how long did it take you

There are a lot of great videos on YouTube to watch to get an idea of the basics. After that just jump on it! As Anton said it's not rocket science and there really isn't anything that you will do that will totally ruin a knife. It won't be long and you'll have an "ah ha!" moment and things will start to become more clear real fast. Have faith in yourself and have at it! If I can do it a monkey probably can better!

 

James curious to know how this is going for you?

 

stalled waiting on an Atoma... which should be here any day now

Because of the Rika, which I love at least for the straights, I also bought a Surhiro 8000 white stone, even cane with s little cleaner block. but i need to lap it and all the other guys, with holidays having everyone busy i haven't been able to stop by a buddies house to lap, so i broke down and bought my own

 

He's got it bad, got it bad, got it bad; he's hot for honing.

 

damn straight

 

This.

I made the mistake of burning a lot of time and a 1/3" of a stone on crappy SS knives b/c I needed something to practice on. Just use an inexpensive carbon knife, you'll learn more, faster and burn through less hardware.

 

Lets get Busy, atoma showed up

And after some soaking, while not even close to Daves edge... but close to the factory edge on a few of my knives



Its sharp enough to pass through paper cleanly Long the edge, althought there is one spot mid curve into the tip that isnt quite what the rest is at.

Still not at a good enough level to touch my knives, but its a start that told me I can do this.

BTW what's the easiest way to take sharpie off the blade when done lol ?

 

Nail polish remover gets rid of Sharpie...if you happen to have some around.

 

ill have to pick some up

 

Don't lie to us James.

 

my college days are long behind me, but can i borrow some of your

 

You can pay the import tax

 

For a confidence boost, try sharpening a shorter Zakuri Blue #1. Of all the knives I own, those take the most impressive edges with the least effort. I am a decent sharpener, but the Zakuri just feels like cheating. You can almost just point the knife at a stone and give it a little shake, and it'll be sharp.

Shame that they sometimes have wonky grinds and deep grind gouges.

 

This is hilarious and doubtless true.

A similar confidence boost is sharpening a Sakai Yusuke 240 Gyuto in White steel. It's already thin BTE and a few strokes on a Rika 5k has it screaming sharp. Lots of fun, too!

 

Nice stone set up James. Looks like you can graduate to some other knives from the looks of the edge you put on that one . Well done.

 

I have been sharpening for about 3 years, i still suck, i'll always suck, for the rest of my life. Part of what makes it such a compelling practice!

 

Been sharpening on stones for a few years now, but still need a bit of a cheat with my DMT EEFine (2200grit) ceramic rod to get razor sharpness what i refine on stones.

 

james you have some nice stones there. i would highly recommend using them on any knife. you learn every time you sharpen. and a good japanese knife is much easier to sharpen than that plastic handled crap.

 

I found when I first started freehand sharpening convexing the edges was the beat way to get a good edge once I was reasonable consistent with that then it was time to move out the comfort zone and create straight bevels which really sorts out the control especially on poor quality steel since a couple of passes can completely change the bevel. The good quality hard steel is a little easier although it is still easy to loose the very edge even with finishing grits. Fortunately a certain amount of cutting ability comes from the blade profile a point many sharpeners seem to overlook ( I don't think on this forum) a good thin blade will cut deep a cheap unsharpened stripping knife will cut carrots whilst a thick blade even with a good edge will just crush through.
I find that sharpening something everyday helps but there are days that are better than others.

 

In sharpening over 10 years I've tried countless techniques to try to achieve one thing: a durable edge. Because I'm still in the industry making literally thousands of cuts a day. That is the most important thing for me. So this is what I would tell people starting out. Find the thinnest decent quality blade, I prefer something around 61 hrc. Thinner makes it a lot easier to create an initial Burr. Second the most important thing to focus on is maintaining angle. Create a burr on both sides. Then move up your progression. Some might disagree but, de burr at the end. If you use a strop with compound at the end. Always use a bare strop at the end to remove any compound stuck in the edge. In my experience this effects edge retention.