Fred, I question how much overlap there is between people who care what their ------

[Fred.Rowe]

A fellow forumite posted this in shoptalk last week and I think it is a good observation.

Fred, I question how much overlap there is between people who care what their sharpening angle is and people who are willing to use a carbide sharpener.

If you are a good free hand sharpener and there are but few of you, you can slip a dual stone in your pocket and have everything needed to keep your knives sharp in the field. I would think of all the people in the world who carry and use knives not 1% can sharpen freehand accurately all the rest are in need of assistance in keeping there knives sharp.
When we started looking into this quandary 2 years ago, it was the 99% of knife users that we wanted to reach and not the 1% who understand how to accomplish the goal; in other words those who are interested in sharpening angles.
The question posed is a valid one; how many people who care what sharpening angle to use would use a carbide "V" sharpener. The second part of the question should be how do we educate people to the point they will care what the sharpening angle is and how to translate that into a sharpened edge. Most knife users aren't sharpening fanatics; they just want a sharp knife.
That was my thinking when inventing the ERU. My quandary now is, how do you educate knife users so they are informed enough to ask the questions and search out the tools that give them the results they are seeking.
So many field sharpeners today are just fancy plastic gadgetry propped up with glitzy advertising looking to snare the unenlightened. My goal is not monetary its to get those non sharpening fanatics to ask the question; what angle should I use to sharpen this knife; after that it will come to them in a natural progression of thought.
A good start would be for all factory and bench made knives to come with recommended sharpening angles printed on the package they come in.
What are your thoughts on this?

Regards, Fred

 

[skippy75]

I would imagine the people your talking about are basically people who have a knife thats now not sharp and then type in "knife sharpener" on google or ebay and purchase something reasonably priced and that looks and sounds good. If you can get them to buy your product then it should be easy to put together a guide about angles and how to use which angle for which purpose, you could even film a dvd or a youtube video to go along with an easy to understand printed paper guide. Its just getting them to A, know your product exists and B, why they should buy it over a cheap plastic sharpener.

I had actually never heard of your product until a couple of days ago and I've spent quite a long time looking at and researching knife sharpening systems online. I personally think you just need to get yourself out there on sites like ebay. Once you've got them looking at the ERU you can start explaining why yours is better.

 

[Bob6794]

Youtube and getting your knife sharpener on ebay, amazon, etc with a description would be the way to spread the word and why yours is far superior to the competition.

I still have some doubts, not much. It has more to do with the fact it is a carbide sharpener which makes me uneasy as I have a hard time assorciating those with a good product so it's an unfair uphill battle. But if it does what you say and the results you've shown it makes me wonder if I could get said results with the ERU and how well it it would for me. I think one of the harder parts will be getting people to part with their money last I checked the ERU wasn't exactly a cheap product and looked like it was precision made and could survive being hit by a nuke, aka a well made product but cost of entry is a bit higher than most like to pay. Even though I have a far better idea of what it is than the average joe and you sparked my interest, $75 is a bit too much for me to try it out of curiosity. Not denying that it may be worth it if it does what you say it does and have shown.

So your probably going to have to show side by side comparisons of your sharpener to other carbide sharpeners (fixed and adjustable), electric, guided, free hand (by competent and incompetent) person and show the detailed view of the bevel and explain what is going on along with demonstrations. If that is turned into a video is probably be best to have 1 for the sharpening/examples and the other showing the bevel in more detail and more scientific explanation. Seems a lot of people turn to youtube for information now days sadly but I wouldn't neglect showing this all off on here as well. Going to be tough selling it to the crowd that believes a sharp knife is one that can rip a piece of paper and have never experienced a sharp knife. Your probably going to have to dwindle down the the whole arm shaving, hair whittling, newspaper push cutting, etc to convince them their knife is dull and needs your knife.

As for people who are willing to use a carbide sharpener who care about angle that is a VERY small field of people. Your best bet is convincing people that your ERU is the best field sharpener in town and is worth the money.

 

[Fred.Rowe]

Good points in both post. This is my second invention and I'm familiar with how to drive sales; what I'm not so sure about is how do we elevate the overall number of "sharp knives" across the country. To people who hang out here; carrying a dull knife is tantamount to child neglect or worse. How do we engage the rest of the country so they will think of a dull knife as something not to be tolerated.
How much lost time on the job, how many accidents, or how much frustration do we suffer as a result of dull cutlery in this country? From the little I've experienced it is surely massive.
If we all carried sharp knives the world we be a safer more productive place to live. Most people don't know what truly sharp is, relative to what many people on this forum understand as sharp.
As far as my small contribution to sharp; I can sell all of them I can make, they are very labor intensive and as stated not cheap, so making this query is more about how to educate the public and elevate the degree of sharpness at the same time.
Thats why I believe adding edge angles to the packages that knives come in would foster, if not sharper knives, at least it would make people ask, "whats this about and what do I do with this information".
I put on sharpening seminars in the area where I live and I am always amazed at the interest in how to accomplish the goal and what is possible as far as edge sharpness is concerned. I take my large mobile 2x72 along with a 9 inch disc and all the other tools used to sharpen blades and set up in the parking lot. People do want to know but they don't know what questions to ask or really the ultimate goal. If I have time to work with someone for an hour I can change the edge of ever knife they own. Not by sharpening them but by teaching them how to sharpen themselves. Whether I show them how to sharpen using my sharpener or any of the numerous ways an edge can be improved; they eat it up like they are starved. So I know the interest is there; its up to us in the knife making community to enlighten the ones who are carrying a dull knife in their pocket, putting them on the path to wearing a lot of band-aides on their fingers.

Thanks for taking the time to post guys, Fred

 

[skippy75]

Its certainly not an easy thing to accomplish, I'm not sure a lot of people I know even understand that their knives are not sharp.

 

[Fred.Rowe]

Its certainly not an easy thing to accomplish, I'm not sure a lot of people I know even understand that their knives are not sharp.

If you handed them sharp knife, they would think it was a light saber with its ease of cutting.

I watched my younger brother, a knife collector, "sharpen" a small pocket knife blade on a medium stone one day, while I was busy in the shop. He spent 45 minutes, swirling that little blade around that stone; he handed it to me and said " this is what sharp is all about". The edge was at the same level of sharpness as the spine. As you say, its in how we see sharp. When I set up as a knifemaker at shows, I put band-aides in a small pile on the front of the table and when people ask why we can start talking about sharp.

 

[Bob6794]

My brother is the one who started me in getting into knives he got a knife "sharp" by his standards by a cheap $0.50 carbide sharpener and put a piece of paper on the table and cut it by pushing the blade forcibly into it and cutting. I than proceeded to grab my "dull" knife and took a piece of newspaper and held it up in one hand and sliced it in front of him.

A lot of people just don't know what a sharp knife is sadly, looks like your doing a good job at educating people so far. Keep it up.