One of the great things about being a part of a forum, discussion group, think tank etc. is being able to learn from your peers. So gentleman and ladies, I'd like to know what you use to sharpen your blades but not just what you use but where you got it....some of the proper grit stones and strops can be hard to find. Who wants to go first?

I use a Spyderco Sharpmaker on my smaller knives, and then strop them lightly. I use a diamond stone or rod on my larger knives every once in a while, but usually just strop them.

Coldone turned me on to Lee Valley "Veritas Green" honing compound, which is what I use on my leather strop.

After I sharpen, I wipe my edges down with Sentry Solutions "Marine Tuf Cloth" - its the best rust inhibitor I've ever used - and it isn't oily and messy!

I use a couple of things.

I use a spyderco sharpmaker for a fair amount of work. Either with the stand or freehanding with the stones.

I also have a generic 1x30" belt sander (You can get them at harbour freight in the states). I use a selection of belts from leevalley.com up to 9 micron grit. However I usually use the 40 and 20 micron grits.

I also have a leather strop from lee valley and use the veritas green stropping compound.

It all works well for me!

I plan on scoring some norton stones to freehand some blades as well. Up to about 8000x grit.

a nice thing about the tuf-cloths, too, is that if you order them from the sentry solutions website, for every three you buy they send one to a U.S. soldier.

Very true - a great company.

Coldone: I am your protoge' - but I post faster than you <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />

I am completely unfamiliar with stropping. I respect your experience and opinions enough that now I need to look into it.

90% of the time, I use a sharpening steel. Occasionally, a ceramic rod.
I do have the spyderco set-up, but do not need to resort to it very often. I find the steel keeps my stuff pretty sharp. I even use the steel on my hawks.

Stropping is foolproof! I wish I'd gotten in to that sooner... Our coldest member got me in to it - and thats about all I use, now.

A strop is used to get rid of the last of a micro burn on the edge and really polish it to a mirror. The stropping compound is an extremely fine abrasive powder in a deliver medium. Veritas green is around 0.5 micron, I think it is around 15000 or 19000 grit equivalent. Really does a great finishing job on an edge.

When you use the strop, you are using very little pressure. The lightest contact will give you the best results in the end!

Dice you did it again!
But I am putting more details in. That is my excuse! <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/laugh.gif" alt="" />

So, if I am understanding it, a much finer edge than my steel is capable of?
That would be very cool.

Yeah. A steel actually only realigns rolls in the edge, it isn't suppose to remove metal. The strop will remove metal to put that final polish on it.

That does make sense.
More stuff on the roo need-to-buy list.
Once again, the economic scale tilts from butter to guns.