Deejo folder ruined(?) by friend

N

Nian

Joined
Jul 28, 2025
Messages
6
Hey all this is my first post, so excuse my ignorance in advance, I am a complete beginner.
So for context I kept complaining out loud at my workspace that my knife (Deejo 37g Carbon Fiber) was so dull it wouldn't even cut cardboard boxes cleanly. I work in the kitchen, so my colleague who is a butcher offered to sharpen it for me. (Obviously the cooking knives we use are sharp but this was sort of my fishing/EDC knife.)
I happily obliged, because the most I knew about knife care in practice was my dad's HORL sharpener I used on occasion on kitchen knifes and those honing rods that don't really do much to sharpen a blade.

Safe to say I recieved my blade today after 3 days and the blade is completely different.
I will attach images to show the blades current state.

https://imgur.com/a/LYkXJW7

So I am here for advice, wondering if there is anything I can do to restore it and if not if I can continue using it as is.

P.S. My friend gave me a Fixed Blade Rock Trail knife as a sort of make up gift, which I don't know what to think of. I'm sure he meant well and really underestimated the difficulty of sharpening a tiny knife with a huge belt grinder.
 
Alberta Ed said:
Learn to sharpen knives yourself. It's not difficult. But never use a belt grinder.
Click to expand...
Hey thanks for the reply! When you say "learn to sharpen yourself" are you suggesting I use a whetstone and freehand sharpen or do you mean one of those fixed-angle systems?
I would like to learn the skill, but as far as I can feel the blade, the belly has a weird curve now and the apex is waaaaaaaay off... I'm not sure if reprofiling is the same as sharpening.
If you want me to freehand, should I get a sharpal? A friend recommended them to me.
 
Nian said:
Hey all this is my first post, so excuse my ignorance in advance, I am a complete beginner.
So for context I kept complaining out loud at my workspace that my knife (Deejo 37g Carbon Fiber) was so dull it wouldn't even cut cardboard boxes cleanly. I work in the kitchen, so my colleague who is a butcher offered to sharpen it for me. (Obviously the cooking knives we use are sharp but this was sort of my fishing/EDC knife.)
I happily obliged, because the most I knew about knife care in practice was my dad's HORL sharpener I used on occasion on kitchen knifes and those honing rods that don't really do much to sharpen a blade.

Safe to say I recieved my blade today after 3 days and the blade is completely different.
I will attach images to show the blades current state.

https://imgur.com/a/LYkXJW7

So I am here for advice, wondering if there is anything I can do to restore it and if not if I can continue using it as is.

P.S. My friend gave me a Fixed Blade Rock Trail knife as a sort of make up gift, which I don't know what to think of. I'm sure he meant well and really underestimated the difficulty of sharpening a tiny knife with a huge belt grinder.
Click to expand...
So, to answer your question,

Yes, that knife can be somewhat repaired, and you CAN sharpen most of that recurve out of the blade. Also, if that knife has an edge on it, it can be used, absolutely. Was that sharpening job actually a hatchet job, yes yes it was. However, the knife doesn't appear to have been rendered unusable.

I'd honestly buy another knife to use, and use that knife to teach yourself how to sharpen. Worksharp and several others make sharpeners that are inexpensive and can teach you the basics.
 
Nian said:
Hey thanks for the reply! When you say "learn to sharpen yourself" are you suggesting I use a whetstone and freehand sharpen or do you mean one of those fixed-angle systems?
I would like to learn the skill, but as far as I can feel the blade, the belly has a weird curve now and the apex is waaaaaaaay off... I'm not sure if reprofiling is the same as sharpening.
If you want me to freehand, should I get a sharpal? A friend recommended them to me.
Click to expand...
I do not presume to speak for A Alberta Ed , but I can assure you that there's a real brain trust on this board when it comes to sharpening*. And there's a ton of information here on both freehand and system-based sharpening.

(*= I'm not a member of it, but it's here!)
 
Quiet said:
So, to answer your question,

Yes, that knife can be somewhat repaired, and you CAN sharpen most of that recurve out of the blade. Also, if that knife has an edge on it, it can be used, absolutely. Was that sharpening job actually a hatchet job, yes yes it was. However, the knife doesn't appear to have been rendered unusable.

