My first adventure in sharpening was taking a Victorinox Rally (already dull and ugly) to a pull-through Victorinox sharpener. When I started, it struggled to cut paper. I got it to the point that it would cut paracord in two passes and kept at it. Now it's back to square one, but with a much uglier edge.
I've also tried sharpening utility knife blades. Shortly before posting this, I cut up some cardboard. Two passes were needed, and the cuts were not clean. I gave the blade a few whacks on my small DMT stones, and it seemed better with one cut...then back to the previous result. Now that blade requires three passes to make messy cuts in cardboard.
I get the same results with the pull-through sharpener, the tri-hone oil stone, and the diamond stones. I know what I'm doing right: using a knife that can be sent in for warranty work or a replaceable blade. But where am I going wrong? I have considered a few possibilities:
- Too heavy a hand
- Wrong angle
- Not enough oil on the tri-hone
- Not enough passes on each grit of stone
- I'm the sort of person who inspired the invention of guided systems