Expensive knives and Sharpening

E

E C

Joined
Aug 12, 1999
Messages
94
DO you sharpen your own knives when they are very expensive? Do you have them professionally sharpened? Or do you not use your expensive knives?

For the sake of discussion I guess I would term as expensive is any knife you bought that was more than what you would normally spend.

All my knives are users, no matter what they cost, and I sharpen them myself. I'm not a great sharpener and know I'm lowering the value of my knives every time I take out my Sharpmaker. That's just the way I like to do it. What does everyone else do/think?

[This message has been edited by E C (edited 15 November 1999).]
 
EC,
The most expensive knife that I own is my Axis Lock 710. I plan on sharpening it my self. All of the knives that I own are also using knives. If I buy a knife, I want to use it. I can not afford the art knives. But if I could, I dont think that I would use a knife that cost $1000+.

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Shawn R Sullivan
~San Diego, Ca~
 
E C
I agree with you. I sharpen almost all of my knives. Most of my knives are users. Most of my knives are also handmade custom knives and some cost a lot of money. What do you mean by expensive? If you mean production knives, I think you should use them and not worry about the resale. Learn to sharpen well and be careful. How can you really enjoy a knife unless you can use and sharpen it? A knife is a knife is a knife. Like you, All my knives are users, no matter what they cost, and I sharpen them myself. Paracelsus
 
If you do have someone else sharpen them don't use the guys who go up and down the streets dinging the bell on their trucks. A friend had her kitchen knives "sharpened" by one such moron and he ground away 1/4 of the blade and burned the edge.
 
Hey Guys.. EC...

Yup it's a friggin scary thought sharpening a blade you paid big bucks for...
Especially blades that are black or epoxy coated.. I'm always afraid of scratching the blade,,and usually do.

Since I bought one of these knife sharpening jigs,, the fear level has gone down somewhat and the scratches are less.. I do suggest getting a jig to my friends.

The only person I'd let sharpen my blades other than myself would be a good knife maker..
Like one fellow said, avoid these guys with the carts.. Didn't think they still were doing that...

ttyle Eric...

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Eric E. Noeldechen
On/Scene Tactical
www.mnsi.net/~nbtnoel


 
E.C., I've been using a sharpmaker for years and I've never worried about lowering value or ruining an edge. My collection varies from little Spyderco's to fairly expensive Microtechs, most of them are black coated. I have no scratches on the finish and all my knives can cut free-hanging cigarette papers.

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"Better to reign in Hell, than serve in Heav'n"
John Milton
There are only two types of people; those who understand this, and those who think they do.
 
I've gone door-to-door sharpening knives and had to worry about marring someone's finish. The biggest problem wasn't the really good knives, it was chrome-plated junk with a mirror finish that made me sweat. The slightest scratch was unrecoverable. When you need to handle a thousand different types of knife you won't have a special clamp to handle each one. If you use a combination of power and manual tools to do the sharpening any clamp for one will be wrong for the other.

My solution was to put tape on the blade and be very careful. If the knife was coated with chrome or a black finish I resigned myself to not getting it as sharp as I would otherwise. Your priority now becomes to make a pretty bevel rather than a sharp bevel. On Kabar type knives I would carefully use a file to get a uniform and nicely flat bevel. Then I would finish with a medium-fine india stone rather than going to the extra-fine finish. The less acute edges on coated blades work best if left with a little tooth.

With uncoated blades the margin of the bevel is less obvious and I'd go a bit wider, even on a relatively pretty blade. These I would finish by stropping, which not only gives that final razor edge, it also blurs the margin of your sharpening bevel slightly.

On old beat-up blades I would usually need to thin the blade for up to 1/4" behind the edge. Often I'd do some polishing in the process. This is the only type of blade I used to do professionally without puting tape on the blade.
 
There is a level of security and comfort that you will have using your knife that is not possible unless you do sharpen it yourself. Unless you use powertools, it is fairly difficult to damage the blade functionally by a bad sharpening. While getting the perfect edge by hand does require some skill, it is not that difficult to make a blade cut decently well. The more you do it, the better it will get.

-Cliff
 
One thing for sure, the only thing scarier than sharpening an expensive knife yourself, is handing it over to someone else to sharpen. I do all my sharpening myself, I'd never hand over a good knife to a commercial sharpening place.

Joe
 
I agree that sharpening your own is theraputic (sp?) & so is polishing. (I like brass bolsters, guards and buttcaps... more therapy.)

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Can it core a apple?
 
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