A hand held ceramic rod does 95% of all my honing. As long as I am disciplined about regularly touching up my blades as I use them, I seldom need anything more than a few strokes on each side. I have definitely experienced what you mean as far as over stropping. Those fine teeth make a big difference in the way the knife "grabs" material. I definitely enjoy using a knife better when it is in that condition.

Excellent! Thanks for sharing...

I use that little victorinox steel & a ceramic rod for honest to goodness about 95% of all my sharpening. That little rod is a great tool and I also carry one daily. Great video

Much love , brother William thank u 4 all u do 4 the community, one day ima own one of your knives , peace and Godbless

Watching and hearing you teach us about your blades and bevels has opened my eyes and mind to sharpening them. Iam Glad i found you and your channel. Your the first custom maker that has ever gotten to the real meat and potatoes about sharpening and knife design and usage with no BS!!! Iam sold and as soon as i can get enough saved Iam going to place an order for a WCSK survival knife from you. I watched a couple videos on it already and am blown away. THAT design especially is such an awesome work of functional art... I cant wait to be able to own one soon and again I thank you for all do and share with us.

This is the best video on knife sharpening on KZfaq. I thought I was the only one who likes the little Victorinox steel.

I totally agree. Everyone seems to think that "sharper is always better" and want all their knives honed down to a ultra-fine mirror polish, literal razor edge, but that is actually worse than useless in an EDC knife. Unless you have a special application (sugical tools, woodworking, razors, maybe cooking knives?) that needs such a sharp edge, you only need a medium-fine edge at best. More is a waste of effort, and makes the knife perform worse.

I like your thoughts on knife steels and sharpening, I am 80 years old and I still use a dual india stone and carbon steel blades, Lov a small shop and hands on mentality. Good luck God bless.

I get best results from small Arkansas stones. I haven't much liked the ceramic rods I have tried. I just use water, pocket stones. For coarse work i got a Baryonix sythe stone which works great (in fact the finer grit grey ones will put an acceptable knife edge on by themselves, and they cut metal fast). i do need to find something different for my recurved knives. I get passable results with flat stones, but just not as good as I like.

Howdy, William. Just picked up a blue 4” DMT Stone & a ceramic rod. I know this video is a couple of years old but it might be worth noting that those Victorinox minis are no longer available. They make another one that you can buy on AMZ that’s 7” w/ a little lanyard hole at the end. It’s around $25. Maybe it’s the same one that you’re using but yours looks shorter. Dunno. I have a pile of old knives here to work on so that when my Fieldlore arrives there won’t be any second guessing in the field. Yer channel is becoming a daily part of my YT diet. Peace!

Just been running around like a mad man doing what you just taught,, amazing , thanks. I have used a Smith diamond sharpener.2 sided , coarse and fine, sharpener..

If you don't want a polished edge on a knife, but still want wicked sharpness, use a leather strop loaded with Bark River's Black Compound and stop after that. It's great for edge maintenance. Works like a fine stone, and you can hear it cutting steel. P.S., a sharp edge should push-cut through an entire sheet of paper without using a slicing motion.

Thanks! I appreciate your practical approach. I learned about the mini steel from one of your earlier videos and I regularly use either an Opinel or Victorinox mini steel as the final step in sharpening to clear off any remaining burr, as well as to do a quick touch up to an edge. I've been spending too much time with the finer grits, though. After watching this I've been using my just black, blue, and red four inch DMTs and getting a much better edge.

Recently I have got this little‘Worksharp Guided Field Sharpener” and I think removing compound from its narrow strop makes it perfect device for sharpening your blades using your sharpening method. I never use its angle guides. I took its diamond plates and hold them between my thumb and middle fingers just like you do.

I learned as a teenager a course edge stays sharp longer and a better edge for my cutting task. Polished edges are good for shaving that's about it in my book

Hello William, I do exactly what you do but I do have a different tool to sharpen with when I get out of work I will send you a picture and details of this tool it works very well and I don’t think it would ever wear out, it does work well with your style knives

I 100% agree with ya. I edc a falknivn dc3 . Its pushing 15 years old.

Great video. I strop with an old belt and NO compound! Sharpening stone,ceramic rod,and belt.

As the saying goes, theres no right way to do it, only the wrong way!! Nice insight into your technique william. I agree with you 99.9%. Especialy on the way the knife edge has to have bite etc... But for me stropping is essential. The problem around sharpening is that people have this idea that their knives have to be razor sharp, so they tend to oversharpen and overstrop that will lead to convexing your edge and shortening the lifespan of your knife. Dont forget everytime you sharpen your knife it shrinks a little. So if its a heavily used knife it will have its lifespan shortend considerably. So when your paying $250 and upwards for a decent k ife you want it to funtion to its maximum potential and last for as long as possible, hopefully an heirloom that can be past down through generations to come. My take on it is to only sharpen when your knife is damaged or the edge is too convex or less grippy. I sharpen uto 400g or 600g no higher or you loose the bite. I then strop my tools little and often using a hard strop, about 3/4 oz leather on a board using the barest amount of compound, but only applying it about every 4th or 5th strop. Sometimes not even that as i use only carbon steel knives. Only need about 3 or 4 pases thats it, your just taking the burr off the edge, not polishing it. I have never realy convexd any of my blades doing this method and it has increased the lifespan of my blades considerably. Its especialy usefull to strop when your skinning out an animal. Thats just my method.

