Scary Sharp is well, scary.

[gsmittle]

I had a gift card to Woodcraft last week, so I bought one of those nice heavy flat granite blocks for sharpening. I tried it out with a cheap Stanley chisel, and after working up from 400 to 2000 grit I had a nice mirror finish on the bevel.

It nicked off a little thumbnail and neatly sliced off a little bit of skin, too.

Wow. I can't wait to try a good chisel....

g.

[maxparot]

Scary sharp works well no doubt, but I use a float plate and wetdry paper to keep my 1000/6000 combination Japanese water stone flat.
I've found the water stone to take the edge my tools to the next level.

[gsmittle]

Scary sharp works well no doubt, but I use a float plate and wetdry paper to keep my 1000/6000 combination Japanese water stone flat.
I've found the water stone to take the edge my tools to the next level.

You mean they can get even sharper???

g.

[onedash]

I sharpened one of my kitchen knives this weekend with a pretty good electric sharpener with a leather strop/polish wheel for the final and that always gets it pretty sharp but I took it out to the garage and finished it off with a buffing wheel and fine polishing compound and I shaved hair right off my arm. i think thats the sharpest I ever got it. Ive never been to good sharpening anything by hand....

[final_t]

A while back I bought the 10,000 grit WS from Woodcraft - very nice for only $20. I generally use the 6000/8000 pair I have to keep things tuned up.

I've tried the SS system but had a hard time finding a good supply of paper and keeping it sticking down. When I did get results they were pretty good, but for me, water stones work better.

Find a system that works for you - SS, water stones, oil stones, or a Tormek-like system - and stick with it.

Now you need to get some hand planes!

[maxparot]

Knife blades with curved edges are very hard to get consistantly ultra-sharp. I've been sharpening kitchen knives, pocket, hunting and fishing knives since I was 10 years old. I've used flat wet stones from aluminum oxide to Ark. reds and whites. I've used ceramic rods and diamond rods. I consider myself well above average at achieving the desired results. Some machines do a fair job but nothing can compare to the edge you can obtain on a straight edged knife blade or tool done with the right jigs on flat high grade water stones using proper techniques. My chisels, planes and spoke shaves are dangerously sharp tools that can take tranlucent fine shavings off of a board with surprisingly little effort.

[25]

<snip>I've tried the SS system but had a hard time finding a good supply of paper and keeping it sticking down. </snip>

I've found that some photo spray adhesive works really well. It keeps it down but also allows you to still pull it up when your done.

The scary sharp method also works really well for flattening the back of heat sinks for processors . I would like to get some high grit stones eventually since those grits of sandpaper are the ones that I seem to go through the most.