Anyone ever worn down a blade from too many sharpenings?

harkamus

harkamus

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Apr 23, 2007
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Just curious. Pics would be awesome. I have not yet met anyone that's used a knife so much that the blade was considerably thinner in width from numerous sharpen-ings.
 
I've not. But I've seen lots of pics of blades that have.

Try looking at some of the older slipjoints that are sold on Ebay.
 
I wore down the blade of my first SAK pretty far. The bottom of the edge was practically recurved, and the tip was 1/4" shorter than it was new. But that was due more to the fact that I was very new to knives, and just as new to sharpening them, so I ground it down pretty far learning to make it sharp.

If I compare my well-used Tasman Salt to my brand new one, it's considerably worn down since it's my most used knife, but still, we're talking like 1/10th of an inch.
 
I haven't but my grandfather has. He used to sharpen everything with big extra course stones, and used them constantly. Wore many a blade down to what looked like a strangely thick spined filet knife!

Sorry no pics.
 
I picked up a box of knives at an auction that contained a couple of carbon butcher's knives that were definitely sharpened away. One of these, marked Russell Green River Works is now a recurve with the blade near the handle half the width of the original.

I had hoped to practice sharpening with these knives but someone beat me to the punch.

Joe
 
back in 03 i gave two co-workers SS Delicas. One of them got pocketed, the other one got used. And I mean USED. This dude has used this knife for everything from cutting wire to slicing tomatoes. He has it looking like a "straight" blade now. No belly whatsoever. Also, the hollow grind is gone. He's long since reprofiled it to a flat-saber style grind. All of the sharpening took place on old school stones too. Lotta patience. Real hard use. Gave me a brand new respect for those Japanese Spydies. He's got it worn down to where it looks like the blade doesn't even belong in the knife. When compared to the other co-worker's knife, it's amazing. Come to think of it, pics are needed. Will try to get some. A case study in blade wear! :)
 
The old timers around here all carry their slip joint knifes and use them till the blades are about gone. I've seen many of them with a blade, or blades down to little of nothing left.
 
harkamus said:
Just curious. Pics would be awesome. I have not yet met anyone that's used a knife so much that the blade was considerably thinner in width from numerous sharpen-ings.
Click to expand...

I have. My first 'good quality' pocket knife; a Buck Stockman that my wife gave me for my birthday in 1969. I used a 'RazorEdge' clamp and stone system to sharpen that knife, and did so about every month. I retired that knife (put it out to stud?) around 1990 with both the spey blade and the sheepsfoot blade missing about 3/4 of the metal, (the spey looks like an awl!) and the main blade with a thin straight edge (the RazorEdge clamp seems to prefer that when you don't know how to use it better,) coming to a point like a swordfish!

In 1983 I learned how (and more importantly, how often) to properly sharpen a knife and haven't really worn down any knives since. One of my older kitchen knives, a Wustof paring knife is just showing a teensy bit of wear right at the ricasso, but that's about it. It's noticeable only if you put the edge down on a cutting board. You can see the wear at the base.

Stitchawl
 
There are a lot of pics of super worn down knives in the traditional folders and fixed blades section, most of them are people's father's or grandfather's slippie.
 
IMG_0419.jpg
 
My Grandmother died at age 84 back in 1992. When we emptied out her house I happened to be the one who went through her drawer of knives. There were some Old Hickory carbon steel butcher knives and paring knives that were sharpened practically down to a nub!

The paring knives were especially worn, since she used them almost daily. THey are at my Dad's house at the moment or I would snap a picture.

Chances are if you know any depression era folks then you know someone with a worn-down knife.
 
stitchawl said:
I have. My first 'good quality' pocket knife; a Buck Stockman that my wife gave me for my birthday in 1969. I used a 'RazorEdge' clamp and stone system to sharpen that knife, and did so about every month. I retired that knife (put it out to stud?) around 1990 with both the spey blade and the sheepsfoot blade missing about 3/4 of the metal, (the spey looks like an awl!) and the main blade with a thin straight edge (the RazorEdge clamp seems to prefer that when you don't know how to use it better,) coming to a point like a swordfish!

In 1983 I learned how (and more importantly, how often) to properly sharpen a knife and haven't really worn down any knives since. One of my older kitchen knives, a Wustof paring knife is just showing a teensy bit of wear right at the ricasso, but that's about it. It's noticeable only if you put the edge down on a cutting board. You can see the wear at the base.

Stitchawl
Click to expand...

I happen to agree with you that knowing how to properly sharpen and yes most importantly how often will prevent most of this in most situations. So how often, I'm of the mind set that you just don't let it get too dull where you essentially have to re-profile it to get it back too sharp, but you just lightly touch it up ever so often and your good go, more or less just keeping the original edge sharp. Is this what you have experienced?
 
I saw this image the other day of this Mora:
knife.jpg

The guy it belongs to says he's had it for over 15 years and has skinned more than 20 moose with it. Not bad for an $8 knife.
 
I have some EDC's which I have worn down from use. It's not that hard to do when they are being used with your work and it is the only knife that you use everyday.

Knives are like chainsaw chain, when you use them hard and sharpen them everyday and they just plan wear out.

Now I can afford to have More knives as my EDC which makes them wear longer and buying new knives for everyday use doesn't hurt ether. :)
 
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I have never personally worn down a knife like that, but my great grandmother did. She kept the Case knife pictured, and the whetstone, in her sewing kit. The stone is actually bowed out from years of use. The knife, which dates from 1945 to 1950 or so, is roughly two and five eighths inches long. The primary blade doesn't appear to have been used much, while the pen blade is worn down at least 50% to the wedge shape you see here.

casehistory-1.jpg
 
I have seen quite a few knives sharpened down to the spine from many years of work but all of these knives have had one key feature in common. they were regularly sharpened with very aggressive grits/methods. Most often I have seen this with people who use bench grinders to sharpen or the old style large sharpening wheels. Also electric sharpeners can do a tune on a knife.
 
Never worn one out personally becuase im pretty young and havent used a knife for more than 5 years. Usually just get sick of em after a certain period:)

However, when in horticulture school we went to a tree grafting farm and the guy there had a grafting knife that was at leasy 70% worn off. It was pretty sweet:)
 
Not worn out, but wanted to show some very visible blade wear from use and sharpening of my old favorite; the Spyderco Atlantic Salt. The bottom is two years of daily use and sharpening at least once a week, top has been sharpened with a Lansky once. Systems used on the bottom knife were a Lansky with and without diamond hones, Norton stones, and the Spyderco Sharpmaker.

DSCF1474.jpg


The new knife cuts significantly better in a thick medium like cardboard due to the thinner edge. Old knife needs to be thinned out since it's been abraded up to the wedge of the hollow grind.

Old on top, new on bottom.
DSCF1476.jpg

DSCF1475.jpg


:)
 
Sharp Phil, that looks almost just like my one of my grandfather's knives. He seldom ever used a real sharpening stone of any kind. Did most of his sharpening on concrete. Half the time, I think he dulled them more than he sharpened them.
 
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