New knife sharpening system!!! HF 1x30

A preview of the new sharpening system and it’s capabilities!

[@CanadianMapleleaf]

Love that set up brother!

[@richardhenry1969]

I have one myself. Mine didn’t have any issues. I have a set of belts and a leather strop I got from eBay.

[@richardhenry1969]

Well worth the money. Especially when you see how much the Ken onion worksharp cost. This is capable of so much. The only thing holding you back is you. Lol. I subed hope you make a few cool things. I just got a bunch of 1974 car springs. So it's American 5160. I wanna make a bowie and a sword. Plus I plan on making a few destruction tests. Just to see what 5160 is capable of and I wanna prove a bunch of the knife assclowns wrong. Price doesn't make a knife good. Stainless is for people that don't uses knives. Real people use spring steel. Because it doesn't chip. Stainless doesn't rust but it's hard to sharpen and it's brittle. Most knife steels are gimmicks. Sorry went off on a rant. Just I don't believe knives should cost $200 for a fixed blade. Don't get me wrong sheath can be expensive. But folded kydex isn't more then $40 worth of work. This is a topic I'm passionate about.

[@ezramel]

i think you did every thing right. once you get your belts this knife will be cutting like a razzor.

[@jimchallender4616]

What grit belts do you recommend

[@AzTurboMini]

Just a little knowledge of what I've learned along the way. The motor on these turn 2x too fast to safely sharpen blades without overheating the apex of the blade. Having said that, anytime you see sparks flying is sure sign you've done that. You need to make really quick passes and use very little pressure to keep this from happening. Sure you can get a razor sharp edge but if you overheat the edge of the knife it'll never hold an edge unless it's reprofiled into good steel and resharpened. Believe me, I learned the hard way. Also, stropping on a buffing wheel is a bad idea IMHO. You only need leather and very little of it. Just enough to knock the burr off. Good luck. 👍

[@easternadventures4254]

Thanks for the comments. The motor is fast. Most use a dc variable speed. This is an upgrade I plan to do. You will not overheat sharpening unless your using unreasonable pressure. It is too fast to put a bevel on without dipping and cooling though. I strip by hand has well but love the belt. Do you know how makers like Bark River and LT Wright knock off the bur on every model they sell? It isn’t by hand on a leather strop!

[@AzTurboMini]

@@easternadventures4254 (a lot) of knife makers don't even use belt grinders to sharpen their knifes in gear of overheating the blade. I use a leather stroping belt with very little pressure and white compound. It takes me 10-20 seconds to take a burr off and have a razor sharp but good toothy edge that holds it's edge. Good luck

[@michaelvanbuskirk8845]

​@AzTurboMini And some do. J Neilson uses a belt grinder to sharpen and he's a master bladesmith. You just have to know what you are doing.

[@michaelvanbuskirk8845]

True what people are saying about the HF 1x30 turning too fast but with very light pressure and keeping the blade constantly moving you will not overheat the edge. I have had one for years but I'm going to buy the Rikon variable speed 1x30 as it's far better. It's $250 but worth it as it will cost you about $200 to upgrade the Harbor Freight 1x30 to a DC sewing machine motor with new wheels.

[@thechumpsbeendumped.7797]

My main concern with this method is overheating the steel and destroying the temper.

[@danielmacdonald5779]

to harm the temper it would need to get too hot to hold

[@thechumpsbeendumped.7797]

@@danielmacdonald5779 That’s true but you don’t hold the blade at the edge where it’s hottest and by the time the heat dissipates through the blade to where your fingers are the temp at the edge is considerably higher. Whether that gets high enough above 200°C a lot of steels are tempered to to detrimentally change the hardness depends on the particular steel. I’ve sharpened a few cheaper blades with a 1x30 and got a visually good looking result but I’m reluctant to use this method on knives that cost hundreds of pounds just in case. For those, I use either a whetstone sharpener or a fixed geometry sharpener with diamond plates, because I know that although it’s slower I can get hair whittling results really easily, especially on the second one.

[@bigjsknives]

I have the KO with the blade grinding attachment but sometimes feel it's too small for when i do mower blades/axes. It does work on them but i like how you have that sander set up. Really makes me want to stop at HF on the way home and pick one up. Another good vid!!!

[@easternadventures4254]

Check out curry custom cutlery on here. He reviews 4 different 1x30s. You can also swap the motor for a variable speed dc motor to slow down the belt speed. For the price and capabilities I don’t know if there are any options better!