Josh-L

Interesting knife.  I’ve done a couple recurve blade and a few tanto’s but not together. I like to do the tanto’s long edge first all the way but I don’t strop right away. After I get the long edge where I want, like Tom I re-clamp and do the tip. It’s easier for me to blend the short edge to the long edge rather than the other way around. After…[Read more]

Thanks Tom,

I went thru the stones the first month or so after seeing a post of yours saying that you orient your stones the same way and use in the same direction. I was getting very good results by that time but every time I used the 800/1000 I spent way more time and effort than I should have to. That is when I found that I had 2 stones that…[Read more]

I will revisit it down the road I suspect, we’ll see. You do a way better job hand sharpening than I ever did. All I could say were they were usable when I got done you know, OK. Nice video and review. I liked wet stones (arkansas) when I used a lansky but they are messy to say the least. I’m really anxious for you to do 10 or so knives on your WE…[Read more]

Hello Mike,

I had the same issue when I started. I used nylon collars and washers under the stones(put on the rod below the stone) to prevent the stone from getting below the the apex.

After awhile I took a few of the nylon collars, spacers or bushings depending on what you want to call them, and tapped nylon screws into the side so I could…[Read more]

Glad to hear your wait is all most over!

Hello Josh, I’ll try to help with some of your concerns,

I will usually work both sides. 5 scrubbing passes on each, back and forth, the same on the left and the right, checking for a burr each time. I don’t work on just one side until I get a burr. This keeps the bevels even on both sides as well as the same level of refinement and should keep…[Read more]

Hello Lorem Ipsum ?

That is an interesting name you chose.

I’ve tried hand sharpening and I suck at it so I’m a little envious of that ability. I could never hand strop in the past either, but learned stropping(to a point) very quickly with mostly good results in the past year so maybe with an increased knowledge of what an edge is and how…[Read more]

I’m not familiar with the case skinning knife in particular. I think 20 to 22 degrees work pretty well for me. Once you get up to 50 degs. inclusive or so  I think you will find the edge will lose a little very quickly compared to an angle just a few degs. more acute. Now after that obtuse angle loses a little initially it will hold pretty well…[Read more]

I felt I needed to expand on my opinion on this subject. While I use a micro on most of the knives that I do, if I want an edge absolutely as sharp and clean as I can get it then I don’t use a micro-bevel. For my personal knives it’s about 50/50 with or without micro’s. Knives that are going to see harder duty tend to get the micro-bevel, edc’s…[Read more]

Welcome Kirk,

All I can say is the WE 130 will do most any knife you run across. Kitchen knives are probably the easiest to clamp and sharpen with the WE. I have a 130, the longest knife I’ve done to this point had a 12 inch blade and it was not a problem at all. In my opinion the 130 will give you the versatility to do the widest range of blades…[Read more]

I believe Mark was the first to welcome me to the forum when I started. Since, we’ve had many conversations and right now I don’t know what else to say except I will miss you Mark!

I do strop after setting the micro bevel of most of them. There are a few exceptions, where I sharpen and strop and then very very lightly make 2 or 3 passes with whatever tooth I want.

The angles, finish, tooth, ect. ect ect… are up to you in the end. Some knives still surprise me but for the most part 15/17 or 17or18/20 angles are the ones I…[Read more]

There are a ton of different types of “skinning” knives. A skinning knife generally means a swept cutting edge used to take the flesh off the skin of an animal. 20 to 25 deg. is a general guideline for these.

Generally the thicker the blade the more obtuse the angle. With a skinning knife I think the wider blade needs a more acute angle, say 18…[Read more]

I don’t know what else I can say about the durability of the WE diamond stones other than they have around 350 knives sharpened, they still work great, in fact I believe they are capable of edges now that were unattainable previously.

I have the shapton pro stones. S30V is not a problem at all, in fact I can probably sharpen S30V faster with the…[Read more]

Could work!

I want to be clear, I use the WE strops on all but a few of the knives that I do. The angle control along with the variety of mediums make them impossible to beat in my opinion. I just find the hand strop quicker for maintenance and fun to play with, it’s a good tool to have.

If you support one end of  the strop to create a particular angle you should be able to use it similarly to the Sharpmaker, all though horizontally instead of vertically. The V shape of the Sharpmaker done with strops would just require one to start at the bottom and draw the knife in an upward motion instead of down. That is an interesting idea Organic!

I agree MarcH, I also use a StropMan Big Boy strop as well as his large 2 sided strop quite often. I had tried hand stropping a couple times thru the years but my sharpening was so poor that I don’t think the strop would have helped even if I knew what I was doing then. Starting with a Smith’s sharpener I started to realize the benefit when I…[Read more]

Welcome Mike,

I started with the  PP 3  as well and it is a pretty complete system as is. The Nanuk case is awesome and the system travels pretty well and you have everything with you in one case.  You’ll love it! Be sure to let everyone know how it’s going and please ask questions if they come up and don’t be afraid to share tips and advise as…[Read more]

You are welcome loremipsum,

The older stones still work great . I’ve noticed that the 100/200 stones were not nearly as aggressive as they were even 50 or 75 knives ago, the fall off came fairly quick at least as far as my noticing anything. These are still giving me great results and are in many ways getting better and better, just not as…[Read more]