Sharpening on a budget! We're trying to save you money and get you a sharp edge.

[@robertdavis171]

Thanks! I either forgot or never saw some of this. Thanks again.

[@nadm]

Thanks for coming as always.

[@thiago.assumpcao]

I several good Japanese stones like Kuromaku, King and Naniwa but I love to experiment with low budget options. Some tips I have gathered over the years. A large heavy brick is an excellent stone holder, put some cloth above and below. Doesn't look fancy but works just as well as a professional stone holder. Don't over flatten stones or you waste stone for nothing. If no light passes under a ruler stone is still good enough to shave hair or cut paper towel. If light is passing under the ruler you need some way to flaten stones. Sic Carbide powder on glass works amazing and is pretty cheap. King 1000 is a great stone for edge maintenance but if your are repairing a badly damaged knife, chips, broken tip, fully blunt knife you will destroy your 1000 stone pretty quick. A coarse stone will be much better in this situations. King 300 or Cheap Sic Carbide stones 120/320 stones are good to set the apex and then you move to medium grit stones. Slate conditioned on 120 grit SiC powder is an excellent finishing stone. Leaves a finish about 6K on a couple slate stones I tested. Slate grit varies a lot so maybe your result will be different but they are ultra cheap. It seems easy to get a good result on them if you know how to condition, one of the best edges I ever got was from the first trash Slate I found on the street. Hanging Denim strop with Solingen diamond paste leaves a 6-8K grit finish. Also an excellent finish at very low cost. You can make your own strop for free with worn out pants, rope and scrap wood. Slurry from the 1K stone can be used instead of abrasive paste and resulting edge will look nothing like a 1K stone finish. Grits for strops don't work the same way as for stones, edge will be much finer than what people would expect.

[@nadm]

Yes sir. We will definitely use the variety of these things but we were just trying to do it as cheap as possible for this video. I definitely appreciate your comment so other people can see some inexpensive solutions.

[@larryjohnson3581]

Great show as always Greg. It doesn’t hurt to take a step back and focus on technique.

[@nadm]

You know more people need to just have a stone around and sharpen their knives on Sunday.

[@PINKWOMAN88]

sharpening knives with easy techniques, this is what I do at home

[@nadm]

Thank you.

[@codyholland5138]

I was just using a couple King stones(220-g45, 1000kd) last night on some cheap paring knives. They're hard to beat for what they cost.

[@nadm]

They really are great. I mean I went in skeptical the first time I use them but they really do work and they don’t cost a lot.

[@dorothyhansen4374]

I am a professional cook and recent subscriber. While I do sharpen my own knives, I have never had a leather strop. Please explain the difference of stropping to honing on rods.

[@nadm]

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[@nadm]

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[@nadm]

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[@nadm]

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[@nadm]

I wasn’t trying to avoid answering you. All of these videos. Well, if you understand. The honing rod is simply to realign your edge. It is not to sharpen. It does not remove metal. There are some rods that are sharpening rods. After you watch these videos, you will understand more. I asked me more questions after, so we have a common place of understanding.

[@_BLANK_BLANK]

I personally like to just use a towel and get it slightly damp. It works very well for stopping slippage. I use a stone holder obviously. But i put a folded towel under it.

[@nadm]

I agree that there are many different levels of basic. I do like a Stone holder. But we were trying to go as low fi as possible.

[@_BLANK_BLANK]

@@nadm oh yeah. I get it. I was just saying thats my normal little setup.

[@dadadadave100]

Kings are tried and true

[@nadm]

And affordable

[@Mpafanai46]

Like this video

[@nadm]

Thank you for that

[@derekturner3272]

I found years ago, that if I let my soaking stones air dry on their side, I get far less cracking. Not sure why, but I've been doing it for 5 years now and none of my newer stones have cracked from drying. I will soak my stones and leave them in the water for days at a time, several times a month. I typically sharpen 5-20 times a month(I make and sell straight razors), so they are getting soaked and drying 30--50 times a year. That's a lot of use/abuse and to have none crack in 5 years seems good enough anecdotal evidence to suggest its' worth a try.

[@nadm]

Thank you for that. That's awesome to hear from your experience.

[@cavemandanwilder5597]

Out of curiosity, what happens if you store your sharpening stones in water? You wouldn’t have to wait for it to soak, but because I’ve never seen it done I’m assuming it’s somehow bad for the stones.

[@nadm]

There are many stones that can be stored all the time in moisture. It’s called permasoak. Many people do this but if they dry out the crack. Not all stones can do this, so that’s trial and error. That’s why you join to form so you can ask those questions.

[@MrBayeasy]

As NADM said it can be done, however know that if you do use stones that accept that method they do tend to wear a bit faster as they soften a bit being permanently soaked. So dont be surprised if you get a lot of slurry when you sharpen, or notice the stones are beginning to dish faster than usual. Typically this technique is done by professional hand sharpeners who need their stones to be ready immediately but do not prefer splash and go stones. Its a neat little thing but for the average person it might be preferable to just soak prior because it only takes like 5-10 mins, and as NADM mentioned you are taking away some versatility, as if the stones ever dry they will crack so they must always be stored and transported wet which is a bit more inconvenient if you dont have the space. I personally only know of 2 people that do permasoak and both of them are professional sharpeners.

[@nadm]

@@MrBayeasy that’s a good point about the wear and tear

[@nadm]

Thank you

[@TylrVncnt]

Also another concern is even for stones that *can* be permasoaked, the growth of mold and bacteria in the water that inevitably happens is a problem, to say the least.. (I am speaking from experience..) Some people avoid stagnant water by keeping them in a toilet (the clean part up top of course!) but this is also a little inconvenient for me personally. Also some ppl add a half cap full of bleach periodically, tho I’d rather not have to do that

[@robertmunguia250]

Why not just run it through a belt with compound? Oh yes on a budget. Sorry

[@nadm]

You are correct! On a budget.

[@overthehillsandfaraway7104]

Best buy is king 1/6k and tojiro dp. Aint no better bang for buck out there in terms of stones knives for entry

[@nadm]

Thank you for that.