Keeping them sharp

[Sir Henry]

I have a Craftsman pocket knife that I bought in 1970 and have only sharpened it a dozen times to it still have a full blade. But I have about a dozen pocket knives that I switch off on so one knife doesn't get used to the extreme. I have a lot of lower case Ka-Bars. Some are from the forties and fifties well before they started making them from stainless steel.

[GeoBoy]

I use a Tormek T7 water cooled sharpener. When I retired my wife thought I should buy myself a retirement gift, so I thought about it and I have always carried a knife since I was 8 years old and never had an accurate way to sharpen, hence the Tormek. Now I sharpen everything that requires an accurate edge.

[JEBar]

I use a Tormek T7 water cooled sharpener. When I retired my wife thought I should buy myself a retirement gift, so I thought about it and I have always carried a knife since I was 8 years old and never had an accurate way to sharpen, hence the Tormek. Now I sharpen everything that requires an accurate edge.

now that is one heck of a sharpener ..

[ronnie]

Tormek does a good job a real hd unit.

R

[Sir Henry]

I had to look it up. Seems a little too much to sharpen my occasional knife. But I bet in the hands of a pro you could do a lot of knives in a very short amount of time.

[daytime dave]

I use a work sharp and a ceramic rod. The bottom of a coffee cup on occasion.

Here is a link

http://www.worksharptools.com/sharpener ... pener.html

I use that work sharp for everything except my straight razor. I sharpen hoes, lawn mower blades, sheath knives, pocket knives and kitchen knives. I use a ceramic rod to touch them up just right.

The only other sharpener that sees the light of day is my Spyderco sharpmaker. It does a better job on some knives for some reason.

I have used the Lansky system, but it just sits now. I have a strop that I am seasoning and will put into service soon. (By seasoning, I rubbed in the yellow lube for it. I'm waiting a few weeks to let it soak in properly before using the strop.)

[eldermike]

I have working knives and collecting knives. I don't worry myself over either of these labels. If it's a collector it will never cut anything and if it's a working knife it will cut anything I need to cut. For the working knives I use a diamond stone and hand lap the edge. The edge I use most is on my Leatherman Wave. Mine is old and I have lapped most of the main blades thin section away. When I was at the Leatherman store while on a business trip I was told to send it back and I would get a new one. But mine has history so as long as it keeps cutting I will keep it.

[ronnie]

A flat diamond lap is a gem to work with and keep it lubed with some dish soap and water a couple of drops in a spray container with water while using it and the results will be great.The water solution helps a bunch to keep the lap from getting full of material.
I have quite a few from easy lap that are winners. http://eze-lap.com/

R