended up with the trapper from grandpa.

 

Anyway, one of the blades had the very tip snapped off of it (no doubt grandpa was trying to use it for a screwdriver), and the other blade has a little bit of corrosion starting to form on it. I think I have more than enough knowlege to sharpen a blade, but I figure for something like re-tipping a blade, I'll leave it to a pro so I know I don't do anything to the temper in the process of grinding it down and re-shaping the new tip.

 

They said it should be a couple of weeks. I'm excited to go pick it up and see what it looks like all cleaned up.

 

Mr. Heimerdinger has a good reputation so he is always backed up on sharpening. I found another guy if you don't want to wait next time. He owns One Stop Knife Shop on Barrett Avenue in the Highlands Neighborhood in Louisville. Along with stones, he keeps a Spyderco Sharpmaker sitting on his shop counter to demonstrate to potential buyers how easy it is.

 

1 Stop Knife Shop

[JDEaston]

I generally sharpen my own knives, but I'm certainly not a pro. I'm pretty decent with a traditional blade, but I have a couple of Kershaw's that are serrrated blades with a tonto tip, I have yet to master these. The good news is those knives are made out of high quality steel and hold their edge for a good amount of time. Also Kershaw has free lifetime sharpening on their knives, so I generally sharpen them myself until I feel like I'm being counterproductive then send them off to Kershaw.

[Colonels_Wear_Blue]

Just dropped off an old Case trapper knife at Heimerdinger's. It was my grandpa's. He had that thing in his pocket for probably 50 years or more. Only one of my brothers carries a pocket knife, and he carries a Marbles barlow that belonged to one of our great grandfathers, so I ended up with the trapper from grandpa.

 

Anyway, one of the blades had the very tip snapped off of it (no doubt grandpa was trying to use it for a screwdriver), and the other blade has a little bit of corrosion starting to form on it. I think I have more than enough knowlege to sharpen a blade, but I figure for something like re-tipping a blade, I'll leave it to a pro so I know I don't do anything to the temper in the process of grinding it down and re-shaping the new tip.

 

They said it should be a couple of weeks. I'm excited to go pick it up and see what it looks like all cleaned up.

 

Ha...that was a quick couple of weeks. He ended up calling me this morning, and he'd gotten it done in 5 days. The knife looks absolutely pristine. There's no telling it had to have a tip repair whatsoever. I have zero interest in selling it, but Mr. Heimerdinger said that if I found the right collector, I could probably sell the knife for somewhere upwards of $700. It's crazy that someone would pay that much for a little pocket knife...