Knife Sharpening, Necessary Life Skill?

bikerector

bikerector

Knifemaker / Craftsman / Service Provider
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Nov 16, 2016
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@plumberroy @leghog tagged in case you would like to continue the conversation here.

Is knife sharpening a necessary life skill... still?

A simple question and I'm using it a bit as a reference for the importance of learning life skills of this nature, in general. The "why" behind why we think this is really what I'm after in order to understand other's ideologies and philosophies.

It was brought up in another thread that knife sharpening should be a life everyone knows. I am of the opinion that it is useful but not essential because too many people don't know how to do it for it to be called essential. They thrive just fine without it.

It's a simple topic but in my mind it comes down to a philosophy of life in general of the importance we put on skills and DIY vs delegation and working other things with that now released time. Further, you can read into how people place importance of their life skills over other's and their openness to see others as different vs right or wrong.

A quick recap of the backstory, if interested
This sparked my interest:
"Hate to be this way but many people are just too lazy to learn to sharpen. They would rather pay big money for super steel knives and send them back to the factory to sharpen. Instead of buying one of the many knives that you can touch up as you go"

My opinion to the above statement:
"There's no problem with this, in my mind. That's like saying you should build your own house and you're lazy because you haven't taken the time to master the skills and apply it, whether you have the time or not. Or build a car... and so on. Life choices, we have the freedom to choose and the decision you chastise is not wrong, just different."

The rest of the conversation is in this thread but I didn't want the leading post to be more complicated than the above questions
https://bladeforums.com/threads/quality-hatchet-companies.1632023/page-2

As an aside, this time of year I routinely reflect on the prior year's happenings, mostly those things within my control but some outside of it also as it generally relates to the environment in which I operate. These are the simple questions I like to ask because it can lead to deeper questions, understanding, and help understand the purpose behind myself and other's actions, emotions, and more importantly to me, how to motivate, inspire, and foster growth in others.
 
It's amazing how many knife nuts I see posting on this forum who have no idea how to go about sharpening a knife and the amount of money they will spend on some super duper set up. A decent stone/stones will do the job if you take just a little time to practice. They are plenty of videos to look at. Yes, you can hold a angle with just a little practice. 15 to 20 deg. per side is just a starting point. Depending on the blade you can go lower or higher. Practice and experiment. Nothing is carved in stone. Just my two cents worth.
 
If you want to carry a knife, you probably should learn how to sharpen it.

If you want to drive a car, you probably should learn how to check the oil, pump gas and change a tire.

There is no definite NEED to have these skills, as there are folk who are paid to perform these services for you.

But if those folk aren't available to you at some point, then not having these skills can get real inconvenient.
 
Whitedog said:
It's amazing how many knife nuts I see posting on this forum who have no idea how to go about sharpening a knife and the amount of money they will spend on some super duper set up. A decent stone/stones will do the job if you take just a little time to practice. They are plenty of videos to look at. Yes, you can hold a angle with just a little practice. 15 to 20 deg. per side is just a starting point. Depending on the blade you can go lower or higher. Practice and experiment. Nothing is carved in stone. Just my two cents worth.
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I can understand the paradox of knife nuts not knowing how to sharpen. What are your thoughts on people who aren't knife nuts?

I'm making a basic assumption here but most of those people probably don't use a knife outside of a kitchen, razor blade (kind of a knife), or a box cutter. The latter 2 are disposable. Many people use scissors instead of knives so I suppose sharpening and maintaining scissors could come into question but simply how cheap those are and the manner in which they works allows for the lack of maintenance, similar to how serrated blades tend to slice poorly but for a really long time (think knife nerds had a post on this).
 
Belt sander or paper wheels. Easy to get killer results. Paper wheel setup is about $60 if you already own a bench grinder.
 
bikerector said:
I can understand the paradox of knife nuts not knowing how to sharpen. What are your thoughts on people who aren't knife nuts?

I'm making a basic assumption here but most of those people probably don't use a knife outside of a kitchen, razor blade (kind of a knife), or a box cutter. The latter 2 are disposable. Many people use scissors instead of knives so I suppose sharpening and maintaining scissors could come into question but simply how cheap those are and the manner in which they works allows for the lack of maintenance, similar to how serrated blades tend to slice poorly but for a really long time (think knife nerds had a post on this).
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For people who aren’t knife nuts?

How essential is it you know how to fletch your own arrows? How essential is it you know how to fold your own parachute?
 
The vast majority of people that bother to sharpen at all use some form of a "knife sharpener" and don't really know how to sharpen knives. They seem to be doing okay.
 
No. It's not a necessary skill.

In today's day and age, the need for an EDC knife just isn't the same as it was a hundred years ago and the notion of sharpening as a "necessary" skill is dated.
Heck, even some of my friends who think they are knife knuts get by just fine with dull and banged up, cheap edc's.

It's the gone the way of wrist watches.

For myself, I love wristwatches. I also love the confidence that I can put a decent edge on my knives. But I'm the minority and a grumpy old guy.
 
The more rural you get, the more you need to rely on your own maintenance.

