I think I am suffering from sharpening fatigue. Has this happened to anyone else?

S

Squashfan

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Jun 6, 2012
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Since my last threads I have been a busy guy. Since I have discovered that I can free hand I have: done two kitchen knives with the bottom of a coffee mug, reprofiled a briar hook, reprofiled the clip and wharncliffe blades on an Imperial stockman. I also received my Spyderco benchstones and used the medium to finish off a Camillus electrician knife that I also had to reprofile from an earlier free hand endeavor. The Camillus' edge was almost 45 degrees per side! Now the Camillus is the sharpest knife in my inventory, maybe even to the point of push cutting copy paper, maybe. I makes the hair on the back of my hand just fall off. Touched up a Kershaw skyline with the medium ceramic stone and flexcut gold. Then I remembered why I hate Kershaw's Sandvik. The Skyline's edge rolled after two small cuts. My sharpening is bad but not that bad.
This doesn't count my machete use and the touch up required for that.

All of this since about 8/25.

Anyway, I sat down to do the spey blade on the Imperial stockman because it was the last blade to be done on that knife. Somehow, the previous owner had put a divot in the bevel. Got most of the divot out when I realize that I had made one side's bevel a lot wider than the other. I raised the angle and made an other pass. Then I realized that I wasn't enjoying myself and I put the knife down. I could have put a smooth shaving sharp edge on the spey but I just didn't feel like it. I don't even know what to say. As the title says, has this happened to anyone else?
 
I have definitely had sharpening fatigue. I sharpened a Camillus Yellow Jaket (sic) for a guy I barely know. I spent over 3 hrs. on this knife and I will say it was not the best sharpening job I have done this week- I was just glad to be done with it. I have done a bunch of other knives this month. I'm temporarily sick of it.

I think there may be a few factors that enter into it: We learn how to do it, which is rewarding. We sharpen well, which can be fun. Then we have a level of expectation from ourselves and others. Others think it's easy and quick (which is isn't) and we might get tired of the amount of effort it takes to be this good! I guess that's why I don't want to do it professionally!

Does my response resemble your thoughts?

Good sharpening,
Dave
 
I sharpen 8 hours a day :)

Today was a shorter 6 hour day but I probably sharpened 20-30 by hand on waterstones and another 30-40 on the belts. Mainly kitchen knives but had a few folders and fixed blade survival type knives, 3 axes, and 5 straight razors.

For me I see it as being on or off my game. If I am on my game everything will go smoothly and I can sharpen the most destroyed edge back to perfect with hardly breaking a sweat. If I am off my game even simple sharpening become a PITA. Either way I must figure out a way to work through my off days because our turn around is typically 1 hour.
 
Yep, I hear you. There's times I want to use my bench stones or diamonds to freehand a masterpiece, and others when I grab the worksharp and go to town.
 
Yup same here. I've learn that when I'm off, better not doing it, put down stay out of it until it came back.

Jason,

Are you ok to share your trick to make it work when it's off? Didn't realize being a pro has it's downside too.
 
Can't always pitch a perfect game ;)

You just have to keep pushing forward and use your knowledge to overcome the difficult times. Confidence in what you do is important to, when you second guess yourself you only set yourself up to fail.
 
Thanks! I guess you're saying in the bad days, go back and retrace the fundamentals and stick to it until the flow comes back.

Solid advice! :thumbup:
 
Exactly :thumbup:

Sometime you technique can get sloppy and you don't even notice it. Because of how much I sharpen I can usually catch when my technique is getting sloppy by how my bevel grind is looking and make the proper corrections to my hand and body position.
 
knifenut1013 said:
Exactly :thumbup:

Sometime you technique can get sloppy and you don't even notice it. Because of how much I sharpen I can usually catch when my technique is getting sloppy by how my bevel grind is looking and make the proper corrections to my hand and body position.
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Glad to know that I am not the only one.

Jason, I am glad that you have to do 8 hours a day and not me. Don't get me wrong, I like sharpening but not that much. I think I will take a break for a couple of days and try again when I feel like it. In about a week, I will probably be like: "If I don't get to sharpen something within 24 hours, there will be a problem here."
 
Argh. Despite trying my 'best', the EL08 I was working on got duller :(

I just had my bad day I guess ....

Good thing to have an EDC rotation, I can simply carry EL02 and Resilience, until I can make it sharp to my satisfaction!
 
