All of this started when I decided that I wanted to sharpen up a bunch of old pocket knives and then I intend to try them out to see how well I can whittle with them.
I have occasionally left a mark if I run a blade with the sharp edge forward on a sharpening stone; not always, but, sometimes. So I thought that I would give some Arkansas stones a try; never had or used an Arkansas stone before.
I will try to ease my way into it since I have a setup that works great for me with water stones (and similar), I just wanted to try it.
My primary question is...... Should I attempt flatten or measure these for flatness, or just jump in? I am hoping that I should be able to just use these.
I opted for three stones that are sized 10x3
https://www.bestsharpeningstones.com...&product_id=77
Soft - Coarse 600
Hard - Medium 1000
Black Surgical - Extra Fine 2500
After I placed my order, I saw that some people had had trouble with them delivering, but mine came very fast and were very well packaged.
I have honing oil (mineral oil I assume), and I also have a large container of mineral oil that I have been using to season cutting boards and also for use with some oil stones that I own.
I also have a small set ordered that is easy to carry around in case I want to have something for a pocket knife. Although I am not sure how much luck I will have sharpening small pocket knives. I do not have a good track record with that. I have some cheap knives that I can try to learn on since I have not had really good luck when I last tried to sharpen a knife on a flat stone.
I have had really good luck with the original Work Sharp Knife & Tool Sharpener (I think that they have newer models, not sure how they differ), but, it works really well with me. I have also had really good luck in the past sharpeners that have sharpening sticks in a V pattern such as this one from Spyderco that I have owned for years and LOVE:
https://www.amazon.com/Tri-Angle-Sha.../dp/B00JHX512S
I will eventually post comments on knives from Case (USA), Buck (USA and Chinese), Henry (Chinese), Rough Rider (Chinese), and FlexCut (USA).
New, the worst was from Case, with a Stockman's that I bought new. I had to use a course sharpening stone to remove that burr.
01_Case_new_from_box.jpg
Untouched, the flexcut was the best out of the box. I was very impressed with the cheap Chinese Rough Rider knives and the Buck knives. The USA Buck knives that I obtained new were sharper than their Chinese counterparts.
The Shrade knives I really have to sharpen before use and they took more work to get in shape on average (full sharpen job) than the Case knives (most I could go straight to the Spyderco) even if the worst example from the bunch was a Case knife that is an embarrassment. I contacted Case to ask them about this knife and they did not respond.
I am amazed at the FlexCut; like wow!