advice on knife edges.... mirror or not?

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matlocc

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I have some boning knives a guy wants me to sharpen and I am not sure if there should be a mirror edge on them or possibly go down to 1000 then a cpl stokes tip to heel at 6 or 800. Is there an area that tells what is the best edge for each type of knife?
 
It depends on what its primarily used for. Carving, chopping, dicing etc make it as fine as possible. For EDU I wouldn't go above 1200 ANSI or 4k Japanese.
 
This is a great question. Not sure if there is a list someone can provide.
 
Sorry for the English language is not boning knife does not lack I finish mirror Trizact to A-30 grain 600
 
Soft stainless German knives and block sets usually visit my belt grinder equipped with a 120 grit belt. I then finish with a leather polishing wheel. I try to not hand sharpen them.
 
Jason B. said:
Soft stainless German knives and block sets usually visit my belt grinder equipped with a 120 grit belt. I then finish with a leather polishing wheel. I try to not hand sharpen them.
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Dumb question, why?

Just curious, I've been sharpening cheapos by hand and want some insight
 
It's not worth the time, It's seriously about 1 minute on the grinder and I can have sharper more consistent edges than I could ever get by hand on the same knives. IMO, it's easier to sharpen an ultra high hardness Japanese knife by hand than it is a German knife.
 
So long as the grind is relatively thin and the edge geometry is good (at/below 30° inclusive), I tend to follow a 'less is better' approach for simple stainless kitchen knives. I've never seen them refine to a mirror very well (they won't hold such an edge anyway), and anything applied with ONE hone and minimal stropping usually works best. For me, that often comes down to using the Fine side (~280-320 grit or so) of an inexpensive SiC stone or equivalent aluminum oxide stone; or a Coarse, Fine or EF diamond hone (325-1200; any one according to finish preference, but not all three) can do very well, and such an edge can be applied within just a few passes. Shouldn't take more than 5-10 minutes work with any of these options, or even 30 seconds - 1 minute with the diamond hones. Use a VERY LIGHT touch in all cases, to avoid or at least minimize burring issues, which is a common tendency with these knives.


David
 
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I am not following some of the responses. Let me reword the question, for a knife used in processing meat should it be a fine edge or one that is slightly rough. Knives in a slaughter house type.
 
In my opinion, an extremely polished edge is really only "needed" on a straight razor. Some wood workers really like to polish up their chisels, for those push cuts into wood. For meat processing this is entirely unnecessary. I would say experiment what works best for you, but a slightly "toothy" edge will serve best in a meat processing facility. How "toothy" will depend on the user and the equipment at hand, but I like the 1k-2k range. Some guys like the 600 grit edges, others prefer the fine side of an India stone, then stropped.
 
matlocc said:
I have some boning knives a guy wants me to sharpen and I am not sure if there should be a mirror edge on them or possibly go down to 1000 then a cpl stokes tip to heel at 6 or 800. Is there an area that tells what is the best edge for each type of knife?
Click to expand...

matlocc said:
I am not following some of the responses. Let me reword the question, for a knife used in processing meat should it be a fine edge or one that is slightly rough. Knives in a slaughter house type.
Click to expand...

I would sharpen to 600g, debur and that's it. No need to polish or go to 1000g then drop back down. You might also find out how he maintains them... if, for example he uses a rough steel, you could probably just sharpen to 200g or so. If he properly uses a fine steel or ceramic, I'd go around 600g. You can then alter it if he gives you any feedback on performance.
 
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