Anything can get old it you over do it. If you reach that point, take a b weak, and walk away from it. Go take a hike, work out at the gym, go down to the corner pub and have a cold one. Just get away from it for a bit. The next day it will be all right. You'll have a bad day now and then. Just remember there's always tomorrow morning.
 
I definitely have my bad days as well. Sometimes my mind (or hands, or aging eyes) just aren't 'there', when it comes to sharpening. I've grown to accept and even embrace it. The older I get, the more I believe it's perfectly normal & healthy to switch gears occasionally, even if it seems forced upon me. The payoff comes later, after the mind has been rested and rejuvenated. Oftentimes, after backing off of sharpening for a few days, it'll all of a sudden just sort of hit me, like a brick, and I'll grab a knife and a hone and just get at it again. And everything's still fine, or even better, most of the time. :)


David
 
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Darn, sharpening is like an addiction. I picked up one of Mom's kitchen knives and it wouldn't cut a potato peeling. So I found myself back at the coffee cup/stone. Hmmm, coffee stone? Anyway, this is looking like it is going to be like dealing with an addiction...
 
Squashfan said:
Darn, sharpening is like an addiction. I picked up one of Mom's kitchen knives and it wouldn't cut a potato peeling. So I found myself back at the coffee cup/stone. Hmmm, coffee stone? Anyway, this is looking like it is going to be like dealing with an addiction...
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Not a single knife in my mother's block set of Chicago Cutlery knives has been sharpened in years, to any significant degree. She seems completely content with them too, in spite of it. Over the 3+ decades she's used them, she's gotten so casual in handling them that I've worried she'll injure herself if I tune them up. I really, REALLY have to restrain myself from doing a little 'midnight honing' on those ones. :(


David
 
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Hey squashfan, I love to fish. I mean love it. Do you know when I hate it? After a looong day of fishing, and not much catching, and I'm tired as hell, and frustrated. My point? It's called burnout. Lay off a week, and you'll be as on it as ever.
 
Not that I'm any sharpening authority around here but I get where you're coming from. I got two barlows in the mail a couple of weeks back that were pretty dull, negative sharp even. I cleaned em both and went to honing one. The main blade was about a 3 hour job. Found of the qc on the old colonials was sub par and had a spay blade that didn't have an edge all the way to the tip. Worked on that for a while then went to the second barlow and couldn't get an edge for anything. That was 2.5-3 weeks ago now. Picked it up again last night and honed it right up.

I think some of it is literal fatigue, arms and hands getting tired. And the goofy part is, it's not the kind of tired where you think, "aww man, I can't lift my hand!" It's more the kind that just prevents you from holding the same angle, or working your set up the way you can and usually do, just off by a little bit.
 
Obsessed with Edges said:
Not a single knife in my mother's block set of Chicago Cutlery knives has been sharpened in years, to any significant degree. She seems completely content with them too, in spite of it. Over the 3+ decades she's used them, she's gotten so casual in handling them that I've worried she'll injure herself if I tune them up. I really, REALLY have to restrain myself from doing a little 'midnight honing' on those ones. :(


David
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Even if I sharpen my Mom's knives, the knives need sharpened again in about a week. Don't know if that is due to my sharpening or her use. She has actually cut herself less with the sharp knives that I have given her than when she used the DULL knives that lived in a kitchen drawer for 20 years.

Funny story: Last night I was helping her by slicing up potatoes. I grabbed a German made knife that was a Christmas gift last year. I had sharpened it until it was literally tree topping sharp. That was last year. So I tested the sharpness and was not surprised to find it dull. I proceeded to slice the fist potato and I got a little zealous. The blade bounced off the tip of my thumb! I thought: "Glad that knife wasn't sharp by MY standards! I could have been hurt!" I looked at my thumb and it looked normal. Looked a little closer and I realized the knife had shaved the outermost layer of skin off where the edge hit. A reminder to be careful with any knife.
 
I definitely have days when my eyes aren't cooperating, and have had a many an experience of feeling burnt out as I started on a job. That's when I just concentrate on doing the step I'm currently at, not thinking about it like an entire process, just this step and the demands of this step. Sometimes you can learn a lot about your technique when you get to this point. When you're feeling good, a lot of fine mechanics you might take for granted. When you're struggling, nothing is taken for granted and it all comes down to maintaining (or improving) technique discipline - its easier to see where you need work. Its when I stop remembering to stop and observe that I'll get into trouble, but that's such an ingrained habit for me now that I never go too long without a good long look at what I'm doing.
 
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