I'd honestly buy another knife to use, and use that knife to teach yourself how to sharpen. Worksharp and several others make sharpeners that are inexpensive and can teach you the basics.
Click to expand...
Hey thanks a lot for the encouragement. I really apprechiate it. It's nice to know my blade is still perfectly usable. I'll definitely look into Worksharp, I didn't know about them yet.
I was thinking of using the blade he gave me as a gift to practice sharpening, but the deejo could be a good option as well. I researched it, it turned out to be a 6€ LIDL knife.
Spats McGee said:
I do not presume to speak for A Alberta Ed , but I can assure you that there's a real brain trust on this board when it comes to sharpening*. And there's a ton of information here on both freehand and system-based sharpening.

(*= I'm not a member of it, but it's here!)
Click to expand...
I know the information is out there. I've started watching some videos of OUTDOORS55 and I'm super impressed by the results he got with just one Sharpal stone! They are more sharp than that deejo ever was. :p
Now I'm probably gonna go for that or a Worksharp that Quiet kindly recommended.
 
Nian said:
Hey thanks a lot for the encouragement. I really apprechiate it. It's nice to know my blade is still perfectly usable. I'll definitely look into Worksharp, I didn't know about them yet.
I was thinking of using the blade he gave me as a gift to practice sharpening, but the deejo could be a good option as well. I researched it, it turned out to be a 6€ LIDL knife.

I know the information is out there. I've started watching some videos of OUTDOORS55 and I'm super impressed by the results he got with just one Sharpal stone! They are more sharp than that deejo ever was. :p
Now I'm probably gonna go for that or a Worksharp that Quiet kindly recommended.
Click to expand...
That OUTDOORS55 channel has lots of good information and advice, but it can be pretty overwhelming. Try not to get bogged down in the minutia; focus on his videos showing basic techniques and bear in mind that a simple workshop system or set of diamond plates is all you realistically need. Start practicing on a knife you don't care about destroying and you'll get the hang of it in time. And, of course, be sure to follow up here to show your results.
 
oldmanwilly said:
That OUTDOORS55 channel has lots of good information and advice, but it can be pretty overwhelming. Try not to get bogged down in the minutia; focus on his videos showing basic techniques and bear in mind that a simple workshop system or set of diamond plates is all you realistically need. Start practicing on a knife you don't care about destroying and you'll get the hang of it in time. And, of course, be sure to follow up here to show your results.
Click to expand...
Thanks, I'll try and find some old whetstones my dad keeps in our cellar. If I find them I'll try to get my Rock Trail paper cutting sharp. Will report back if I do :)
 
Wow! 😲 My normal statement is that almost everything is fixable but that's brutal! I Googled an image of the "before" and it apparently didn't originally have a recurve section at all. Yikes! o_O There's no way to put steel back on. One could at least even out the grind but aside from minor tweaks I guess use it that way or use it as a "test mule" to practice on. What a shame.
 
FWIW, cutting cardboard boxes uses up an edge fast. It's an area where the super-carbidey supersteels really set themselves apart (Maxamet, S110V, Rex121, etc). Or just use a utility cutter with a disposable blade, to avoid dulling your fishing knife.

Yes, your knife was butchered, but plenty of non-knife people have long-used kitchen knives that look like that from 20 years of sharpening on an abrasive rod. They treasure those knives, possibly because they go through things a tad more easily, and things stick to the side a tad less easily. Or maybe just because they are so used to them.
 
UncleBoots said:
FWIW, cutting cardboard boxes uses up an edge fast. It's an area where the super-carbidey supersteels really set themselves apart (Maxamet, S110V, Rex121, etc). Or just use a utility cutter with a disposable blade, to avoid dulling your fishing knife.

