is there any tricks to useing wet stones?

[raggie33]

i stink at keeping knife at correct angle! so is there any tricks i saw many reviews on knife sharpners and wetstones seem to always win

 

[JimIslander]

You can use all sorts of tricks, but it really comes down to practice. Dad started us at 8 or so. We didn't know it was supposed to be hard, so after a few weeks of trial and error we could get our knives shaving sharp with ease. Put in the time and it is a skill you'll use for life.

 

[raggie33]

You can use all sorts of tricks, but it really comes down to practice. Dad started us at 8 or so. We didn't know it was supposed to be hard, so after a few weeks of trial and error we could get our knives shaving sharp with ease. Put in the time and it is a skill you'll use for life.

cool id love to learn to use them. i saw a cool youtube video when the guy had a machine to test sharpness and the wetstones was so dang crazy sharp

 

[alitd]

Sharpie the bevel.

 

[turbodog]

I sharpen on 2 whetstones with different grits. Then I use a benchtop belt sander with a leather belt and 'white' buffing compound. Knife is so sharp the hairs on my arm run away screaming even before the blade touches them. Ridiculously sharp. Dangerously sharp.

 

[raggie33]

I sharpen on 2 whetstones with different grits. Then I use a benchtop belt sander with a leather belt and 'white' buffing compound. Knife is so sharp the hairs on my arm run away screaming even before the blade touches them. Ridiculously sharp. Dangerously sharp.

cool the sharper the better on you tube i saw a guy let the edge of the knife on a phone book papper then just useing gravity he let it fall and it sliced all the way thru. im looking at the sharp pebble pro

 

[JimIslander]

You can get a knife easily shaving sharp on a regular wet stone.

 

[raggie33]

You can get a knife easily shaving sharp on a regular wet stone.

i went with a 1000/6000 double whet stone im excited its comeing friday its cheap but i hope its at least kind of decent https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B084H74BXQ/?tag=cpf0b6-20

 

[StagMoose]

Looks like a good start. That is pretty fine so if you get your angle right you'll sharpen up a sharp knife really well. If it is dull or you have the wrong angle, may take a while to reprofile it. But also won't mess anything up quickly.

Be great for your new kitchen knife!

Good luck!

 

[adamlau]

You can use an angle cube with a magnetic base to adjust your desired DPS. Not necessary, but it can help you develop a feel for specific angles based on hand and body positioning.

 

[Owen]

Tips?
-Return it, if you can. This was a very poor choice, particularly for someone who can't maintain an angle. 1000/6000 is next to useless. You will never reprofile an edge with that, or even do any real sharpening that is more than realigning or polishing an existing edge.
If you're stuck with it, or just dedicated to the idea of trying it:
-Get coarser stones for sharpening.
-Keep a wetstone wet. Soak it like instructed, rinse as needed.
-Keep a wetstone clean. I like Bar Keepers Friend and a scrub brush, sponge or Brillo pad for cleaning sharpening stuff.

Sharpie the bevel.

^This, and it's a good idea for beginners, no matter what the sharpening method.
What he means is to color the edge with a marker. That way when you sharpen, the marker gets removed, you can see where the edge is actually touching the stone, and adjust your sharpening angle, accordingly.

Most people would be much better off just getting a Spyderco Sharpmaker. It's a lot easier to use.
I've got all kinds of stuff-old carborundum/silicon carbide, ceramic, and diamond sharpeners, wetstones on plates for the EdgePro, steels, strops and polishing compounds, pads and sandpaper, all that crap. The Sharpmaker is what I use the vast majority of the time.

 

[alpg88]

It takes skills and practice to get the angle right by hand, not everyone can do it, not everyone has needed skills and practiced long enough. I know quite a few people that think they know how to sharpen knives, yet by looking at end result, only few actually do it right, For someone with no such skills, you need a sharpener that secures the blade at proper angle, and a stones are moving in a fixed plane, like lansky sharpener, or similar. 1000\6000 grit is too fine, it will polish the edge, but to sharpen you need several stones with coarser grit.
I'm not gonna lie, i can sharpen a small blade, like my multitools blades, and small knives, by hand with a simple stone, but for anything bigger, and for something that requires more work than just sharpen a bit dull blade, i use lansky type. I'm not sharpening knives often enough to get to the skill level of doing it right by hand alone for large blades.
Machetes are the hardest to sharpen, one would think machetes do not need to sharpened as good as knives, so it should be easy, but reality is they are often more than just dull, not uncommon for the edge to be bent, and require a lot more work, not such a common issue with machetes that have 1/4in thick blades, but i managed to destroy one like that too. it was a parang from condor. I accidentally hit a rock and had to re bevel part of the blade.

