What is the best method and stone to sharpen SY knives? Are they all convex edge?

terry, i will let another dog awnser this but i wanted to welcome a fellow terry

Hi Terry,

I don't have any handy to doubt check, but i think most are saber or double bevel.
A normal stone or sharpmaker works. I use a sharpmaker on most of my blades, however I did reprofile my DF to a convex edge on a belt sander.

Regardless of the edge, I usually finish with a few light passes on a strop loaded with .5 micron veritas green.

My first pass is with a steel or ceramic. 9/10 times I don't need anything more than a light touch up.

Sandpaper on a mousepad or book works pretty well too but you need to practice to control the angle. I bought a variety of sandpaper grits from the local Pep boys. 1000 grit is pretty good for light touchups.

I touched up my Satin Jack TAC user a few days ago with the 1000 grit. I always like to try the shaving thing especially with big blades. I was sitting there in shorts drinking beer and not thinking and *swish* away goes a big patch of hair on my left thigh. Brilliant <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/frown.gif" alt="" />

scrappy, thanks for the welcome.

Thanks guys for your answers. I did not know if the edge was convex or not and if I needed to sharpen it like it was.

I've had my shrarp maker for 6 months and have yet to take it out of the box. Guess it's time to open it up and start using it.

I 'Lansky' my knives, it works well for me (I'm sharpening challenged!) but it's a b*gger setting up the edge angles when you first get the knife! At least once it's done it's done though.. One day I'll sharpen my DF!

(I have used the mouse mat and sandpaper trick in the past and had some success with it, but crikey does it use up sand paper!!!)

Does anyone use diamond stones on their Scrap Yard knife?

I use a sharpmaker or diamond rod or Apex depending on how bad the edge is.

I have sharpened SY knives with ceramic rods, diamond coated rods, and even a stone. Mostly, I use my belt sander since it does a convex edge. I use the ceramic rods for touch ups. A sharp flat edge still beats a dull convex edge, so I don't think its that big a deal on the final edge. The mouse pad and sandpaper method seems to be popular, but I've never tried it. A lot of people just use their regular sharpening methods that they would use on any knife.

I use only charged strops. I start out with black compound if the edge has really dulled. Then I go to the green compound. Finally, if I am really feeling anal, I use a strop charged with Flitz. For me, it is a lot easier to touch up an edge than it is to resharpen.

I recently picked up the Scrap Yard SS4 and it was not very sharp. With this knife, I used 400 grit wet/dry sandpaper on a leather backing. followed with 600 grit. The edge is now sharp. From now on, I will likely need only the charged strops to maintain the edge.

I've not used my Sharpmaker since I learned the techniques above. However, when I did use the Sharpmaker, the results were excellent.

I use ceramic rods and a charged strop on all my busse family knives. If there is actual edge damage, I use a lansky rat tail to clean it up, and then the rods and strop.