Sandpaper and the mouse pad.

It took me years of practice to get it to work. The only thing that irrates me is I think I don’t get the edge exactly even, I think it’s a little lopsided. It always feels sharper if I feel the edge with my left hand compared to feeling it with my right. I guess it’s because I’m left handed maybe. I looked down the edge though, and it looks pretty even to me. I dunno. It works well enough though, it’s not that bad.


I had one of those I bought at Goodwill. It was white though. I didn’t like it very much, so I eBayed it.


Or an inverter in the truck! <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/laugh.gif" alt="" />


Did you try a finer stone? To touch up mine, I use the white fine AK stone followed by the smooth ceramic sharpening rod, then strop on a leather belt.

I wish I could use a good stone. There's something traditional about it. However, I just don't have the patience to get it down.

I had a multi stone set with a fine stone, the edge ends up nice, but I want more! <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/tongue.gif" alt="" />

That seems to be my problem to. I want it to cut through steel.

Thanks for the information, it helps !

what grit or grits are best for the mousepad aproach? I have always wanted to give that method a try.

I start with 400 grit. Then I move over to 600. When I'm feeling good with 600 I'll use 1000 grit. The big thing that the sandpaper and mousepad does is it really helps form a convex edge. If you don't want a convex edge then a lansky system is probably the easiest, in my opinion.






Peace
Jerry

It takes a lot of sandpaper though. You might be better off with a long piece of emery paper especially for big knives like the DF.
Cold One ,you might want to try finishing your knives with a leather strop?

The mouse mat trick uses TONS of paper literally- I burned about 4 sheets in one go once.. In the space of a few minutes! This sounds like an exageration but it isn't- hense I now Lansky.

I use wet/dry sandpaper. When I sharpen I wet the sand paper, it seems to make it last longer. However, it does use up a lot of sand paper.

I never tried using a strop until just a little while ago. I was sharpening my everyday carry knife a Benchmade auto opener. And I decided to try it on a stiff leather belt that I've got. I'm pretty impressed with the finishing edge it puts on there.