Not a HARD rain, but plenty wet and cool! <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/crazy.gif" alt="" />

steeley, if you come down i can teach you my method of freehand sharpening and how to use the wheels. keep in mind that the grit wheel will only sharpen a v edge knife but you can maintain an existing edge or strop the burr off of a freshly formed convex edge.

I like the DMT diamonds better than the Smiths but use both. In fact I took my Smiths yellow and orange diamond sharpeners to a buddys gun store and left them there so me and Stevo, a member here, can work on blades when time allows. I have a DMT folding that is blue (coarse) and red (fine) and a green that is extra fine, and a bigger red DMT bench. I also have various stones, but I am not that good with them but I think that is due to quality because I have a couple that are very old that were my Papa's and they do a better job. As to the convex, at the moment I use paper and mouse pad. I do follow up with stropping on an old barber strop. Just what I do.

If I can shave my arm hairs, its sharp enough. My arm hair is fairly fine, so its much harder to shave mine than most guys. That's my static test.

That used to me my litmus test, but I don't even worry about going that far most of the time anymore. I still get a good fairly long lasting edge though. Hey, it works for me and that's what counts.

It'll grab my thumb nail and it will slice hand held paper.

Slicing paper is another test I use. Sometimes I'm all out of arm hair.

Any more I will use the course smiths diamond hone, then go to the medium Spyderco ceramic and then finish off with a few light strokes on a find DMT folding 4 inch hone. Oh and then I ususlly hit it a few licks on a paper notepad.

I have actually just used a paper notepad before and can tell a real difference in the sharpness.

I use the back of a legal pad to strop with sometimes. Seems to work well.

Try newspaper, it works better.

the slotted paper wheel will strop an edge in a few seconds compared to minutes by hand.