Yes, your knife was butchered, but plenty of non-knife people have long-used kitchen knives that look like that from 20 years of sharpening on an abrasive rod. They treasure those knives, possibly because they go through things a tad more easily, and things stick to the side a tad less easily. Or maybe just because they are so used to them.
Click to expand...
Oh I wasn't aware of that. I kept using it to cut open food boxes and remove paper labels from cans all the time. Before it was my fishing knife to cut the gills of the fish after stunning them.
Rob Babcock said:
Wow! 😲 My normal statement is that almost everything is fixable but that's brutal! I Googled an image of the "before" and it apparently didn't originally have a recurve section at all. Yikes! o_O There's no way to put steel back on. One could at least even out the grind but aside from minor tweaks I guess use it that way or use it as a "test mule" to practice on. What a shame.
Click to expand...

It is a real shame because apart from a SAK this was the first folder I ever owned. I should have taken better care of it. I guess this is a learning experience to look after my knives better in the future and not to blindly trust others with it.
Nian said:
Thanks, I'll try and find some old whetstones my dad keeps in our cellar. If I find them I'll try to get my Rock Trail paper cutting sharp. Will report back if I do :)
Click to expand...

On this note, I will only return home this weekend, so I will have to wait until then.

So far I'm very happy with the advice I've gotten and it's been very helpful.
 
Alberta Ed said:
Learn to sharpen knives yourself. It's not difficult. But never use a belt grinder.
Click to expand...
I guess one should also point out you should never use a Tormek by that same reasoning. Ryan at District Cutler has a new video today where he shows the hatchet job a farmer's market guy did on a beautiful HAP40 gyuto with a Tormek, it's brutal. Massively overground heel, and reground to 80/20. :oops: I think the point is that tools don't ruin knives, ignorance does. Some of the worst knives I've fixed were "ruined" by decades of bad sharpening jobs on oil stones. When it comes to sharpening it's the archer not the arrow.🏹
 
Deejos are not super expensive so getting a new one and start practicing on that one is a good idea. As for redoing that edge I would start with an inexpensive coarse stone, to get an initial even bevel and edge, then refine it. If you try with a relatively fine sharpening stone it will take along time.
 
Nian said:
Hey thanks for the reply! When you say "learn to sharpen yourself" are you suggesting I use a whetstone and freehand sharpen or do you mean one of those fixed-angle systems?
I would like to learn the skill, but as far as I can feel the blade, the belly has a weird curve now and the apex is waaaaaaaay off... I'm not sure if reprofiling is the same as sharpening.
If you want me to freehand, should I get a sharpal? A friend recommended them to me.
Click to expand...
I sharpen freehand, relying on DMT diamond hones. A coarse (320 grit or so) and a fine (600 grit) are all you really need. I use an ancient Buck Honemaster (no longer made, regrettably) as an angle guide occasionally. There are several other types that clamp on the spine of the blade if you search on-line. (I tried to get one from Razor Edge with no success -- they never responded to my query). Recurves are tougher to sharpen, although if not too extreme ordinary bench stones will work. I sharpen my kukri with an EZ-LAP diamond rod; DMT makes a round chainsaw sharpener and a cone-shaped sharpener for serrations that would work on recurves. I've never cared for the system sharpeners but some people swear by them.
 
Nian said:
So I just looked through my dad's shed and I found the following:

https://imgur.com/a/zqoITfD

-Horl 2
-Naniwa stone holder
-Naniwa professional stone 400
-Random no name "extra fine" stone

Will I need to soak this stone?
Click to expand...
The Naniwa Pro Stones are splash and go so you don't need to soak them and shouldn't leave these in water like some water stones. A copy and paste info on them. Can't say about the unknown stone and I don't know a thing about the Horl 2. The Naniwa is a quality stone.

Splash and Go​

Soaking the Chocera Pro stones is not recommended. A quick in and out dunk in water, or spraying them several times over the coarse of a minute or so is all that's required. We do recommend keeping a spray bottle handy to keep the stones wet while sharpening.

Some Care Required​

Like many products designed for the high-end user, the Naniwa Chocera Pro Stones require more care than your average stone. Unlike some water stones, these are not to be left in water, leaving them in water will affect the bonding. When you are done, just let them air dry. Don’t try to speed up the drying process by exposing them to heat, just let them air dry so they can dry evenly. Store the stones only after they are completely dry. If this extra care is too much for you, we suggest you choose a different type of stone.
 
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