Your thoughts ... Bob Kramer Sharpening

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Cloudsmoker

Cloudsmoker

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In the few months I've been here, I've learned so much. Thank you. Seen most of the YouTube sharpening videos, including all the Usual Suspects (Murray Carter, Peter Nowlin, Mark Richmond, Jon Broida, Ryky, etc.) Curious what the pros think about Bob Kramer's sharpening technique - fast and swoopy? Lately, I find myself following that curve on the finer grits. Two pennies for your thoughts?
 
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I don't mind the Kramer swoopy technique. Sometimes ill use it just to mix things up a little.

Only on the higher grit stones 5000+ with very light pressure and edge leading strokes.
 
He was a pro sharpener for a bit. He seems to know what he is doing. The one I watched him sharpen cut pretty well afterward, but I don' t know how well the edge held up.
 
I sharpen in a very similar way, works for me. Most guys seem to "scrub" the edge on the stone but I sweep the blade along the entire edge. I hold an angle better that way.
As panda says, it's all about whatever works for you to get the results you are happy with.
 
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All the above. I also like to mix Bob’s curved style into other styles. It works for me, but I’m not the greatest sharpener and am always still “learning”.
Way before the wonderful and expensive world of knives, this was how I sharpened my knives. Even prior to seeing Bob’s videos. Back then there were no videos, or online. I just mimicked what I saw in old western movies when barbers etc were stropping their razors on leather belts.
 
Cloudsmoker said:
In the few months I've been here, I've learned so much. Thank you. Seen most of the YouTube sharpening videos, including all the Usual Suspects (Murray Carter, Peter Nowlin, Mark Richmond, Jon Broida, Ryky, etc.) Curious what the pros think about Bob Kramer's sharpening technique - fast and swoopy? Lately, I find myself following that curve on the finer grits. Two pennies for your thoughts?
Click to expand...

if you look at his vid it might not be obvious but its cut and edited. its looks like he's doing all that in like 30 seconds, but thats not the case.
he also seems to be using extremely high pressure to get **** done fast. its easy to crush/fold an edge doing that.

that being said. i think you should just try to get a blade sharp on your stone. you will find out what you have to do pretty fast. this is not rocket scinece.

- i have a type of hybrid sharpening method that i came up with myself. for coarse work i do like jon broida, like 90 degree angle back and forth over and over, because thats the fast way of removing metal on stones i found.
- then i try to make the bevel even/blended all over the blade. and then i do a sweep from edge to heel, trying to use the whole stone. back and forth, same sweep
- then i do the swipes from heel to tip edge leading as deburring/fine grinding, imagine trying to slice a thin sliver off the stone, and i alternate sides 1-1 doing this while lightening up the pressure as i go.

so in my opinion there is no right or wrong, and no good or bad method. its just different techniques for different stages imo. and those above works for me on kitchen knife size blades.

on folders and small blades under lets say 10cm, i use none of these techniques. because i dont find them effective nor precise for that. i don't feel i have the control i want so then i do completely other things instead.
 
inferno said:
if you look at his vid it might not be obvious but its cut and edited. its looks like he's doing all that in like 30 seconds, but thats not the case.
he also seems to be using extremely high pressure to get **** done fast. its easy to crush/fold an edge doing that.

that being said. i think you should just try to get a blade sharp on your stone. you will find out what you have to do pretty fast. this is not rocket scinece.

- i have a type of hybrid sharpening method that i came up with myself. for coarse work i do like jon broida, like 90 degree angle back and forth over and over, because thats the fast way of removing metal on stones i found.
- then i try to make the bevel even/blended all over the blade. and then i do a sweep from edge to heel, trying to use the whole stone. back and forth, same sweep
- then i do the swipes from heel to tip edge leading as deburring/fine grinding, imagine trying to slice a thin sliver off the stone, and i alternate sides 1-1 doing this while lightening up the pressure as i go.

so in my opinion there is no right or wrong, and no good or bad method. its just different techniques for different stages imo. and those above works for me on kitchen knife size blades.

on folders and small blades under lets say 10cm, i use none of these techniques. because i dont find them effective nor precise for that. i don't feel i have the control i want so then i do completely other things instead.
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Thank you - so much. I have stumbled and bumbled upon a technique very similar to what you just described. I just haven't settled on a consistent approach - resulting in wasting time, and some rework. I believe I'm a the stage where I have enough technique (in my head) and my go-forward progress is most likely to result from locking down with consistency.

