Thread: Eggington shepherds sharpening steel

Some of what's been mentioned.
The pen thing is a Buck knives brand I bought my son.
The diamond steels break in with a little wear

Paddle strop with red or Green rouge.

Home made strop, leather and rouge off eBay

the two on left ruin as many knives as stainless steel benches...if used wrong.... the one on right and the bottom one are great....the bottom blue one almost identicle to mine.LOL. grrr for first photo...you posted 2nd while I typing.

Originally Posted by Micky Duck

mate...try using steel away from you down onto table and stroke knife down and in towards you...a long steel and short knife is easiest...you can LOOK DOWN onto steel/knife and keep angle constant much easier this way.
my ceramic rods sit in wooden block at 25 and 30 degrees??? they look like two cigarettes.

What I meant was getting the angle right for any individual knife as in 17deg, 20deg 25deg. I can work out 90deg and 45deg but below 45 I can't workout. Also I'm far sighted so I can't see the blades edge flat on the steel to determine the blades correct angle. I made a jig for my whetstones that I can position at any angle, all I do is get the blades angle stated by the manufacturer and set the jig accordingly and start sharpening while holding the knife at 90deg, which is easy. What I could do with is those blade angle guides.

yes all good...stoning you definately better off with correct angle,steeling is less sensitive but the more constant the better I believe.
I have wee lanski set that set angles...I get it out and use it about once every 2 years.

Various steels, coarse to fine.
You don't need them all, this is an interest and opportunistic to buy an sale etc
A nice fine steel is all you need if you can hand sharpen on a fine Aluminium Carbide stone.
Some mass produced stainless knives sharpen easily. But they have to have some quality and characteristics.
Cheap supermarket kitchen knives are hard and brittle.
F.Dick, Victorinox seem user friendly to me. Some quality brands are harder steel with good edge retention once you get there.
Some customs like Carbon Steel are user friendly , some are of a higher hardness.

Originally Posted by CBH Australia

Attachment 190038
Some of what's been mentioned.
The pen thing is a Buck knives brand I bought my son.
The diamond steels break in with a little wear

I got a diamond steel but I find it too abrasive for some knives. Have the Gerber pocket sharpener, its good, would love another one. Also have a strop, well its an old belt coated in cutting paste that I jam the buckle in a door, pull tight and work away, works great. I do find using a knife's leather sheath works ok as a strop.
I do have a smith sharpening system similar a Lansky system but don't like it, probably will put it the buy and sell.

Originally Posted by Micky Duck

the two on left ruin as many knives as stainless steel benches...if used wrong.... the one on right and the bottom one are great....the bottom blue one almost identicle to mine.LOL. grrr for first photo...you posted 2nd while I typing.

Yes, I read your post. I'm supposed to be digging out some gear for Easter trip.
I will never wear out the gear I have accumulated. But I am capable of misplacing it. Unless I lose it I should refrain from buying more.��
There are Lanky sharpeners and copies. There are heavy duty types like the Scary Sharp made in NZ.

Then there is crack sticks, Warthog and others.
They all work and are good for those who can't master handsharpening.
Both knives and sharpeners need to be decent quality to be any good, even for recreational use.
A $30 steel might not be half as good as a $50 one, but like scopes after the that the improvement might not be proportional to the outlay but if you appreciate good gear you will see the value.

today I paid princely sum of $6 for a bone handled sheffeld steel in 2nd hand shop...didint need it ,but couldnt resist...2 others are still there with $12 price tags.

Well $6 won't blow the budget hopefully. Probably small enough to keep in a field kit. Another for the collection.
Being older it's gotta be better value than what a $6 Chinese steel would be.

nah its in the knife block at home...my field kit has plenty enough in it already,cambrian rabbiters steels in both sheath knives too.

1000-6000grit stone by spartan siting on a jig I made to set angle of stone, not blade. I made a mistake in previous post, I don't hold knife at 90deg its horizontal at 180deg.
Gerber and Smith pocket sharpeners. Gerber is good on knifes, Smith is too abrasive for knives but good for machetes' and axes.
Steels top to bottom. Eggington. Knifekut which seems too coarse for the knife it came with unless its user error and don't remember brand of diamond steel. Find Eggington better than Knifekut.
Baccarat 360 maybe 400-600grit diamond stone, makes quick work of reprofiling edges.
And my old leather belt strop.

Originally Posted by Three O'Three

What I meant was getting the angle right for any individual knife as in 17deg, 20deg 25deg. I can work out 90deg and 45deg but below 45 I can't workout. Also I'm far sighted so I can't see the blades edge flat on the steel to determine the blades correct angle. I made a jig for my whetstones that I can position at any angle, all I do is get the blades angle stated by the manufacturer and set the jig accordingly and start sharpening while holding the knife at 90deg, which is easy. What I could do with is those blade angle guides.

You don't néed to over complicate angles.

Put the knife on the stone at 90 degrees, tilt it halfway. Now you are at 45, half the angle again and start sharpening.

It really doesn't need to be super precise to get a razor sharp edge. Just sharpen until you get a burr, then strop or hone to remove the burr and you will have a sharp knife.

What ever angle you sharpen at you steel at. Ceramic steels are good but are brittle and don like being bashed around diamond steels are knife reackers and generally to coarse and strip the edge of your knife. You need to match your steel the knife ie low carbon soft stainless needs a fine steel and will be easy to sharpen but needs more steeling to maintain. A high carbon steel takes a bit more to sharpen and needs a coarser steel to push the edge back straight. Disadvantage of high carbon is it doesn't like to flex much and shatters easier. The small steels like the rabbiter/eggington are generally coarse and need to be rubbed down with a green scouring pad or wet and dry sand paper. The ultimate is to rub it down on your stone do it matches the stone. you can get away with a piece of stainless rod but they tend to be a bit soft and dent after awhile. Another option is to cut a full length one down if you have a few around the house

@country cuts "The small steels like the rabbiter/eggington are generally coarse and need to be rubbed down with a green scouring pad or wet and dry sand paper. "

That's what I always did to my steels when I was butchering