There are several differences between waterstones and ceramic stones. A waterstone must be placed in water and allowed to soak for 10-15 minutes to allow it to absorb sufficient moisture. A ceramic stone also requires water, but only needs to soak in water for 3-5 minutes. A ceramic stone is harder than a waterstone, so it will sharpen your knives more quickly. A ceramic stone will last longer and will not develop valleys or grooves as easily as a waterstone.
Gregg wrote:"sharpening compound" as in a lapping compound?
Or is that something different?
handofcod wrote:Depends on how blunt it is and what type of steel is used in the blade. On a bevel edge the strop will eventually wear down the shoulder and it will become convex but it will still sharpen the edge in the meantime. Most of my pocket knives are like this and it works just fine - even on S30V steel which is pretty hard. It takes maybe 5 minutes of stropping to bring it back to where it will 'pop' some arm hair in half if you drag it lightly through your arm hair (I'm a hairy bugger so this might be more difficult for others). If the edge is more spoon than knife then no amount of stropping will get you a good edge. You have to remove a good deal of material to reform the cutting edge and that takes a coarse stone or a sand belt etc.
Chickenhawk wrote:Can't call myself an expert at doing it, but I find it too easy to accidentally ruin your edge with the stone and undo the good work you just did.
lole wrote:A mate of mine is a chef and has Global knives which are Japanese (?).
He uses the ceramic stuff, not sure if that's more of a cooking scene thing or if anyone does "hunting" knifes is these metals too?
bawoog wrote:Thanks guys.
I think the leather strop and sharpening compound sounds like one worth trying.
Gunna give that a go
chilliman wrote:hi bawoog
understand that a strop and compound won't sharpen a dull knife - they are for finishing off an already sharpened knife.
stones and steel put a fine lip on the sharp edge, the strop is used to straighten or realign the cutting edge.
handofcod wrote:Have to disagree with you there. It's true that if there is no edge geometry left at all you won't have a great time using a strop but it's no different to using a belt sander (it'll just take a lot longer).
I don't ever use a stone unless I'm sharpening a family member's kitchen knife and they've run the edge down to a spoon. Stropping will definitely sharpen a dull knife. You just have to use the correct compound, in my case the black compound (not sure what micron) is plenty aggressive enough to sharpen a blunt knife.