I bought a sharpmaker about 2 years ago. Probably a good time to take it out of it's packaging...

I use a DMT dia-fold fine/coarse, and a couple different Norton oil stones.

I used a Sharpmaker for years and it's great. Since I learned to convex sharpen though, that's what I do.

the sharpmaker is great
in fact it was the first thing these fine fellow's pressured me into buying <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" />

I use the following:

Sun Tiger water stone 1000/6000 grit
Arkansas Soft/medium and Fine stones
Sharp maker.
Coarse to fine diamond stones/files
Smith's carbide sharpener

Which one I use depends on the size knife, steel and what I'm going to do with it.
I like the Arkansas soft/medium on big knives because of the really aggressive edge it gives.

The 1000 grit water stone gives a nice aggressive edge but the stone wears faster so I don't use it as much just mainly on smaller knives.

The sharp maker I use for touch up on my EDCs and generall sharpining.
The diamond stone files I use for re-profiling mainly.


The Smith's I use in the kitchen. One or two draws puts a nice kitchen edge on my old hickory knives.


I don't use the 6000 grit water stone or the Arkansas fine to much. They do a real nice scalpel edge <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/eek.gif" alt="" /> that will cut the hairs on your arm (not touching the skin)while they stand. Knives this sharp have to be handled differently than just sharp knives also the edges dull quickly so I don't sharpen this sharp to often.

Benchstones are great if you are either good at sharpening or have someone to show you. For a newbie trying to learn from the internet it is way to difficult.

I find that a black marker on the knife blade really helps to show you where you are removing metal. Use lots it wipes off with a rag and some lighter fluid or alcohol.

For a long time I got by with nothing but a small EZ Lap pensharpener. It is small but I sharpened my CS Kukuri machete with it. They cost 10$ to 20$

im getting a sharpmaker

You can use the sharpmaker to sharpen any angle on your edge. The 2 angles that it is set up for requires you to keep the knife strait up and down when you use it - but you can always cant your knife a little to make the angle larger or smaller - don't think that you MUST stick to the stock angles. If you're just going to get one system, I think its a winner!

Here's what I use:

I think I'll order the sharpmaker. I wanted to get some benchstones and learn how to free hand, but I didn't know you could use the sharpmaker like benchstones to.

diceman: That's a good point, but then why do some people say the set angles are sometimes disadvantages if you can just simply tilt the knife to get a different angle?

The advantage of the sharpmaker is consistency. As long as you keep the blade vertical, you will hit the stones at the same angle. If you start tilting the blade away from the vertical you have to keep the same angle to the stones on both sides of the blade. That means twisting your wrist differently to sharpen each edge.

At that point the sharpmaker has no advantage. You might as well be hand sharpening on a bench stone. You still have to gauge the angle by hand, and you have more surface area on which to work your knife.

Ok, that make sense. Thanks. I did a little more research on this and seen some people put stuff under one side of the sharpmaker to make a different angle and I guess that would be more consistent then tilting your hand.

Next question. Can a sharpmaker out of the box sharpen SY knives? (Without trying to mess with angles or reporfiling any edges)