Gotta answer!
I free hand sharpen everything. I try to make the Lansky systems do it my way and that does not work too well.
In my shop for a new knife or extremely dull I start with a worn out 400 grit belt, then to a cork belt loaded with rouge (green chrome buffing compound). From there it is to the bench to a ceramic stick, and final step is stropping on a piece of leather glued to a piece of Corian ( I added "rubber feet" to it to raise it off the bench). The strop is also loaded with green chrome rouge. The stropping is done in the reverse direction of normal sharpening, and the purpose is to remove the wire edge and polish the edge a bit.
Normal sharpening at home is done on a 2 X 8" (I think) diamond bench stone. It is double sided with 250 and 600 grit. After that I pick up at the ceramic stick then strop as above.
At work I use a DMT Duafold (2-sided Diafold), then ceramic and strop.
Have you noticed that I like a strop. If I need the edge a little courser after the strop I go back to the 600 grit and hit 1 or 2 times per side just to get some "bite".
Donavon
I free hand sharpen everything. I try to make the Lansky systems do it my way and that does not work too well.
In my shop for a new knife or extremely dull I start with a worn out 400 grit belt, then to a cork belt loaded with rouge (green chrome buffing compound). From there it is to the bench to a ceramic stick, and final step is stropping on a piece of leather glued to a piece of Corian ( I added "rubber feet" to it to raise it off the bench). The strop is also loaded with green chrome rouge. The stropping is done in the reverse direction of normal sharpening, and the purpose is to remove the wire edge and polish the edge a bit.
Normal sharpening at home is done on a 2 X 8" (I think) diamond bench stone. It is double sided with 250 and 600 grit. After that I pick up at the ceramic stick then strop as above.
At work I use a DMT Duafold (2-sided Diafold), then ceramic and strop.
Have you noticed that I like a strop. If I need the edge a little courser after the strop I go back to the 600 grit and hit 1 or 2 times per side just to get some "bite".
Donavon
