Blade Sharpening

[Cody]

So, with the purchase (finally after some emailing) and shipping of my sword, I thought it would be a good idea to buy a quality sharpening stone. Odds are I will never have the heart or need to use it on the sword being as it is supposedly a limited edition collectible. But! I was thinking...I own quite a few bladed objects as do most of the people I know. It seemed like a good idea to take a gander at the ol' Amazon and see what they had. I managed to find a Japanese water stone for about $30. From what I read those things are supposed to be pretty awesome if you know how to use them.

Getting to that point...I have very little experience with sharpening stones, but I guess that takes practice. Should anyone else have the urge to sharpen their knives to a hair splitting precision edge feel free to come over and try it. When it gets here of course.

[zourtney]

I'd like to at least like to know how to kind-of-properly sharpen the knives I have. My favorite kitchen knife, by far, gets the most practical use. It's be a good candidate. Let me know when you get a method down

[Cody]

Unfortunately it won't be here until Friday, but I suppose that is okay. It gives me more time to practice on the stone I already have.

[Nick]

You are all welcome to give my Harbor Freight diamond-powder sharpening block a try (4  sided!) As well as the Lansky dealy that I have. Not sure the Lansky would worn on larger blades... it won't even work well on the cheap knife I got off Amazon (it seems to have a strange angle on the cutting-edge, so I use the diamond one) However, the Lansky does do an awesome job on the pocket knives I have.

[Cody]

Funny story, it arrived today. Not sure how that happened as it was supposed to be here Friday...but I won't complain! Since this morning I have been sharpening everything under the sun. You know, pocket knives, kitchen knives, random knives laying around, chisels and so on. Although I am not great at it, I managed to sharpen a random pocket knife I found to at least razor sharpness. I did actually shave with it. That was pretty awesome. So if anyone has something they want to sharpen or just have the urge to try and use a Japanese water stone then come on over! Or something like that.

[Nick]

I would love to give it a try sometime. See how it compares with the ceramic stuff I have. 

[Cody]

I don't know how much, if any, you have read about them, but if I remember correctly people like them because they are composed of very very tiny particles held together by some sort of loose holding resin or something. When you use it, the particles break loose and keep a consistently rough surface that doesn't get clogged as well as create a paste of sorts that polishes the blade at the same time. Why I remember that I have no idea. But yeah, come over or invite me over sometime. We all know I am never busy.

[Nick]

Sounds fun. Good ol' fashioned blade sharpening party!

Also, I still have that battery cut-off thing for your truck....

[Cody]

You know I think about that every few days... Somehow I always forget to ask you about it or try and pick it up. And with the death of my mom's 4Runner and the sudden use of my truck again it might be a good idea to get that installed.

[Cody]

To bring up a nearly 2 year old topic....

My poor stone has seen a lot of use in the last 2 years. As such, it is no longer flat. In fact it was very not flat which made sharpening things a lot more difficult. So since I didn't want to pay to buy the tool to flatten it, I went out into the shop and grabbed a metal file. ...after wearing the metal file down and still not having it flat I turned to something more crude. A granite floor tile, sand paper, and tape! I just taped the sandpaper to the (hopefully) near perfectly flat granite tile and slowly slid the stone back and forth until it was flat.

Worked great. Who needs fancy tools?

[Nick]

The stone has been working well for you then?

[Cody]

Most definitely. It was worth the $30 in my opinion. Just takes a little more patience and practice than other sharpening methods.