Everything you said is Spot on..... Follow the bevel and be consistent, Same words my dad used and today people have told me, my knife is scary sharp...No grinders, No edge guides... and No stropping compounds... I think Factory produced knives, throw people off of hand sharpening..alot of factory blades are stamped out and that causes two different bevels. Just my opinion..

Thanks for sharing your experience... feliz🎄navidad... blessings

Great advice I have tradional stones and was afraid it would ruin them with the woodsman grind. Gotta do some shopping, lol.

Thank God for common sense. Love this video. Motivates me to keep on--keeping on till I become as good as William Collins--heh-heh.

Hello sir, enjoying your channel and subscribed. Landed here after I acquired a Pheer from a buddy and searched some videos on it. So far I’ve watched your 2nd day of Pheer ownership video, your recent FAQs and this one. I like your style and your knowledge. Thank you for taking the time to share it with us. I’ll be going through several more in my free time to learn what I can absorb. Take care and keep up the great work 👍🏼

Awesome William awesome... I have two DMT diamond stones.. well one is a Smith version.. also have the same ceramic rod you have.. same chip same size that is a great rod.. also have a lansky bone a that is old enough that the rubber ends have split and gone but the small rod is intact and works great... I have followed you lead on the Victorinox rod .. keep on in my wallet it touched up an edge very well... I am of course looking for the holy grail of stones (yea i know good luck) and have my eye on a few modern/traditional stones..i will shoot the lock off my wallet eventually buy. My favorite is the Washita stone (i have two) that were my Dear Old Dad's. My Dad taught me how to sharpen on those stones and i am proud to have them and still use them.. Thank fully I have learned to care for the stones keeping them effective. WOW your knives are really hard.. that is amazing that they will eat up a natural stone.. I think people get a little too hung up on Grid.. if you want to polish the blade to a shine grid counts.. I am with you on the cutting edge thing. For example i was dissapointed in the edge on my MK3 so i sat down with my stone and just kept at the angle until the scandi was even.. and MAN that sharpened that blade.. there are some blemishes where the original grind pattern was irregular but the stone cleaned the edge great and now the knife will cut.. I can see once you own that AEBL you really need to adjust your thinking a little to keep the edge the way you shipped it. i have learned a lot from watching how you do things with an edge and a blade and the geometry.. i cant tell you how much the geometry has helped me with my knife edges.. Thanks man ... J

I'm going to be switching to diamond stones soon because it seems that when I use a stone it gets a bow in it especially since I'm constantly working on my knives or knives for other people. Most of the time to just touch up a blade I will use a few strokes on a ceramic rod and the a few strokes on the rough side of my leather belt and a few on the smooth and I have a shaving sharp edge.

I make knives as a hobby, and have found the strap does not make the sharpest blade. My bevel is about 15 percent or less. The edge is checked on my thumb nail. When checking the edge on paper, I look for a clean crisp cut.

Luv the mini Vic!

Great job cutting through the B.S. and telling it like it is.

My dad gave me ceramic wire insulators they used to use in old houses when sending the wires through walls in homes years ago. I wish i still had them the rods were like 6inches and some were probably 8 to 10 inches. I used to sharpen my knives on them as a kid but i didn't get great results because i didn't know then they were too fine to start with and the knives were probably low quality

I think as long as your knife is sharp that's all that matters. If that style allows you to get a knife sharp its right. Instead of trying something else that someone says is "the right way" but it doesn't work for you. Do some methods give you a better edge? Sure. But if you don't have the equipment or the skills to do it then it doesn't matter. At the end of the day all that matter is that you have a knife that can cut.

like it....!!

Amazon doesn't have the Victorinox Mini Steel any more, I had to look elsewhere. But now I have one, I can't get it to work. I have no experience with steels, I always just use stones. So far it seems to just chew the edge up, or push the burr all over the place. I must be doing something wrong.

I assume you are aware that you cannot apply pressure to a diamond stone, or it will wear it out. Just very light pressure, and it will abrade just fine, it is not like a stone where you have to control the pressure to get the correct bite. I only say that because I have heard of people complaining about wearing out the DC4 by using too much pressure, and others claiming they have used theirs for many years just fine. I would assume you knew all this, but one never knows.

Mr. Collins where can I get a victornornoc steel likes yours ? Thanks Jeff Hawkins

Thanks for the explanation 🙂 I have a trend plate and the Nessy has no hook so I should be good🕺🏻 I’m definitely going to look into that mini victorinox. How do we get a WC hat?

So what do you do it you can only use right hand?

What I don't get is how do you know when you are at 20 degrees (or whatever angle)? It may feel "right" but one could still be off 1-2 degrees +/-.

great info. it's voodoo to me, i have tried pull throughs, mini synthetic stones, large synthetic stones and strops, i still cant get the edge you achieved in a minute. i guess for some sharpening is not meant to be. keep up the great work.

That's right man! There's no gospel way in sharpening - it what works for the fellow that's using it period....

DMT is good stuff.

I didn't know ceramic had different grit either

2+2=4 🤷🏻‍♂️👍🏻🇺🇸 Thanks

People are in too big of a hurry that’s why they have made sharpening devices

Brother if you think that was sharp then you should let me sharpen one of your knives for you and then you take it out and use it and see how you like it lol I do get into sharpening and I take it all the way down to diamond sprays on kangaroo leather or on bass wood for stropping... when I am done with my knives you just look at them and damn near cut yourself haha

Many ways to skin a cat.