Grafting Knives report, my favorites

short advise

More detailed advise.

What sharpening stone do you have?

Certain cheap sharpening stones are known for not preforming well on higher hardness steels.

I’m a big fan of (japanese) water stones. A quality 1000 grit will get you really far. And should yield you superior sharpness to when the knife was new.

The sharpening systems work. But i don’t see the point of them. They cost a lot more. And usually have lower amount and or quality of abrasive material.

They “fix” an almost nonexistent problem. Keeping the angle a 100% the same every stroke. It’s just not needed. Slightly varying the angle gives you a convex edge. And that’s actually quite nice.

If your convinced you need to keep a perfectly consistant angle. You can also do that freehand on a stone with a piece of 3m dubble sided tape (gray stretchy tape with red liner) and a small piece of wood.


top knife was ground freehand with the piece of wood and sticky tape.
The secondary edge is perfectly flat and at a very steep angle.
If sharpened a carbon #5 the same way. But i actually prefer the freehand carbon #5 on the picture. (bottom)

ps: you tape the thin piece of softwood to the top of the knife. And than you get a consistent angle when the bevel of the knife and the piece of wood both touch the stone.

you can also tape a "handle (empty lighter) to the other side of the knife for easier moving up and down on the stone.

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