Thread: How do you get a swiss army knife razor-sharp?

I've got a swiss army knife that i tried to hone the other day, but I really struggle with keeping the angle right.

Any suggestions?

I use a Lansky sharpening system for pocket knives and some other knives. It allows clamping the knife with a choice of angles best suited for the knife's use.

I carry a small 3 blade folding pocket knife as my EDC. I do not hone any of the knife edges to a sharpness that all of us here (as opposed to the rest of the world) actually consider "razor sharp". Why? In the past I did hone my pocket knife blades to "razor sharp" (mirror bevel, to approx 12k grit using compounds and stropping on leather, HHT, etc). Then fingering my knife in my pocket one day and having one of the blades open just enough to catch the very tip (fleshy) of one of my fingers in it and just about cut it completely off (instant bloody near painless cut) stopped that practice for me.

Chris L

Lanskys work well. So do the DMT Aligner kits. Perfect bevels every time. Quick and easy and either will get a knife as sharp as youwant.

The Spyderco Sharpmaker system works also fine. I use it vor my users and the half of my kitchen knifes. The other knifes are honed with my waterstones (japanese kitchen knifes).

the sharpmaker gets almost universaly good reviews on a lage knife foum I frequent. I have a lansky, and they are a solid OK. useable, but not really spectcular. YMMV

I have the older Spiderco Tri-Angle which is the forerunner of the Spyderco Sharpmaker. Ten+ years of service and it works great. The only modification I have done is use a small C-clamp to clamp the base to a table edge, much easier than holding it.
I will up-grade to the Spyderco Sharpmaker soon because of the diamond rods. I sharpen a lot of co-workers knives that the bevels are trashed and need the lower grit hone.

I just use my regular hones in back and forth motions keeping the angle as low as practical. If very dull I'd start with my fine corundum or Japanese 1200 and finish with a yellow/rusty mystery hone I've been using. If I still had a decent coticule, it would be my finishing choice. Thuringians seem like overkill but produce a nice polish.

i have tried only ones and didn't have a good result. i went maximum norton 8k that is it.There were no reason continued because of edge the knife.it was getting too thin for knives and i just stopped.

Stagehand, if you want a lower grit , lots of guys on other forums recomend wrapping the rods with the sandpaper of your choise. all you need to do is wrap it tighly. hope that helps!

It takes a while to learn to freehand it, well worth learning though (then you can sharpen a knife anywhere). I usually stop at 1200 grit, except for the very finest knife steel. Sometimes I sharpen them up to 8k or even 12k. I also strop a knife after sharpening it.

Or use one of the clamp systems like DMT, Lansky, Smith, etc.