Show us your Knife sharpening/stropping kit !

[Knightfisher8]

Really into trying to perfect my sharpening skills and I / I think everyone would like to see other folks kit for sharpening ? DIY strops ? Any interesting set ups for sharpening ? Iv heard fine sandpaper being used for stropping as apposed to leather ?

K.

 

[Hoodoo]

 

[peterbennett9]

Hoodoo talk us through what youve got there

 

[Hoodoo]

Hoodoo talk us through what youve got there

No problem. The hone on the left has a piece of hard rubber glued to it. The rubber helps the sand paper bite into the steel a bit. Leather will work too. I use that for sharpening flat bevels and for the initial stage of convexing an edge. The second hone has a mouse pad glued on. I use it for sharpeniing/shaping convex edges and grinds and for creating convex microbevels when using ultrafine sandpaper. Great for axes too. The hone on the right is for stropping. I use it to maintain an edge and also there is enough give to help pry off a stubborn burr edge. I also will use a flat strop as well, depending on the situation.

 

[MartinK9]

This does me

 

[Chainsaw]

from here and in conjunction with one of these;

for the kitchen or any major reprofiling.

cheers,

alan

 

[Muddypaws]

This is what I keep in my toolbag, to cover most of my sharpening needs (mainly woodcarving tools)

Two DMT minisharp diamond hones.(one fine and one extra fine), Buck conical diamond hone (for inside of curved blades), homemade strop, small syringe with autosol in it, small homemade ceramic hone (household fuse casing mounted on a handle), and a magnifying loupe for inspecting edges.
I have larger bench stones and other things that I keep at home for heavy duty sharpening.

 

[peterbennett9]

iv just made a strop using an old leather belt and a piece of wood, put some autosol on it and had a go, i dont seem to be having any luck getting a good edge, how difficult is this? should i be able to at least put a reasonable edge on it after a few goes or does it take a long time to master?

 

[Hedgehog]

iv just made a strop using an old leather belt and a piece of wood, put some autosol on it and had a go, i dont seem to be having any luck getting a good edge, how difficult is this? should i be able to at least put a reasonable edge on it after a few goes or does it take a long time to master?

It really depends what you are stropping. It will maintain an existing edge if used regularly but if the knife is blunt you may need stones/wet&dry paper to sharpen it first.

If the knife is already sharp then it may just be hard to tell the difference or you are not maintaining the correct angle while stropping.

Look at stropping more as polishing than sharpening.

 

[FGYT]

have used DMT for years and did buy there aligner kit bit like the lanskey thingy

but i just use my Belt grinder now ive belts up to 1300gt

and a 0.5HP polisher with mop and green soap for honing

micro bevels i put on by hand with a DMT bench stone

in the fields i normally dont need to sharpen but i carry a DC4

for Curved blades a shaped parkay floor piece and some 400 and 600 gt AO paper and a leather file loaded with Auto sol

ATB

Duncan

 

[ickyan]

Hi, i may post some pictures of my kit
The majority of it cost me nothing or close to nothing.

Can I ask a question?

Does Autosol stink of solvents or have a bad odour?
This is because the polishing paste I currently have makes me light headed and cannot be used indoors.

 

[Mesquite]

Does Autosol stink of solvents or have a bad odour?
This is because the polishing paste I currently have makes me light headed and cannot be used indoors.

I've never noticed anything untoward about Autosol. It does smell but I've never had any problems from using it.

 

[ickyan]

I'm looking for a cheap compound that doesn't stink, i may get a solid bar.
I dont want to hi-jack a good thread though, ill try my best to get the camera out

 

[ickyan]

P.S do you mean it has a smell or has and odour?
cheers mesquite

 

[Hoodoo]

I'm looking for a cheap compound that doesn't stink, i may get a solid bar.
I dont want to hi-jack a good thread though, ill try my best to get the camera out

Rich Notto's White Gold is some of the best stropping compound I've ever used. Extremely popular among woodcarvers. Scroll down on this page.

It will keep a knife sharp (it actually sharpens) and give a mirror finish as well. It's much more aggressive than green stropping compound but gives a very high polish as well. Another compound I like is Tormek PA-70, but it's probably as smelly as the autosol. I dunno because I've never used autosol, but The Tormek stuff is super if you like to finish off your blades with an unsewn buffing wheel. It spreads like a paste so it's much easier to apply than a solid stick buffing compound.

 

[ickyan]

cheers hoodoo

 

[ickyan]

I've lost my SD card

maybe tomorrow

 

[steven andrews]

For V-grind knives I use wet-and-dry zip-tied around a Sharpmaker stone for the back bevel at 30 degrees (combined), followed by using the flats of the white stones at 40 for the edge. I finish by stropping on the pad of my hand with some stropping paste.



For convex edges I use sheets of wet-and-dry lying on a phone book, followed by stropping paste in my palm.

 

[ickyan]

Sorry there a bit big.

This is my very humble collection.
Most of it was free or just accumulated, but i can get my knives to split hairs now.

Only for disasters, axes or when I want to start fresh.
A bit cheap and leaves scratches but don't use very often.
The diamond file is great for blunt axes.

Wet n dry collection. Mostly 1200 grit but some 600 as well, most of it is very worn and I've got a piece that's three years old and at least 4000 grit now.

These are my home made stones. I've lost most of them and need to make some larger ones but the long thin one is perfect for taking with you (about 6cm long).
To make, go and find a flattish stone from a river bed and flatten on an oil stone (or a paving slab). Through trial and error you will find finer stones (the long one is probably about 1200 grit).

This is in testing stages. Basically I rub a corner of the long thin stone on the roundish stone to make a slurry and paste it onto the notepad (not easy to see)
currently I can't conclude if it works very well.

New large strop (50p from charity shop)
Thinking about adding compound to this one

Old strop, a bit slower

Mounted strop with glasses cloth and metal polish.
Rounded on left side for inside of my spoon knife.

Shows that you don't need to spend much money but to practice.
It used to take ages for me to get a razor sharp edge but now it takes about two minutes or less (not with the spoon knife yet).

 

[SOAR]

I mainly use japanese water stones and strop with leather I rarely use compound in fact hardly ever, only really used solid bars when polishing an edge was required.

this is a strop I use when out.