What's your favorite multi-purpose knife sharpener - update

I use diamond sharpening stones and water. I use these quite often for touching up HSS lathe tools after grinding (and wood working chisels).

https://www.dmtsharp.com/

I use the bench stones - and have sharpened Exacto blades with them. All using water as a lubricant.

They are a tad expensive though but I have yet to wear one out and they sharpen steel rapidly.

RknRusty wrote:I have plenty of stones and heavy duty sharpeners for hunting knives, chef knives, etc. What's a good one for small stuff like scissors, a paring knife, and even Exacto blades? I'm thinking one with small ceramic cross bars would do. I expected Target, Walmart, etc. would have plenty of choices, but even the store shelf-stockers can't find one for me.
Dull Rusty

If your list of stones includes a fine Arkansas flat oil stone, why not use that. I would add a strop and some green (aluminum oxide and chromium oxide) sharpening compound. Works for my carving tools and knives (including X-Acto). The only difference between sharpening hunting knives, carving knives, and scissors is the angle.

George

I played with straight razors for a few years.  I have a stack of really nice hones, some lapping films with a polished marble tile for a lapping plate, as well as some cheap "junk" hones.  

I LOVE my coticules, I have 3 "big" (they are actually normal size as hones go) and a couple slurry stones.  

My green "La Verte" which is reserved for razors.  It is rather slow without slurry, and moderately fast with slurry, and does not self slurry, which is typical of "La Verte".  

My yellow coticule is not identified to a vein, is quite fast and self-slurrying, and even faster with heavy slurry.  I keep the yellow in the kitchen.  It is so fast on water that it is difficult to hone razors on.  Using mineral oil tames this stone considerably.

Last of these is a blue "Belgian Blue Whetstone" (BBW) that also resides in the kitchen.  The BBW was purchased for honing hobby and tool blades, but I have been just using it on kitchen knives.  It can produce the same quality of edge as the other two coticules.  It is almost as fast as the green "La Verte"

Compared to my "Smith's" Arkansas any of these coticules are faster and produce a better edge with less effort.  My Arkansas does not get love, especially since it is slightly messy as an oilstone.  The coticules can be switched between oil and water since they are non-porous.

My most expensive stone is a rather fast synthetic, a Naniwa Chosera 1000 (green) that I use for bevel setting, and removing nicks from kitchen knives.  It is also huge compared to anything else I have.

I have the expected assortment of cheap, and slightly less cheap, aluminum oxide hones.  

I have lapping film, the less expensive aluminum oxide on Mylar film (as opposed to diamond on Mylar).  This gets used with water (add a drop or two of dishsoap to a cup of water) on a polished marble tile.  A piece of paper can be used under to allow a little "give" making honing a little easier.  The water will adhere the paper and film to the tile so nothing will move after the first few strokes.  For effective creation of a polished edge this is the stuff, but I had little pleasure using it (largely since I was using an less complete set of instructions).  The 0.3 micron grade is not very necessary, even for shaving, 1 micron is incredibly fine.  The big secrets are the dish soap in a cup of water, and the paper.  The tile can be had from anywhere that sells polished stone tile (Lowes, Home Depot, etc) have it cut into 2 or three pieces.

As for iron and chrome oxide powders for a strop I have some.  I don't use them, although the results are pretty decent if that is what you have.  A plank of medium balsa is a good surface to charge with the powder.  A little mineral oil can be used to bind the powder.  The instructions I used were pretty simple, dip finger tip in oil, then dip in powder, then rub into the balsa wood.  For shaving they do refresh the edge, for hobby knives it would probably be a polishing step.  A cloth or leather strop can also be used.

My idea on honing oils, not very original actually, is mineral oil, sold in the pharmacy as a laxative, and odorless paraffin lamp oil.  The mineral oil is "heavy" and the lamp oil is "light" blending the two provides a good range of weights for cheap.  I just use a couple drops of mineral oil and add lamp oil if I think it needs it, although there are recipes for blending the oils in a bottle.

Since stropping was mentioned I recommend care.  Strops are really easy to damage, remember the spine remains in contact as you turn the blade over, the cutting edge always trails.  For razors making a paddle strop from a good quality 1x2 and gluing a piece of leather or chamois to one side and a piece of synthetic felt to the other makes a pretty good tool.  A hanging strop works better for knives as they are more steeply beveled compared to straight razors.

For honing scissors, and more steeply beveled knives, the hard part is controlling the angle.  This is where honing guides come in handy.  Guides can be very simple and very complex, and I need one for myself since I struggle with holding steady angles on knives.

Phil

I have never heard of cutting aluminum foil to sharpen scissors. I will have to try that some time.

