Thread: A question for the hone masters

Now this isn't about straight razor even though this is the SRP. It has been many years since I bought a hone for my pocket knives and the knives in the kitchen. for the last few years I've used a lansky honing kit. these are good kits but not what I really want. I would like to go back to just a hone and my knife. I once was pretty good at it but my old hones have long since disappeared. What would ya'll suggest. I really don't want to use my naniwas or Suehiro on these knives. Anyway I put the question to the pros.

here's my two cents.
for a daily use knife I would skip waterstones unless you love them.when I was a butcher I used a course silicon carbide stone to bevel set and clean up chips,rolled edges from misuse ,then I used a medium India stone and finished on a fine India stone.that works well to give and edge that was both rugged enough to cut animal hide and to do the top round bottom round break Downs etc.if I had a lot of bone shining-deboning as is normal in a shop,I used a soft Arkansas to give a finer edge to my boneout knives . All my everyday stones were bench stones used with either mineral oil or wd-40 to hone on. Water stones wise I used a few extra large king stones from 220 grit up to 6k.if you go the waterstone route I'd suggest buying the ceramic Japanese waterstones for countering dish out.

Sharpening supplies dot com have a large selection of bench stones of either oil or water types.

I use a lansky system when I need to reprofile a factory edge to what I want. After that I have been using a soft or hard (not really sure what it is) Arkansas and/or ceramic stone that I use free hand to touch up the edge. I mainly use the ceramic stone since it cuts faster than the Arkansas stone and its finer. I never take my knives higher than about 1200 grit. I didn't want to use my knives on my razor stones either so I have actually been looking for a small combination stone that would fit in a pocket so looking forward to what others suggest.

rhensley --

Just curious, What don't you like about the Lanky system? I have it and the Spyderco Tri-Angle Sharpmaker and prefer the Spyderco for all my knives just because it sets up so much quicker and does such a great job. I also have a DMT diamond "steel" sharpener that I use to refresh my kitchen knives. One of the reasons I moved away from stones was space/convenience. I don't have room in the kitchen for stones, but the Spyderco system stores easily in my junk drawer.

Harold

It's really not that I don't like the lansky system it's just that I like honeing by hand better. now that I have the time why not. When I was younger I would hone not only my knives but other peoples too. the edges were sharp and lasted. just like to get back into again.

something else to consider about using jigs,guides etc.when you have a jig etc you find yourself being limited to what that jig can do with that particular knife,next is the fact that when you are needing to thin the knife to enhance its performance you again are severely limited to what it will allow you to do.not to mention needing different things from each type of knife and grind .a saber grind is different from a European style of chefs knife which is ground continuously from the spine to its apex.then you have the Asian grinds to learn and profile and hone.I'm leaving a lot out of course however that is why I dislike jigs,guides.cheers cam.

You can use the hones that came with the lansky system freehand too. I have done that in the past but I think an Arkansas stone is the best IMO for freehand. There are many ways to skin a cat though

I may be a bit of a philistine on this one, but I use a chefs choice electric sharpener and a Henckels draw through for most kitchen knife related sharpenings. In part because I share two kitchens with other people that beat the $*!% out of the knives. They are a decent diamond hone and have three grits to do bevel set and up. You may also want to note that I do not have very high end knives in either kitchen. Both kitchens are equipped with mostly Frost and Victorianox knives and two mid quality Henckels.

My opinion on that matter is, get a cheap really coarse SiC or AlOx stone, the 1$ ones, and something also cheap, and a little finer. For my cheap knives, I've observed that, they can't really keep a very keen edge. When I use finishing stones on them, they start sharp, but even cutting boneless meat on air, they lose their edge much faster than when finished on something coarse, coarser than 1000 grit. And, that's my setup for cheap knives. Coarse stones, and, the cheapest ones you can find around.
If money is not a problem, you can get some diamond plates. They will make your life easier.
On my expensive, traditional Japanese, or western knives, I use pretty much the same stones I use on my razors, unless I want to emphasize on the pattern of the steel or differential hardening, i.e. the looks.