And, yeah, pocket knife / folders tend to be a whole different process. Really appreciate the time you took to spell that out.
 
get some cheap crap knives to sharpen if you dont want to sacrifice good stuff. i however did not try anything out before i went to my good knives. well i kinda knew what i had to do to get the blade sharp but thats it. then its just 5-10 minutes to find out what works. then its down to repetition until you get good at it.
 
He probably learned to sharpen before water stones became popular here in the USA. Pretty similar style to them old guys that learned how to sharpen on Arkansas stones.
 
I think he's a little heavy for knifes, but the stones do want some pressure to cut aggressively.
 
Im sure he is a decent hand sharpener, but imo a lot of pressure is never desirable unless you are really trying to abrade alot of material, but for what i'd consider 'normal sharpening' not really.
 
I do sharpen all the blade length in one stroke, back and forth, for really curvy blades, and also for finishing passes for every knife with polishing stones. It's "aligning" the edge, more pleasant to the eye especially with hard stones like choseras.

But i don't set bevels with this technique i find it too slow / not precise enough.
 
Peter Nowlan here, thanks for watching my video. I’ll tell about my video watching mistake:
When I got really serious about learning to freehand sharpen I got the YouTube fever. I was/am obsessed with sharpening so I was thirsty for knowledge. I watched countless videos and that was wrong. I’d watch a technique then attempt to mirror it. When I failed I blamed it on the video/sharpener and moved to the next video. He was wrong to so I kept moving on. Naturally, I was the problem not the person shooting the video.
The best ones out there like Jon’s will clearly demonstrate a working technique. No video will give you muscle memory and consistency. My advice is to select a video that you like to get the fundamentals down and then stop watching it. Time to practice and only refer to the video if needed. Select a technique and stick with it. If your knives are not turning out as well as you hoped then it’s you, not the video.
I’m the king of sharpening mistakes and I haven’t stopped yet but this realization really became the game changer for me. This was a decade ago but there was still many videos to watch.
Think of our fathers and grandfathers making knives and tools sharp without any outside influence and using an oil stone that we would now consider an artifact.

Practice on a decent knife, not a cheap one. You won’t ruin it. Cheap steal can be difficult to sharpen and can shake your confidence.
Peter
 
Sailor said:
Peter Nowlan here, thanks for watching my video. I’ll tell about my video watching mistake:
When I got really serious about learning to freehand sharpen I got the YouTube fever. I was/am obsessed with sharpening so I was thirsty for knowledge. I watched countless videos and that was wrong. I’d watch a technique then attempt to mirror it. When I failed I blamed it on the video/sharpener and moved to the next video. He was wrong to so I kept moving on. Naturally, I was the problem not the person shooting the video.
The best ones out there like Jon’s will clearly demonstrate a working technique. No video will give you muscle memory and consistency. My advice is to select a video that you like to get the fundamentals down and then stop watching it. Time to practice and only refer to the video if needed. Select a technique and stick with it. If your knives are not turning out as well as you hoped then it’s you, not the video.
I’m the king of sharpening mistakes and I haven’t stopped yet but this realization really became the game changer for me. This was a decade ago but there was still many videos to watch.
Think of our fathers and grandfathers making knives and tools sharp without any outside influence and using an oil stone that we would now consider an artifact.

Practice on a decent knife, not a cheap one. You won’t ruin it. Cheap steal can be difficult to sharpen and can shake your confidence.
Peter
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Dear Sailor. You (or at least your hands, as that is mostly what we see) and your videos are the ones I‘ve modeled the most. Your response here is amazing to me on so many levels. Let me simply say, U Da Bomb.
 
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