Phil

pkrankow wrote:I have never heard of cutting aluminum foil to sharpen scissors.  I will have to try that some time.

Phil

Me either. I will try that, I have several nicked up scissors from cutting sandpaper and fine copper wire.

Phil, I'm going to have to reread your post later before replying.

I do have a fine and a soft Arkansas stone. The soft one mounted on a cedar plank is cracked across the middle, so I only use one end or the other for small knives. I also have some diamond stones like the ones Ian posted, but my son may be in possession of them right now.
Rusty

I use an 8x2" diamond coated steel hone for my knife sharpening and guitar fret leveling, and twin ceramic rods large and small for serrated blades. A famous knife maker here showed my friend a technique using buffing compound on a 6" buffing wheel to remove the burr raised when creating the edge.  Not recommended for the inexperienced but man does it make a very sharp edge!  My favorite sharpener to keep my kitchen knives sharp is a butterfly shaped tungsten sharpener that was a Caterpillar Co. advertising give away.  Here's a Chinese copy.

Ken Cook wrote:         ...for scissors, I fold up aluminum foil a few times and cut through it. I do this about 3 times and check it by cutting my tissue I use. I have a very cool pair of scissors here that I use. Nothing fancy, just sharp as could be. Ken

I'll add this to my growing list of Ken Cook "How-To" ideas. Damned if this doesn't work a charm! I bought some cheap foil that was worthless for kitchen use, so this morning, I got to thinking about what I'd read in this thread a couple of weeks ago. Next thing I know, I'm running to Holley with our kitchen scissors that were close to being replaced, to show her what I'd done Lol. They are razor sharp. Now every pair of scissors in the house are dangerous and I'm headed to the shop with the box of foil in my clutches.
Rusty

RknRusty wrote:

Ken Cook wrote:         ...for scissors, I fold up aluminum foil a few times and cut through it. I do this about 3 times and check it by cutting my tissue I use. I have a very cool pair of scissors here that I use. Nothing fancy, just sharp as could be. Ken

I'll add this to my growing list of Ken Cook "How-To" ideas. Damned if this doesn't work a charm! I bought some cheap foil that was worthless for kitchen use, so this morning, I got to thinking about what I'd read in this thread a couple of weeks ago. Next thing I know, I'm running to Holley with our kitchen scissors that were close to being replaced, to show her what I'd done Lol. They are razor sharp. Now every pair of scissors in the house are dangerous and I'm headed to the shop with the box of foil in my clutches.
Rusty

"running to Holley with our kitchen scissors.."    A "multi-purpose" knife sharpener to me, would have to be the angled-rod/carbide-bladed type which I use to form a tapered-edge on 1/8" sheet-balsa.



Below shows a guide that I made for the "coarse" (carbide) side to help keep the work-piece centered while removing heavy stock. I measured the gap in the sharpener.. and cut a pair of 1/32" ply strips to close the gap to 1/8". It was easy to do.. and scotch-tape holds them securely. The ceramic-rods can be used afterward to smooth the edge prior to sanding.



After you sharpen your scissors using Ken's tin-foil suggestion.. you can accomplish the same thing by locking them in a bench-vise to taper thicker balsa.. and set your own preferred angle to boot.



This eliminates a lot of sanding.. and also doesn't generate fine dust.

All good ideas, thanks Roddie. Hey this is turning into a great day.
If it was just warmer. I had to come in from the shop because the concrete floor was sucking the life out of my legs. Putting the finishing touches on my wing before Monokoting it.
Rusty

RknRusty wrote:All good ideas, thanks Roddie. Hey this is turning into a great day.
If it was just warmer. I had to come in from the shop because the concrete floor was sucking the life out of my legs. Putting the finishing touches on my wing before Monokoting it.
Rusty

Rusty, my wife uses "Hot-Hands" brand insoles in her snow-boots. I wonder if they'd help you with that? They worked wonders for her. She suffers from poor circulation. Do you have throw-rugs in the areas where you have to stand for long periods? That might help too.

I don't often think about it.. but the basement floor in my shop has anti-fatigue matting (interlocking squares). There's a LARGE braided-rug over that. Anything you can find to cushion would be a plus.

I have squooshey pads on top of a piece of 4'x8' vinyl flooring in front of the table. I have all sorts of Hothands but usually don't use the foot ones. I do have the toe and full sole warmers. On cold days I always smack an adhesive backed body warmer to the chest of my T-shirt. I raided the display at Walmart in September so I wouldn't run out all winter.

My knee has been touchy lately so I'm just being extra cautious. Never had a knee problem til it flared up last weekend and suddenly I was using a crutch. I don't want that to happen again.

Creaky Rusty

I use a flat file.

ARUP wrote:I use a flat file.

So did I up until today.