Knife sharpening is one of the manly skills. As such, many don't know how or refuse to invest the time and effort to learn. Yes, you may also have a small investment in materials. So lay off the concert circuit or golf course for at least one weekend.

I have a Lansky, someplace. I use an Edgepro for most of my sharpening. I like it because it uses larger stones than the Lansky. There are also books on the subject. I did like "Razor Edge Sharpening", and was glancing at it in my bookshelf this afternoon. You need to know what you're doing to manage a good job.

There is a mail order place, Seattle edge (dot com) where you can ship your knives and he'll do the dirty work for you, if you please. He gets rave reviews over on the sig forum.

One of the first steps to take is acquire a good magic marker, the permanent kind. Don't believe the permanent part, it grinds right off! Then make a line about an eighth inch wide right down the cutting edge of both sides. A good magnifier helps a bunch. Then take a few strokes and look at your line. It tells you where you're taking metal off. Anything above the first 1/16th of an inch means you're wasting your time, effort, and the knife material. You only sharpen the edge, nothing else.

So the next time you're around a "woodsman" kind of guy, ask him if he'd let you look at his sheath knife. Its a reasonable request, and most are proud of their equpiment. But if you see stone marks a half inch up away from the edge, it tells you something and its not all good!

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Dick Burg