When I say Easy and effective, I do not mean obtaining the best results. My primary purpose for writing this is to document the easiest methods for me to become effective at sharpening and to produce a good edge. When I began, my interest was woodworker tools, so plane blades and chisels. A chef on a woodworking forum taught me how to sharpen a knife.
First is understanding what it means to be sharp. I will not bother being rigorous, and will generically state that I want two edges to meet in a smooth continuous way. I test my edges on newspaper print or thing magazine pages (yes, I receive a newspaper once a week). When the blade catches or snags, I can usually find an imperfection in the edge. This usually means one of two things, either a chip in the blade or a spot where the edges do not come together uniformly.
Step 1: Decide on a sharpening angle
Before I start to sharpen, I decide on the angle where the edges come together. I will not spend too much time worrying about what angle is best, but, my notes claim the following for a few manufacturers; and obviously different knives from the same manufacturer will have different angles depending on the knife. I will list angle per side, so the total angle is double of what I list in my notes so unsure how accurate, and these are not for their hunting blades, consider pocket knives and kitchen knives:
- Benchmade 15 to 17.5
- Buck 13 to 16 (E2K, Edge 2000, Edge2x)
- Case 10 to 15
- Flexcut 15
- Old Hickory (Ontario Knife Company) - I guessed based on a sample about 25
- Shrade 20 (on one of my samples)
- Spyderco 15
- Victorinox 15 to 20
- Warther Cutlery (Ohio based company uses SV35VN steel) 22.5
- Wϋsthof 14
- Zwilling 15
Also note that most factory sharpening videos I see, they are eye-balling the edge in front of a belt sander, so I do not expect absolute consistency.
Also note that I will not bother to discuss the difference between the sharpening types, for example, convex (as left by a belt sander), concave or Hollow grind (as left by a Tormek system), flat grind (full flat, scandi, sabre, v-grind), chisel (bevel only one one side), and compound bevel (more than one grind). Usually I just take what I get based on the sharpening method that I happen to be using and then stop worrying about it unless I have a very specific application where I think that it will matter. If you are interested, search for “knife grinds”. Here is one place for information:
https://knife-depot.com/pages/a-guide-to-knife-grinds
I might measure the existing angle and I have special tools for that. For woodworking I usually use angle cutouts, but I also own a device that bounces a laser off the edge and you can measure the reflection angle.
Step 2: Get a marker and a magnifier
It helps a lot to be able to visually identify what you are doing. Before I even start, I usually look carefully at the edge to see how it looks before I even start. Also, it is very useful when I want to evaluate how I am progressing.
My favorite is a Carson 10X Loupe, currently $9 on Amazon
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000CAHCQS?th=1
You literally place the magnifier onto the blade and it puts it into focus. This is a bit more difficult with a small blade, but I have managed to deal with it.
If you want to go high tech, buy almost any USB microscope and then you can take pictures. I have this one, which is showing between $20 and $30 on Amazon. I like this one because I has both USB-A and USB-C connectors so it connects and works great with my Linux computer as well as my Android Phone.
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07DRGR6LX
I also bought this stand for $20 so I can just set it and push blades around under it.
https://www.amazon.com/Jiusion-Aluminiu ... B0797PPX8D
I use a black marker and I color the portion that I expect to be sharpening. So, the “bevel” is black. I found the cheap Amazon black markers to not do a good job, but, sharpies and Avery Marks-A-Lot permanent markers work great. Note that you can use rubbing alcohol to remove permanent marker from your blades.
How does this help? I mark the blade and as I sharpen, steel is removed, which will remove the marker as well. Look at the blade to see where the marker is removed. If steel is only removed along the cutting edge, then you are sharpening at an angle larger than the primary bevel angle. Sometimes you do this as the final sharpening so perhaps this is fine. If you are attempting to match an existing angle, then it is a problem.
If you are sharpening at a smaller angle then you will remove metal from higher up on the blade and you can remove metal until you hit the edge. If I sharpen at 15 degrees and I am hitting the cutting edge then the knife started at less than 15 degrees and I will quickly end up with a sharp knife. If the blade started at 20 degrees then I need to remove metal to get it to 15 degrees.
Most companies appear to do free hand sharpening and sometimes they do a better job than others so you might have one portion of the blade be at one angle the this may change along the edge. It also seems that as you get towards the tip the angle changes to be steeper (I assume because the tip takes a bunch of abuse). I have not reconciled this in my head, but then again, I am not a professional sharpener.
The important part here is that as you sharpen, you can keep going until you have taken things all the way until the marker is removed to the edge. I do not care if there is marker away from the edge. If you are using “standard” sharpening methods and not looking with the ink they would say something like “be sure to pull a burr along the entire edge”. So, if you work all the way to the edge there should be a burr on the other side, and, the marker will be removed to the edge.
