Best way to sharpen a knife or any blade

[strep3241]

When you sharpen a knife or any type of blade, is it better to go against the edge or with it? Is it just a preference?

 

[DesiPower]

 

[MagnusTheBrewer]

It's pretty much preference. My first Chef instructor back in school believed going against the edge reduced the burr along the edge so, that's how I do it.

 

[Mr. Pedantic]

I use one of these. With the edge, I guess?

 

[PottedMeat]

for sharpening i guess i go away from the edge

for honing i kind of do this:

 

[Zargon]

the best way to sharpen a knife is with the bones of your enemys, duh

 

[Crono]

Against on both sides.

 

[DesiPower]

the best way to sharpen a knife is with the bones of your enemys, duh

Pretty worthless effort imo unless your enemy has bones of steel..

 

[GrumpyMan]

Pretty worthless effort imo unless your enemy has bones of steel..

You mean like Wolverine. :hmm:

 

[BoomerD]

http://sharpeningmadeeasy.com/

 

[momeNt]

You mean like Wolverine. :hmm:

False, while steel is a metal alloy Wolverine has adamantium for his skeleton, a completely different metal alloy.



http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adamantium

 

[Squisher]

False, while steel is a metal alloy Wolverine has adamantium for his skeleton, a completely different metal alloy.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adamantium

Who can be sure? I've asked numerous people for the formula, but no one is willing to give it to me.

 

[GrumpyMan]

I don't know about you guys, but all my knife sharpeners are made of adamantium, duh.

 

[Howard]

Probably faster to move the knife spine-first so that you can tell more easily when you're done developing a proper burr on the side you're sharpening.

Or, go with a slack belt sander and get instant hair-splitting sharpness.

 

[BoomerD]

I don't know about you guys, but all my knife sharpeners are made of adamantium, duh.

Meh...REAL men use unobtanium to sharpen their adamantium knives.

 

[JohnOfSheffield]

When you sharpen a knife or any type of blade, is it better to go against the edge or with it? Is it just a preference?

Simple way is to go against the edge with a common sharpener first and then go to the edge with a sharper angle for ten strokes each side.

You go about 20-30 angle against and about 45 angle away from.

It all depends though, there are different thicknesses on knives and what you want is really a blade that is tapered off to an edge that is about 30 degrees, that way it won't break and it can stay sharp, that is for most usual knife steels.

Then there are some that require machining simply because of their edge, there are others like carbon steel knives which are the ones that you can really use as a razor when you're done with a 45 degree angle edge.

I advice against most machining because most people are horrible at it, better to take the time with a steel and sharpen it proper.

Either that or get Porshe knives, half the price of much worse knives and if they need sharpening in ten years, they will sharpen them for you.

 

[JohnOfSheffield]

Meh...REAL men use unobtanium to sharpen their adamantium knives.

HA, i use impossiblum to sharpen my unobtanium steels which sharpen my adamantium knives.

 

[shortylickens]

ALright, thats enough stupidity for one day.

 

[JohnOfSheffield]

Probably faster to move the knife spine-first so that you can tell more easily when you're done developing a proper burr on the side you're sharpening.

Or, go with a slack belt sander and get instant hair-splitting sharpness.

Yeah, well most belts are too rough, it's the last part and it should be worn in leather to break the edge and nothing else.

 

[JohnOfSheffield]

I use one of these. With the edge, I guess?

You'd do better to go against the edge with one of those and once you have gotten it sharp, you'd do better to get a steel instead.

that is great for coal based steel edges like axes or the knives of your mower though.

 

[Howard]

Yeah, well most belts are too rough, it's the last part and it should be worn in leather to break the edge and nothing else.

Doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out what grits to use, and there are belts that are much too fine for knife sharpening, if you could believe it.

 

[JohnOfSheffield]

Doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out what grits to use, and there are belts that are much too fine for knife sharpening, if you could believe it.

Shouldn't be any kind of sanded belt, just hardened leather and it should ONLY be used to break the edge.

Any piece of dry bovine leather will do the job.

i suppose that what i am saying is that it shouldn't have a grain, you shouldn't be able to sharpen ANYTHING on it, it's just supposed to break the edge.

My apologies for misinterpreting your intention with the belt though, there are apparently belts that do have grits.

It's not what i was talking about at all, the alternative to my kind of belt would be a form of hard rubber that does the same job of breaking the edge.

You can take the worst knife you have and sharpen it to the point where all you have is a breakable edge, then you use that leather or rubber and it's so sharp that razor blades would cheer in awe if they could. This doesn't work well with knives that you put into a leather casing, it will cut through it the first time you put it down.

 

[Howard]

What does breaking the edge even mean?

 

[JohnOfSheffield]

What does breaking the edge even mean?

You sharpen the edge until there is an extremely thin layer of metal, that is what you break off from it to produce a broken blade.

A newly broken blade is so sharp that a razor is dull in comparison, it will cut through thick leather as if it was paper. Depending on the steel you'll have to use a steel to sharpen it which can break it too if you do the last one away from the edge and turn it, a pure steel blade will not do well, it will crack the edge if you do that, you're going to need the belt to crack that edge and when you do, you have a perfect edge.

Nothing no matter how good of a material it is can ever get as sharp as a carbon steel newly broken blade, you can't shave with it because it's MUCH too sharp it will cut through flesh as easily as as a straight razor cuts through the grain or your hair.

 

[JamesV]

First off, screw any stone, whether it comes from Japan with special sauce to whet the stone or not.

Get a simple dual sharpener like Smith's. Carbide slot to grind bad blades into an edge, and ceramic to further sharpen. Ever since I picked up one of these, which works on my camping knives and even the knives in my great aunt's drawer... no mroe gimmicky stones or sharpeners for me.

Edit*

A steel as shown in the first pic of this post is only good for a very good sharp blade that has lost it's bite. Unless you have different grades of steels, trying to sharpen a dull blade with a steel is worthless.

A stone is similar, as it is meant to hone an edge, not create a good edge on a dull knife.