Sharpening Abrasive/Material and Direction???

[Greg Haugen]

I've seen a variety of abrasives/materials used as well as sharpening in either direction. So my question to you is this, What is your preferred "material" (wet stones, oil stones, diamond hones, etc.) for sharpening knives as well do you sharpen "into the edge" or "away from the edge"? I'm talking about stones and hones here, not stropping. I know a lot of this is personal preference, so which is yours?

Thanks.

[Jim Koepke]

In the kitchen, we have a diamond stone we bought at a Big 5 Sporting goods store about 15 years ago. That usually does the trick for the kitchen knives. Every once in a while, on or two will get taken to the shop to clean up a nicked edge on my water stones.

Currently with the temps running in the high 20s and low 30s my oil stones get use a lot in the shop.

Otherwise my preference is water stones. Water stones do not react well to water freezing when they are soaked.

For my knives the blade is pushed into the diamond stone.

For light sharpening of any other blade, this is the same. If a blade needs a lot of work, then it gets the push pull treatment.

For work on sand paper, the blades are usually worked in both directions. This is only because for most of my abrasives have pressure sensitive adhesives on the back. Mostly my use of abrasive papers is limited to the coarser grits and is used for first clean up of blades that have not been taken care of before being acquired.

jtk

[Gary Hodgin]

I sharpen chisels and plane blades on waterstones and I always sharpen on the pull. I usually sharpen kitchen and pocket knifes on a DMT course/fine diamond plate and I use push and pull.

[george wilson]

The final strokes should be into the edge,to avoid pulling a ragged edge onto the knife.

[Greg Haugen]

Thank you for your responses. This is exactly what I was looking for. More or less a "poll". If there's 12 people that respond and wet stones are mentioned 9 but diamond hones are only mentioned 3 times, that's interesting to see the preference as well as to hear about the different techniques. Most of the time, almost always, I'll sharpen away from the edge and I'm currently using a range of "grits" in diamond hones. I'm leading a "sharpening knives" demonstration/class for our carving club at the end of January. When I teach or demonstrate, I believe that "my way" isn't the the only way or the "truly" right way. And I like to offer other suggestions and say, "this works for me but here's some other ways to accomplish this task." Someone may find or know of a technique that is an improvement and then everyone can benefit from it.

"A Toast"

No matter how long we've done this or how regularly we do it, here's to always being a "student of the craft".

[Stuart Tierney]

Push-pull, on waterstones mainly. Occasionally I have used diamond paste on steel, and used the same method.

Why waste all that muscle sending it back for no work done? JMHO.