When I lived in a big city, I’d take my kitchen knives to the store down the street to get professionally sharpened. Now, living in a small remote town, I sharpen my own and sometimes my neighbours, and get a nice hunk of moose for the trouble.
 
Lapedog said:
For people who aren’t knife nuts?

How essential is it you know how to fletch your own arrows? How essential is it you know how to fold your own parachute?
Click to expand...

Well, that was kind of my take on the matter in the thread this conversation started but it got off topic so I brought it to it's own thread.

The philosophy side come from the rebuttals around "it's easy to learn so everyone should know how to do it (it's not rocket science)," "I(plumber) am just from the generation that believes that there are basic things an adult should know how to do," and my thoughts on specialization vs generalization and delegation vs DIY. Neither perspective necessarily right or wrong (though some of the logic in the prior side conversation was) but certainly different approaches to how we view and approach things. I know BF is a very diverse community so I though it would be interesting to pose the simpler question with a more complex purpose behind it.
 
I think it’s fine not to know basic stuff, so long as our technological civilization continues uninterrupted.

We all bet on what contingencies we will encounter. Some people won’t half notice if a meteor hits. Others couldn’t last three days without electricity.
 
Sharpening skills are a must IMO but no matter how hard I tried every knife I touched turned into a butter knife. I'm good with my hands and very meticulous but for what ever reason, lack of skills or :poop:ty wet stones I couldn't get it right so I skipped buying a knife for a month and invested in the KME system. Now every knife I own is SHARP including the butter knives.
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It’s not necessary, at all.

I’m glad that I took the time to learn, anyway. It changed my attitudes and relationships to steels. I favor super steels, but have a healthy respect for even such as 8cr13mov.
 
RBid said:
It’s not necessary, at all.

I’m glad that I took the time to learn, anyway. It changed my attitudes and relationships to steels. I favor super steels, but have a healthy respect for even such as 8cr13mov.
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Learning to sharpen definitely made me appreciate how the edge geometry determines cutting ability more than the steel type.
 
Ive mounted and dismounted truck tires with irons. But the guy at the tire shop who does it all day long never used irons. Lol. You can add any skill to the list. It's your time or money.
 
Knife Sharpening, Necessary Life Skill?

Only if you use knives in your life, like in the kitchen for food prep, around the house and yard when cutting things, for use in your trade or recreational activities-hunting fishing, etc.. or because you have an interest in them like those on the Blade Forums website.
 
I can't go so far as to say that everyone needs to know how to sharoen a knife ... in todays world I think it's much less one of the "have to have" skills ...

but I do believe everyone who carries a knife really should at least learn some basic sharpening skills ... at least to maintain a working edge on a knife ...

and then there is the part of me being raised in a rural area and my wotk through life as well as much of my pleasures and activities much more require the need for at minimum a basic level of sharpening skills ...

and the activities I most enjoy many are much more enjoyable having the skill to sharpen and keep sharp my knives ...

so although I believe most could get by without any skill or knowledge about sharpening ... I'm kind of from the school of thought it is a skill that would benefit most (especially knife nuts) people to learn.
 
Dangerously said:
The more rural you get, the more you need to rely on your own maintenance.

When I lived in a big city, I’d take my kitchen knives to the store down the street to get professionally sharpened. Now, living in a small remote town, I sharpen my own and sometimes my neighbours, and get a nice hunk of moose for the trouble.
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If I might, I would like to categorize this into "it depends on the environment, aka, it's situational."

This is generally my take though I've expressed, in a broader sense, that necessary life skills should be more for everyone which was probably a poor portrayal of the situational line of thinking. My prior discussion more or less stated knife sharpening wasn't a necessary skill because too many people don't need it and thrive just fine but certainly that depends on the environment, as described in your case.

I could circle this back to how the US education systems works and its attempts at standardization, controlled on the national level instead of regionally or locally, but that's too broad a topic for this discussion.
 
I'm an old guy, 74, and until recently I did a piss poor job of sharpening my knives. They'd cut but that was about all. I decided I wanted to start whittling and carving. I still don't sharpen as well as I want to but I'm working at it. In the past I wanted to get it done in a couple of strokes and it never worked, always got too large an angle and finally gave up. I've learned by reading and listening and watching that sharpening is not a quick done deal and sometimes takes more than a couple of strokes across a stone. I'm one of those that bought several sharpeners over time that promise good results because I wasn't willing to do the work. When one carves or whittles these sharpeners don't do a good enough job. Now I spend the time and I think I'm improving, the carving and whittling will show it. I do like to do well whatever it is I am doing, second rate isn't satisfying to me. Yes, I did learn how to pack a parachute correctly, they always worked. Now to sharpen.
 
Dangerously said:
Learning to sharpen definitely made me appreciate how the edge geometry determines cutting ability more than the steel type.
Click to expand...

Truth. This is part of what I enjoy about sharpening and using knives myself, but I'm also a bit obsessive about knives lately. It's also made me appreciate custom knife makers more as even some high dollar production knives really fail at the edge geometry part with excessively thick steel behind the edge.

It's also been enjoyable to learn what is too thin as what right for the kitchen isn't right for clearing trails. And useful, just not necessary. I bet that changes if we look at cultures who carry machetes and such as standard piece of their wardrobe.
 
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