Portable sharpening kit

[Michael Richwine]

I travel to music festivals and contests, and do repairs on location as well as selling fiddles.  I hate it when my knives start to dull, but I'm not going to carry my waterstones with me. Too much of a mess, and no room in a 10 x 10 foot Ez-UP.

 

While looking for an alternative, I decided to try a Spyderco "Triangle Sharpmaker".  It's one of those angled ceramic rod sharpeners with triangular rods in medium and fine grits.  It works surprisingly well! Once I got the bevels on  my knives reshaped a little bit, I was able to get a very sharp edge, very easily. More easily than with my water stones. 

 

By very sharp, I mean, for example, that my old Swiss Army knife can cut a free-hanging hair, shave curls off one of my very fine hairs (.0015 - .002 diameter), and split a piece of paper (shave a curl off without going through). That's about as sharp as I was able to get my straight razor when I used one.

 

The kit is pretty well engineered, and in a pinch it will work like a regular whetstone, so I can touch up my chisels and planes on the road as well. I'm going to keep the kit by my bench in the shop, because it's ideal for knives.  I'll probably keep doing my plane blades and chisels on the water stones while I'm in the shop.

 

The stones can be set at 30 or 40 degrees included angle.  For a strong edge I shape the bevel at 30 degrees, and then add a micro bevel at 40 degrees. For the finest edge, I just sharpen all the way at 30.

[Christopher Jacoby]

Very cool, thanks for the tip!

[Johnmasters]

I travel to music festivals and contests, and do repairs on location as well as selling fiddles.  I hate it when my knives start to dull, but I'm not going to carry my waterstones with me. Too much of a mess, and no room in a 10 x 10 foot Ez-UP.

 

While looking for an alternative, I decided to try a Spyderco "Triangle Sharpmaker".  It's one of those angled ceramic rod sharpeners with triangular rods in medium and fine grits.  It works surprisingly well! Once I got the bevels on  my knives reshaped a little bit, I was able to get a very sharp edge, very easily. More easily than with my water stones. 

 

By very sharp, I mean, for example, that my old Swiss Army knife can cut a free-hanging hair, shave curls off one of my very fine hairs (.0015 - .002 diameter), and split a piece of paper (shave a curl off without going through). That's about as sharp as I was able to get my straight razor when I used one.

 

The kit is pretty well engineered, and in a pinch it will work like a regular whetstone, so I can touch up my chisels and planes on the road as well. I'm going to keep the kit by my bench in the shop, because it's ideal for knives.  I'll probably keep doing my plane blades and chisels on the water stones while I'm in the shop.

 

The stones can be set at 30 or 40 degrees included angle.  For a strong edge I shape the bevel at 30 degrees, and then add a micro bevel at 40 degrees. For the finest edge, I just sharpen all the way at 30.

Here is a picture:

http://www.sharpeningsupplies.com/Spyderco-Triangle-Sharpmaker-P294C0.aspx

[finnfinnviolin]

Spyderco make amazing sharpening stones, I recently bought a slip stone from them and it cuts insanely fast but it very fine. Similar to hard Arkansas stone, more aggressive but a finer finish.

 

they make bench stones too, and you will never need to flatten them!

[Mat Roop]

Here is the training video...