Blade Shape Matters
Some blades are straight (such as a Wharncliffe) are straight. You can set this blade on a stone and have the entire cutting edge on the stone. Most blades, however, are curved, the most common being the clip point, pen, and drop point. These can all be sharpened on a stone with no problem, but you need to move the blade and the edge so that you can get good contact with the cutting edge. Thing of a ball, I can touch any point on the ball with a large flat board.
A blade with a concave edge such as hawkbill, kukri, talin, S curve, or reverse S curve. There are points on the blade that I cannot just use a standard sharpen stone surface and get every part of the blade. If you have a stone, you can use a corner edge for this. Also, if you have a round stone, sufficiently narrow stone, or sufficiently narrow sandpaper, you may be able to sharpen these.
Finally, Easy Solutions For Me
Cross Sticks
My first working solution for sharpening was using “cross sticks”. My first version was a no-brand with ceramic rods that I purchased in the 80’s. My current favorate is the Spyderco Tri-Angle Sharpmaker with Safety rods. These cost about $90.
Why is this my favorite? Although I find it difficult to hold a specific angle on a stone, most people can easily hold a knife mostly straight and cut down. This system allows you to hold the knife at this easy angle and then simply cut down. So, most people can be very successful with this. Two angles are supported, 15 degrees and 20 degrees. I believe that the expectation is that you will put a 15 degree angle using a rougher stone and then add a secondary 20 degree angle on the edge. There are safety rods that lower the risk of cutting yourself (use these).
The rods are in a triangle shape and they recommend that you first use the flat edges and then move to the pointy rounded edge, which can really get into those S curves that are tricky otherwise. Then again, these are sufficiently narrow that if the blade curves in, those rounded edges will usually get the entire blade anyway.
You can also buy a supper fine stone, but you probably do not need it. If you will change an angle, you probably want to buy a coarser stone, they have diamond and cubic boron nitride. I do not see much difference between them in use so just pick one. It is a long slow process, but I have used it very effectively. I am a huge fan.
Lansky makes something similar. This is smaller, the rods are round, and there are no protecting rods. There are two versions, one with diamond rods and fine rods and one with medium rods and fine rods. These support 20 and 25 degrees. I usually sharpen at 15 and sometimes 20, but, for some of my knives I might prefer 25 (thicker hunting knife perhaps). These seem to sell now for about $36 each. I prefer the longer rods and the angles on the Spyderco, but I own a few of these.
In the same line, there is the Work Sharp WSBCHAGS Benchtop Angle Set Knife Sharpener. This is great for about $50 and it has the same advantage for holding the angle. You can set numerous angles from 15 to 25 degrees, so versatile and it includes a diamond, medium, and fine edge. This worked fine for me, but I still prefer my Spyderco setup for not obvious reason. The Worksharp only has the flat edge, which will be fine for most knives. Of course if you are looking at worksharp products, there is also the Work Sharp Precision Adjust Elite, which holds the blade and the angles will be very uniform, but again I do not use mine that often, but it is a great product for $120.
Even Dan’s Whetstone (my favorite Arkansas stones) sells something similar, but I have no idea what the angle is.
https://danswhetstone.com/product/arkansas-sticks/
These are not that expensive and the stones are very nice. Slow sharpening on modern steels though.
“Belt Sanders”
My second easy solution that I liked was using a belt sander. Be careful with a belt sander because you can overheat your blade and ruin the temper. Keep your blade cool.
My first belt sharpener was the Work Sharp Knife and Tool Sharpener. They are currently are on the Mk. 2 version, I own the first version. The easy thing is that it sharpens at 20 or 25 degrees. I love my version 1 and I think that they changed how the blade is held in place. Honestly, these days I usually just remove the part that holds the blade angle and go free hand when I use it, but it is fast and does a great job. You use different belts to get a finer edge, and I will even used worn out fine belts, apply honing compound, and polish the edge. The result is AMAZING.
By default, if you want a 20 degree edge, it is easy to get that every time with this for under $100. The bad part is that you will use up your belts and need to replace them.
One thing I really like about this is that with the skinny belts, it handles those S shaped blades easily.
https://www.sharpeningsupplies.com/Work ... 04C68.aspx
The Ken Onion version of this uses a wider belt, and it can sharpen from 15 to 30 degrees. I used this a lot and LOVED it because I could set this at 15 degrees and do everything I did with the other product. I prefer the wider blades when I do not have a concave type blade. But, if you are going to do this, I recommend against the standard version
https://www.sharpeningsupplies.com/Work ... 05C68.aspx
Go for the Elite version, which is what I use most often that comes with the Grinding Blade Attachment that sells for $80 to $100 by itself:
https://www.sharpeningsupplies.com/Work ... 31C68.aspx
OK, so why the grinding attachment? This again does something easy and it works for small knives as well axe heads. You do the following:
Set the angle that you want from 10 to 35 degrees.
Hold your blade on a flat horizontal surface so you have your reference point.
Move your blade and make one pass against the sanding belt that is wider and longer than on the standard Ken Onion sharpener.
