an hour of sharpening ??

[drew]

Maybe I am slow or not doing something right … but I just sharpened a knife and it took me about and hour to finish …

I went from 4-600 > 8-1000 > 12-1600 > Strop 5 & 3.5 micron > Strop 1 & .5 micron ..

I measure my angles each time I switched blocks to keep it the same .. I tried to hit about 50-75 strokes per side of each grit. Then I looked at the clock and it was about an hour later .. is this normal?

Now I as by no means in a rush but still .. I was thinking maybe 30 mins or so

[Josh]

hey man!

yeah that’s about normal starting off… Even now if I want a mirror finish it takes me around an hour. But that’s because I am very careful to erase the scratches of each consecutive grit by using my USB microscope and ensuring they are gone. I also alternate the grind direction so I can see this clearly. It’s pretty meticulous and time consuming.

if you just want something that looks good (but don’t care about a few scratches) then you should be able to get it down to about 20-30 minutes…

[Lukas Pop]

Hi, it’s quite long. But it depends if you are doing reprofiling or touch up only. I consider measuring angles each time you switched blocks overkill if you haven’t waterstones. Play of the stones on the rods will be bigger than differences between stones, especially if you are using old arms.

[Geocyclist]

That’s fast for me. :woohoo:

In the end time flies when you are having fun. :cheer:

I spend 1+ hour for touch ups. And that’s after 1 year of practice.

For a new knife, high end going all the way I spend 3 nights, 2-3 hours per night = 6-8 hours total.
Where does that time go?
30 minutes or more setting up, finding sweet spot, taping knife.
60 to re-profile, check angles, check for even bevel
60 minutes 100 – 1k diamonds
60-120 minutes water stones, includes waiting stones to soak, washing stones after use
60-120 minutes or more on stropping, if I do 6 grits and both balsa and leather.
I probably spend at least 10 minutes changing angles from diamonds to water stones to strops. Used to be slower.

I sharpen in front of the TV most times, so I am not working 100% of the time. If I just sat down without distractions and went 100% I could improve by 50%, but still not close to an hour for a re-profile with water stones and lots of stropping.

Like others said, if you re-profile that takes a lot of time. If you match the original angle it takes less time for sure.

And then some steel is just harder to sharpen than others.

[drew]

oh ok … thanks for the answers guys !!

I was just making sure I was not doing something terribly wrong by taking so much time haha. Now I feel better 🙂

[Author]

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