The Scary Sharp System

Ive heard a few things about this, but im not totally sure as to what it is... ive searched the forum, and i didnt come up with anything substantial regarding it... what ive gathered, is that its a cheap way into honing using sandpaper and some type of rack to mount it on... i figure using sandpaper might be the best thing to do to satisfy cost boundaries as a newbie, and to avoid the problems associated with lapping, and proper prepping of a stone... which, from what i hear, can be quit a PITA... am i totally uneducated on the reality of this system? is the sandpaper way of honing something totally different? or is that used for something other than refining and edge? or.... on the really negative side... is sandpaper just not a good idea at all?


my thoughts were that i could possibly get the grits needed, and a small piece of either 2x4 or 4x4 wood, and it perfectly smooth... and then use a staple gun around the sides to pull the paper tight around the wood and keep it there... would probably make for a good starter hone... but please, correct me on this.

On another forum, Post-It notes are all the rage when it comes to paper and compound type systems. While I have yet to try it, it seems to be a thing to try.

Hand American makes the "Scary Sharp System" if I remember correctly, I'm waiting on responce to email at the moment for their current product line (items on hand). I'm looking for some of their stuff for kitchen knives as well as razors :D

If I remember well Bill Ellis uses it, it might feature on his DVD.

I think this is it.

http://www.handamerican.com/flatbed.html

Lynn mentions it on his DVD, I nearly ordered a set this week but since I don't have many razors it's probably overkill for me right now. I went for a pre-pasted 4-sided paddle strop from Tony instead.

I hear the system is very good, though obviously lots of people get great results from water hones also.

The problem with using the scary sharp method is that you won't be able to find any paper finer than 2000 grit. If you have a razor with a half decent edge you probably won't be needing anything that coarse.

Save your pennies for a decent hone, they're really not that expensive if you look at all the options.

Keith has paper all the way up to 60k

Wow, I never knew... OK, ignore my previous!

The 60K that Traveller mentions is Chromium Oxide paper which is inexpensive and works great. The system also works well for stropping since magnetized sheets of Keith's various leathers are available for the Corian base. Personally, I like Keith's system very much and IMHO it makes honing easy even for beginners.

yeah i was going to say, im not sure exactly on grit, but i know ive used wet/dry sandpaper to sand cars down, mostly for smoothing out body filler work or glaze... and that stuff can get to be so fine its almost like plain paper... lol

and judging by the description of that product you linked to steel forge, it almost seems like they want you to use the leather itself to hone a blade... not sure how that would work (O_O) lol i could be wrong... but i remember seeing something about "using leather to sharpen your blade" on the page...

You have to backhone on the scary sharp system, right?

I have the 20/20 jig, and it is cool and has worked really well so far in restoring, but as far as using it to sharpen I haven't tackled that yet. I do know that the latigo surfaced leather/magnet/pad thing is really hard - a very smooth surface with almost no draw whatever - don;t know what that is going to be like to strop - but it will probably take paste like a pro.

K

The leather sheets are for stropping not honing. That is, use a back honing motion like you would on a hanging strop not a forward motion like on a stone. However, with the Chromium Oxide paper you can use a backward or forward stroke and wetting the surface is recommended.

The Scary Sharp system is excellent and extreamly flexable. First you start with the base unit (Magnetic Corain Bench Hone), then you can get the magnetic backed glass plate and/or magnetic backed leather pads. Personally I use the magnetic backed glass plate then use the adhesive paste (not PSA) to stick different grit wet/dry paper onto it. The paste that Hand American porovides (I think it is called grip tight) is great, does not come off when adding water to the paper, lasts a long long time, and makes changing from one grit paper to another easy as pie. I also have a Norton 4/8K. I tend to use the Scary Sharp system for heavy restoration, and setting a new bevel (600-1000 grit) as needed. Then I go to my Norton 4/8K. Then I use several different magnetic backed leather pads that I have pre-pasted. One pad has Boron Carbide (black diamond), then move to Chromium Oxide, then my third one has .25 diamond paste for super power laser sharpness. I have also used just the glass plate on the bench hone working up through the grit scale up to the Chromium Oxide paper. Both methods work great and provides me with some variance for different razors. I prefer to use the pasted leather pads like Tony's pasted strop to keep razors away from the hone for as long as I can. :nj :tu

P.S. When using paper on the glass plate you use the standard X-pattern honing motion (edge leading) don't forget a cheap spray bottle to wet your paper down

When using the leather pads you switch to the stropping motion (spine leading)

P.P.S After a honing session be sure to wash off your paper to get all the metal fragments off before you put away the paper for another day. If you do not wash it off the next time you get out your paper it will be streaked with rust.

So you can push the blades down and forward on the sand paper? Interesting.

Well I have the stuff, and I will be honing like mad man this weekend, I will need to try it.

K

interesting.... but, with all this extra crap im going to have to buy it almost seems like it might be a more expensive option... which is not good :( but, at the same time, it seems like it still might be cheaper than buying a norton + a coticule + a 4 sided paddle with multiple pastes.... which is basically what this system seems to boast... every available honing option on one platform...