seems like everyone has there own method for sharping knifes, some ways dont work for me as good,have different sharpners, the only one that works even satisfactory for me is a big hand stone about 3 1/2 by 6in. with coarse and fine side, using lots of WD 40, some recommend when sharping to move the blade across the stone like your trying to carve off a peice of stone,i pull the blade the across the stone th other way

Wash the stone after each use with soap and water. Let dry and use light machine oil instead of WD-40, keeps the stones cleaner and working better.

If you pull the blade across the stone it will leave a feathered edge. To remove it you need to push it across the stone.

You might also use a medium hard Arkansaw stone, a hard Arkansaw stone and a black hard Arkansaw stone. Each one in turn will make your knife a little sharper. Eventually sharp enough to shave with.

3-in-one oil works just as good.

Garryowen

Is that some kind of reference to Hilary?

Crank the window of the pickup down about half way and run a knife across it, like it is a steel. Like you are trying to cut some off. Run it about 30 time and check. It will tune one up.
If it needs more give it some more. Try to run the same angle on both sides.
MJM

i use two stones: one a gray arkansas for the first time on duller blades. second one: a hard "white" arkansas stone afterwards to finish the edge. finally a leather strop to put a razors' edge on the blade.

once i get a blade where i want it, i seldom use the gray stone again.

i use 3-in-1 oil on all of my stones. always pull the blade across the stone as if you are trying to shave a thin piece off of the stone, making sure your angle isn't extreme. on the leather strop, use exactly the opposite motion. this system works for me and keeps my knives as sharp as a scalpel.

the grump.

The toughest part of sharpening is keeping a constant angle. With practice it comes to you but you WILL screw up some edges learning. I learned, and taught my sons using older, cheaper knives. You might want to try the kitchen paring knife before you go to your good skinning knife

Another option is a Lansky or Gatco sharpening system. They use different grit stones and have a mount that keeps the stone at the correct angle to the blade. I've got one that I used for a while after my good Arkansas stone got dropped and broken. They work great.

I bought the Lansky system years ago and use it on all my knives, seems to do an excellent job and the edges last a long time.

All i use is a diamond stone. Drag the blade across as if you are shaving off the stone. The angle is the deal breaker! If ya got it right, you are in buisness! If not...oh well! Those "kits" that hold the blade at the proper angle are great to get ya started, but after a while you can just look at the edge and tell.....shane

i tried a lansky with the bracket or whatever that holds it at the correct angle, i could not get even close to sharp and took back for a refund, nothing worked for me except the method i first described, maybe an expensive dunn knife sharping system might work, you must have a expensive knife to skin 30 beaver and 2 coon without resharping

I use an indian stone (fine) with tap magic oil and then run it across a ceramic tube from a metal halide bulb i got at work. seems to work real well for me and my blades. oh and as stated above in an earlier post cleaning the fine metal particles from the stone is a must for me in my shop as well.

Just remanber that the diamonds on the Lankeys can remove allot of metal very quietly , most of us need only use a steel or ceramic from time to time to keep the knife sharp

sharpen some knifes today, how can you test to see if they are real sharp?

Shave the hair off the back of your hand!!

I use the 2 wheels you mount on a bench grinder. It's fast, easy, does a good job, and I'm lazy. I have this set up in my trapping shed.

I think a good method to test the sharpness of a knife is to lay it on your thumb nail at right angles then try to drag it sideways across the nail with light pressure. If it grabs the nail it is probably plenty sharp enough. If parts of the blade slide over the nail, then it is probably too blunt. I often make my knives shaving sharp as the missing patches of hair on my arm will testify...but for all practical purposes the thumb nail test seems good enough to me.

While it is probably best to wipe your blade across a stone with the sharp edge leading (in other words as if you were trying to take a slice off the stone), I don't think it is a good idea to do this with a worn or 'bumpy' stone (or a rock from the river bed) because the irregularities may catch on the edge and ruin it. When the stone is worn I 'drag' the edge backwards over it. The knife still gets sharpened it seems.

It has been suggested that as you get to the end of the sharpening process, the last strokes should be done with less and less pressure to get the best edge. I can see the sense in that.

I generally will use any old sharpening stone, although I do have diamond and Arkansas as well as a selection of carborundum. I use a sharpening steel quite often to very good effect. And comparatively recently a buddy sent us a 'Tri Angle Sharpmaker' kit which works quite well for touching up a blade.

Some folks like to use fine wet and dry abrasive paper laid on something soft like a foam mouse pad. The blade is laid fairly flat and dragged back over the abrasive paper with a moderate downward pressure. This is meant to produce a superior convex edge although I've never really tested the difference.

I heard of a professional hunter who liked to use a file to sharpen his knife. So I guess all sorts of methods will work well enough.

Good steel properly heat treated should shave the hair off your arm even after chopping through branches. If it shaves before but not after then you either have a thin little wire on top of the edge that's doing the cutting or a blade that's not very good quality. Pull the blade at a 45 degree angle across a piece of brass and you can feel the wire edge layed over with a finger nail if that's the problem.
Lanskey type sharpeners leave a heck of a wire edge on my knives. It takes quite a bit of strope work on a leather belt to get it off which results in an incredibly sharp and durable edge on my good knives. My cheap ones will get real sharp but they won't hold an edge worth a hoot.

i got sick of it all, and now go to the local knife shop and they sharpen em for $2 each, toa razor sharp edge that lasts..
I steel em a couple times, before taking em back..