The point is that it is again an easy thing to hold that reference point and the longer wider belts last longer and you can do all those things that you are used to doing.
Tormek
Tormek was my first tool that allowed me to produce amazing results with my woodworking tools and it is still my primary method.
Tormek has specific knife sharpeners, but I have never used one. They look very nice and I wish that I did have one. While sharpening wood working tools, the things that was a game changer for me was the Tormek. I own a Tormek T-8, which has a base price of $880, but they offer a smaller T-4 for about $500 and a T-1 Kitchen knife sharpener for $357 (wish I had one to try).
https://www.sharpeningsupplies.com/Tormek-C101.aspx
For plane blades and chisels, the Tormek was a game changer. You set the angle, you end up with a hollow grind and from there I can free hand the blade on a water stone and come up with a very sharp blade. For me, nothing has come close to being this efficient. The hard part for plane blades and chisels is the flat back.
This forum is mostly interested in knives. Ignoring the dedicated knife sharpener, the Tormek T-8 (and similar) have two different knife jigs. One jig is wide and one is for smaller knives.
https://www.sharpeningsupplies.com/Torm ... 6C101.aspx
https://www.sharpeningsupplies.com/Torm ... 7C101.aspx
I have had really good luck using these jigs with kitchen knives. I wanted to try the Old Hickory brand of knife. This is an old popular brand from years back and they are inexpensive. I was very unhappy with how they worked, and part of that (I think) has to do with the blade shape. I took the angle down to 15 degrees per side using the Tormek and it did a great job with that, but I was still not overly happy with the results based on the thickness of the blade and the pattern on the blade. To be honest this means that I was not happy with how they large blade would cut a watermelon compared to my 10" Wϋsthof chef knife. Today I was cutting tomatoes trivially with an 8" Old Hickory knife. I also used the Tormek to set a 15 degree angle on my Warther Cutlery knives and I was suddenly happy with how long they kept a sharp edge.
This is a wet sharpener so you do not need to worry about overheating the blade. Honestly I took the edge to be just under 15 degrees so now I can use my Spyderco to keep it sharp at 15 degrees. I might purchase the Tormek knife sharpener if I needed to sharpen many kitchen knives, and if I was a woodworker I would take a T-8 or T-4 and then get the Knife jigs. I would not buy a T-8 just to sharpen knives.
But I like Stones
Are you able to judge or hold your angle? The first time I sharpened a butcher knife, I used a water stone and a nickle coin to set the angle. I have to admit that the results were very nice but I had to work hard to get them. When I want to set my angle on a stone, I usually use one of these guides (I am a huge fan) and they are not expensive:
https://www.sharpeningsupplies.com/Angl ... 89C16.aspx
https://www.sharpeningsupplies.com/Knif ... s-C16.aspx
The bottom link shows many solutions, but, the first solution is very easy. Set the “angle” on the stone, set your knife on it, and then maintain that angle as you move the blade across the stone.
For knives, I really like my Norton three stone system (IM313) that uses two crystolon stones and an India stone. These can cut most steels pretty fast and they do a great job. The oil is in the container and the stones are huge. The IM200 is half the price with smaller stones. I expect the stones to go out of flat, but that has not been a problem for me with knives. For plane blades, yes, that is a problem, but not so much with my knives or axes.
I own some very nice Arkansas stones, but they are slow and I usually only use these when I want to polish or refine an edge. If I do not want to worry about stones going out of flat, I recommend the Norton Ascent Ceramic stones (I Love them), or even the Spyderco bench stones. The Norton stones are guaranteed flat. At least in the dark recesses of time there were problems with non-flat Spyderco bench stones and they are really difficult to flat. Recently I have not heard complaints about the Spyderco bench stones. I own some Spyderco bench stones but I have never tested them. I have used my Norton Ascent Ceramic stones often; mostly with carving knives.
I am a huge fan of the Shapton glass stones, no soaking required. I also like my diamond stones, mostly from DMT, no flattening required.
Steels and Rods
I own sharpening steels, and it does a great job of maintainer my kitchen knives and I can put off sharpening a long time with these. I think of a steel as primarily used to straighten up that edge or removing a burr. A knife that feels like it needs to be sharpened.
I also have some diamond steels for when I really want to do a fast sharpening job using a diamond steel. I have used these quickly in a pinch.
One kitchen knife brand (Walther) that uses SVN35VN steel suggested that I do not use diamonds to sharpen also suggested that I do not use a steel on their knife. I sometimes use a Ceramic steel that will sharpen and not just realign the edge .
Other Systems
I do not own a lansky system, but I have an older antique version of something similar that I never tried. I also do not own a wicked edge, but they look to be very effective at keeping the edge at a perfect angle. The closest I have come is the Work Sharp precision Adjust Knife Sharpener and I preferred my other solutions so I simply do not use it. It did work, but I found my belts to be faster.
