The COARSE GRIT FALLACY - The Biggest Beginner Knife Sharpening Mistake 

Absolutely made the mistake to buy me a much to fine stone for years. Now got me the Sharpal as recommended. Works really good in combination. Of course you want a medium stone but it works very good. But, i fucking ruined my Adventurecraft with it. Maybe due to the fact it came with a uncorrect grind. Corrected the grind, but never got it really sharp again. Dot know if itś the blade geometry or whatever. But I canˋt fkn handle the blade. The low profile makes it difficult to keep the angle, okay. But I am not really new to sharpening. Inthink I can hold an angle okaish. At least all the other knives shave with ease. And now 1/10 of the blade is gone and I dońt even know if the geometrie is anywhere near to even get it sharp. I can definitly say, a coarse diamont stone will eat a blade if you get frustrated. 😂😂😂😢

He is a very talented teacher.

@@panganaranga well you are going to remove the same amount of material in most cases regardless the stone you are using, a coarse one makes it remove faster so you dont have to spend so much time, which also will help you get better edges as you dont need to spend so much time on the stone getting fatigued or frustrated

This probably comes from japanese knives enthousiasts who are used to working with extremely thin edges, which grinds fast especially on "carbon steels", what do you think ?

@@NeevesKnives yeah man, nothing new, since the new stone it takes me 2 minutes for a knife to get it crisp. But this one kicks my ass. All I can say is that I feel it takes more time on the strop to get the burr off. Thats all the difference I might feel with the steel. I think itˋs more the fact the geo has left the chat and the low profile makes it too hard to keep an angle. I know, you can cut yourself on an 90 degree edge, did many times. But it has to be sharp.

Where there’s a will there’s a way! I managed to completely dull a number of knives while learning to sharpen. When I finally cut myself with a kitchen knife I’d sharpened the day before my reaction was, “yes! Finally! It’s actually sharp!”

When I first started sharpening my knives myself, every now and again I would mess up so badly, the knife would be less sharp after the sharpening than it was before. Shit happens.

​@@joshcarter-com I assume then you realized "oh wait im bleeding

Oh that's pretty good

That's how I say it as well.

Totally agree with that!💚🤘

Only perfect practice makes perfect - Lee Trevino

Who's hating?

I've been sharpening knives for decades at this point. And it's always good to hear new perspectives. This channel has helped me, and my knives will all comfortably shave hair. I'd say he's pretty good.

Haha I made the same mistake about 40 years ago as a Boy Scout. I couldn’t figure out why I was never making any progress!

Lord yes. I got turned onto diamond stones about 10 years ago, and it is so much better than working with those oh so good Arkansas stones. Don't get me wrong, I love my Arkansas, and I can do some serious damage with a strop. But a big, heavy grit stone is where it's at. Spyderco and Buck are fine from the factory, but the last few Case knives I got needed some work. Disappointing, actually.

I wish I had done that. The first knife I sharpened was the knife on a Leatheman tool and I turned it into a toothpick. Now I have nice pocket knives so it doesn't matter that I ruined the Leatherman's blade but I still wish I hadn't.

@PhilippeCarphin I was really lucky. My Uncle is a bit of a whiz when it comes to bladed edges of any kind. And he talked me into buying a cheap Taiwanese Gerber to practice on. I still have that thing bless its heart. Did the same thing you did!

Another version I've heard is "practice makes permanent", which implies that not only is bad practice unhelpful, it is actively harming your ability to learn to do it right.

That is the truth! After Alex's "unicorn" video, I had a heck of a time getting my hands on a Sharpal 162N.

When I saw his video I immediately thought. "Get one now, they'll be sold out for years." He should send a warning to these companies so they can ramp up production:)

So very true, playing guitar, target shooting and sharpening knives, its all about learning discipline and growing your own personal skills.

my favorite quote is " dont dip your pen in company ink"

terrible advice if you are already perfectionist though. just practice with best accuracy you have, but dont stress out if your best isnt very good yet

@@victorfranca17 funny! My now wife and kids are glad I didn’t follow that one

@@mnzrk you are wrong sir, perfectionists already live this quote every day!

I'm waiting for the Sharpal to go back in stock! If it takes too long I may go with the Shapton and/or S SATC ones... but I'm hopeful so far haha Edit: Woah, it IS in stock, just not from the link he has in the description...

I got the same thing from a few videos back. I was hoping it was a stone he was selling or it went to his store. I got the stone and I’m working on making my light saber.

@@jordanlewandowskii I would advise against buying the Sharpal double sided diamond stone. That stone doesn't seem to be electroplated but the the diamond layer somehow seems to be glued to the plate, which explains why Alex thinks it's the "perfect" double sided stone with no cross contamination. If you look at reviews you can see many people reporting that stone bubbles or straight off peels, which is unacceptable for a $70 stone.

@@EternalKing06 -- I'm not sure I'd trust random Amazon reviewers over Alex. One of these things is a known quantity with regard to their knowledge and experience -- the other isn't. That said, I bought one of these Sharpal stones. I already had a cheapo £30 Chinese diamond stone that I use primarily for flattening whetstones. but I watched a handful of other RU-vid reviews of the Sharpal and those reviewers were very impressed. See the reviews from Fire Creek Forge or A Dose of Drew. Like Alex, they were a known quantity. Or you might want to read some of the comments here from other people who have bought the Sharpal on Alex's recommendation. They tend to be extremely satisfied customers. I sent the first stone back because there were some small chips on the edge of the plate on the fine side. I don't expect to see THAT on a £60 diamond stone, so I sent it back, got a refund, ordered a replacement. Replacement had exactly the same chips -- only more of them. They're tiny -- it looks like the plate has been held in some sort of device and the electroplating hasn't really taken there. I kept this second one, because I just wanted to see how the thing worked. The chips don't affect the functioning of the stone, but even so, it says something about the quality control of the company producing them. That said, the Sharpal is astonishingly good at what it's supposed to do. I'm using mine primarily to sharpen kitchen knives, so there aren't any supersteels involved, but both sides appear grit consistent with my Shaptons and produce a new apex and a burr in the wink of an eye. I also used it to reprofile a Scandi that was screwed up. You have to remove a hell of a lot of metal to reprofile a Scandi, but this did it in no time at all. Likewise with thinning a chinese cleaver. So I don't regret the purchase, but the two I bought weren't without their flaws. The other thing I'd say is -- the stone has a two year warranty, so if it does peel -- it's likely to do so within that time and you can get a replacement. One thing I did notice from the Amazon comments is that they seem to be pretty solid when it comes to fulfilling warranty claims. If that hadn't been the case, I'd have sent the second stone back as well.

​@@EternalKing06so what would you buy instead?

Sure. For a friend .

@@williammartin2593 Hehe. He's a builder, and brings his chisels to me every few months.

Well its good to hear you are making progress! Remember no one ever perfects it. Im always learning and practicing too👍

The stones in the usa are cheaper than using sandpaper because you can use a stone many times. I can sharpen my cheap kitchen knives with the cheapest stone made. Diamond stones are nice. Unless you have a very hard steel, whetstones will do the job.