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now THERE'S a fine word that goes sadly under utilized!!!swarf
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now THERE'S a fine word that goes sadly under utilized!!!swarf
Jamie, Have a look around , I made one from an old lapidary belt sander and it has enough adjustment to run a large range of belts in widths from 1/2 inch to 6 inch! Really handy for shaping a blade and roughing out an edge that can then be fine tuned with finer belts or chased with stones. I do a fair amount in Damascus Steel and this is the only way you can build an edge in order to get to the sharpening part, Damascus is super hard and will chew up most any stone in short order, so the belt is the only way to fly!I went clear around the block and came back to an Arkansas oilstone for my knives, followed by a mounted stop rubbed thoroughly with red jewelers rouge.
For axes, mauls and machetes I use my belt sander with a worn belt.
But I wish I could get an emery belt that would fit.
I find that hacking/splitting tools don't really need to be that sharp. They need to bite, and the mass does the rest if I put the velocity on it.Jamie, Have a look around , I made one from an old lapidary belt sander and it has enough adjustment to run a large range of belts in widths from 1/2 inch to 6 inch! Really handy for shaping a blade and roughing out an edge that can then be fine tuned with finer belts or chased with stones. I do a fair amount in Damascus Steel and this is the only way you can build an edge in order to get to the sharpening part, Damascus is super hard and will chew up most any stone in short order, so the belt is the only way to fly!
Worksharp Ken Onion Edition. Does well for me.
Work Sharp Ken Onion Edition Knife and Tool Sharpener
*************************************************************************got the standard 53 kinds of stones/files/ceramics/powered thingies....
and granted a pocket knife needs a little different attention than a splitting maul....
Got fed up with the Lanski system; threw out a number of other stuff just outright too hoakie to even keep around another decade or 2 in the back drawer.......
mostly the fine sharp edge that needs touch up now & then;
I tend to prefer old style stones with different grit, yet the newer diamond 3"x 12" bench block seems to work.
And like others I've struggled for ~years~ to get to a decent edge with minimal effort;
don't care for the round pocket pucks; hate the notion another powered grindy thing is needed. "Kitchen Chef" works decent for the culinary stuff.
What's yore own best choice as "good enough" to put shaving edge on them Bowies & throwing hatches & gizzards & etc?
Just tipping your hand only enough to change the angle of the grind one degree can set you back so far it seems you're worse off than when you started.
x100. BTDT far too many times. Like @Joe13 and I said, you need to stay in practice. Dad taught me, and it was reinforced with sharpening drill bits thousands of times, and my knives a few scores of times. As far as I'm concerned, I'm horribly out of practice.
On line, you can find angle suggestions for different edges, as well as suggestions for finding those angles, like gauging them off a nickle. If nothing else, these things can help you get a feel for getting close to where you need to be.
LOL - working at a machine shop back in college, I got the bright idea to re-do the edges on a bunch of my knives. Took them to the tooling area and used their diamond grinders. Ruined a few of my knives, and crapped out the face of every diamond wheel I touched. The machinists banned me from that area for a month. Learned a lot by that mistake....
As to systems for getting to Rome, don't dismiss the fancier systems. I went with the costly Edge Pro and, once I got over buyers remorse, wouldn't give it up. My kitchen knives, for example, all but fall through potatoes. Before, we had to do the rocking and pressing many, if not most of us are familiar with.
Thanks....