 

[LRJ88]

Just because i keep seeing it so often and to hopefully stop it spreading more here; it's whetstone, not wetstone or wet stone. Just because it's a whetstone doesn't mean it has to be wet, especially not with just water, whet has nothing to do with the state of the stone being covered in liquid or not.

Whet means sharpen in this context and thus whetstone means sharpening/honing stone, the same way that you whet your appetite before a meal.

I'm not sorry if i ruffled a few feathers with this, i just hope that this might kill more of the self-proclaimed professors in the making before someone new tries to spread wisdom such as "it's called a wetstone because you put water on it", "it's a blood groove because if you stab someone without it the blade will be stuck from the suction", or the evergreen "a knife will break right away unless it has a full-tang handle".

 

[xxo]

+1 on the Spyderco Sharpmaker - I use it on most everything, all sorts of knives, scissors even axes and machetes if they are not too dull or dinged up, I use a belt sander if they are.

 

[bykfixer]

Just because i keep seeing it so often and to hopefully stop it spreading more here; it's whetstone, not wetstone or wet stone. Just because it's a whetstone doesn't mean it has to be wet, especially not with just water, whet has nothing to do with the state of the stone being covered in liquid or not.

Whet means sharpen in this context and thus whetstone means sharpening/honing stone, the same way that you whet your appetite before a meal.

I'm not sorry if i ruffled a few feathers with this, i just hope that this might kill more of the self-proclaimed professors in the making before someone new tries to spread wisdom such as "it's called a wetstone because you put water on it", "it's a blood groove because if you stab someone without it the blade will be stuck from the suction", or the evergreen "a knife will break right away unless it has a full-tang handle".

My daddy called his "the rubbing stone". He used it dry but his daddy used oil on it when he owned it.

I used to watch older folks sharpen their knife at my job on rainy days when there wasn't much work taking place. Some would methodically swipe back and forth in a push/pull motion flipping the blade with each stroke. Some would rotate the blade across the stone in a circular rubbing motion. Some would stroke one side a while, then the other. I cannot say there was a right or wrong way because they all had razor sharp edges. They'd hand me the knife and a pencil and say "sharpen the pencil" just to watch me slice through it like an apple and laugh at me. See, I was used to a fairly dull edge at that point in life. If it could cut through steak that was plenty sharp for me.

One day when it was time my daddy showed me how to edge a knife so it was sharp but also 'held' an edge. To this day I do not call that whetstone he gave me a whetstone. I call it a sharpening stone. We also had a steak knife sharpener in the kitchen when I was a lad. A round sharpening stone mounted to a cabinet door and you rotated a handle and place the knife onto the v-groove in the center. Even junky steak knives could be made razor sharp if you chose to. We had cheap stainless cutlery that my daddy kept plenty sharp.

 

[Olumin]

I dont bother with a stone. I got put off from that when I had to grind lathe turning tools made of HSS for hours on stones by hand in watchmaking school. Absolute PITA.
I use a fixed angle sharpener. I recommend getting something like the worksharp precision adjust. Less headaches. and cramps.

 

[kerneldrop]

The key to sharpening on a whetstone is to practice daily for decades...once you build that foundation you can then finally learn how to sharpen on a whetstone.

The secret is honing....if you hone then you won't need to sharpen but about every 6+ months if it's a daily used kitchen knife.
If you don't hone then you must sharpen often.

I send my Japanese kitchen knives to Jason at Traditional Sharpening. I hone before every use.

I sharpen my pocket knives on a paper wheel and/or belt sander.

Stay away from these modern super steels. The harder the steel the harder it is to sharpen.

 

[bykfixer]

Agreed. That's what my pop showed me. A few minutes a couple times a year is all I need to do, but I don't use the knife a whole lot. If I did I'm sure it would need a touch up more often.

 

[JimIslander]

I am brutal on my knives, especially at work. I cut into many 50 pound sacks of salt every day. I hone my knives every day on a nice metal steel, and at home I use a ceramic steel. Both work just fine. When necessary, I can sharpen on a stone, but I also have a Work Sharp powered sharpener and Work Sharp diamond stones. I grew up using Arkansas stones, so that skill was learned at a very young age (probably started at age 8 or so). But it sure is nice to power up the Work Sharp and restore an awesome edge after trashing the edges of my knives.

 

[Monocrom]

No real trick to it. Just takes practice. Be sure to properly clean off the stone if you want it to last.