knife sharpening video (chef's knife with water stones)

Magnaminous_G

Magnaminous_G

Joined
Jul 13, 2011
Messages
2,090
I had to sharpen a knife last night, so I decided to go ahead and video it. The knife is a Messermeister San Moritz Elite 8" Chef's Knife. Comments welcome.


[youtube]mrztd9gSgok[/youtube]
 
Last edited:
I wish my hands are as steady as your Mag!

From the video, I guess you kept the angle around 40* to 50* inclusive. Sort of reasonable for a DIN X50CrMoV15 kitchen knife low alloy (and probably sub 60 hrc). Look like you fully reached an apex hower burr is present from low grit to finish - hence not a clean slice on newsprint/catalog paper. For a kitchen knife, one should expect clean crosscut after 1K and clean cross-pushcut newsprint after 6k (and or strop). As for newspaper strop, you should put the newspaper on a 320-600 grit stone (HeavyHanded repeated this many times), it's much more affective than newspaper on leather or other backing.

Your sharpening movements are good, just need to refine the burr removal technique. Sorry, this is not the first time my (could possibly unwelcome) comment but heck join me eat humble pies - yummy :cool:
 
Make a vid, put yourself out there, and we'll eat humble pie together. ;) But seriously, I think I paid too much attention to the camera and the time and didn't watch my work close enough. Pretty good edge, though.

Any sharpening gurus welcome to comment.
 
Your pressure on the blade is uneven and you can see it by the way the mud moves. You are placing more pressure on the edges of the stone causing the middle to be untouched. It is why the blade catches in the middle of the newsprint.

And your not checking the edge enough :)

The newsprint needs to be taught, having it loose will cause rounding in the edge. Try placing a single piece on the top of the wet 6k stone.
 
Last edited:
knifenut1013 said:
Your pressure on the blade is uneven and you can see it by the way the mud moves. You are placing more pressure on the edges of the stone causing the middle to be untouched. It is why the blade catches in the middle of the newsprint.

And your not checking the edge enough :)

The newsprint needs to be taught, having it loose will cause rounding in the edge. Try placing a single piece on the top of the wet 6k stone.
Click to expand...

Come to think of it, I could feel it wobbling a bit, especially on the return stroke. It was hard keeping the pressure on the whole edge. I need to sharpen more chef's knives to get more practice handling that style of blade. In fact, now that you mention it, I did notice the mud not hitting in the middle when I reviewed the vid before I posted it. And upon further reflection on your comments, I do tend to have issues at the belly, and I've been guessing lately that that is because the contact in that middle portion isn't as solid or as long as the heel. Now your comment confirms that. I'll practice that when I sharpen another chef's knife, hopefully very soon. and... I KNOW I DON'T CHECK MY EDGES ENOUGH!!! Gah! :D :D :D

The newsprint stropping... alas... I had already cleaned and put my stone away and decided to just try it on the strop. And that's after watching the Murray Carter DVDs a dozen times... :grief: But now I surely won't forget it ever again.

Thanks for the concrete advice, as always. Really appreciate you taking the time to watch my vid, knifenut. I'll get a chef's knife and get back to practicing. Send me some chef's knives, I need to practice!!!! Seriously, though, I'm going to put an ad in my office newsletter and start sharpening kitchen knives for free so I can maybe get one or two in each week until I've got it down.
 
Working on a vid now that's actually going to cover that.
 
:D
[video=youtube;XgOXvtJDm5E]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XgOXvtJDm5E&feature=plcp[/video]
 
Magnaminous_G said:
I had to sharpen a knife last night, so I decided to go ahead and video it. The knife is a Messermeister San Moritz Elite 8" Chef's Knife. Comments welcome.
Click to expand...

First off, the overall quality of the vid is very good. Good to see you breaking the blade up by length a bit more. One thing I would say that stands out - when you make larger sweeping movements, your hand/finger pressure should move to stay where the blade is making contact with the stones. One thing you'll notice on a lot of other JWS sharpening vids is the fingers staying in one place more or less and the blade passing along beneath.
One other thing that strikes me is the backhoning technique on the polishing stone. You use an exaggerated sweep to start and I'm wondering what the rationale is for that - if you're feeling out the bevel or making sure the entire edge fits the stone on a single pass etc?

Well done!
 
knifenut1013 said:
:D
[video=youtube;XgOXvtJDm5E]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XgOXvtJDm5E&feature=plcp[/video]
Click to expand...


I'm stoked. Time to practice!!!!!




HeavyHanded said:
One thing I would say that stands out - when you make larger sweeping movements, your hand/finger pressure should move to stay where the blade is making contact with the stones. One thing you'll notice on a lot of other JWS sharpening vids is the fingers staying in one place more or less and the blade passing along beneath.
One other thing that strikes me is the backhoning technique on the polishing stone. You use an exaggerated sweep to start and I'm wondering what the rationale is for that - if you're feeling out the bevel or making sure the entire edge fits the stone on a single pass etc?
Click to expand...

Thanks for your comment, HeavyHanded. :D :D :D your thoughts on keeping the pressure where the blade is making contact echoes what knifenut says in his vid... which tells me that that's what I need to work on. For the edge-trailing strokes, I have a tendency to change the angle too much and put unintentional micro bevels (not the good kind) on my edge when I switch to edge-trailing, so I use the Murray Carter "S" stroke, first finding the bevel, then following it. My motion is a bit exaggerated. :o
 
Magnaminous_G said:
I'm stoked. Time to practice!!!!!

Thanks for your comment, HeavyHanded. :D :D :D your thoughts on keeping the pressure where the blade is making contact echoes what knifenut says in his vid... which tells me that that's what I need to work on. For the edge-trailing strokes, I have a tendency to change the angle too much and put unintentional micro bevels (not the good kind) on my edge when I switch to edge-trailing, so I use the Murray Carter "S" stroke, first finding the bevel, then following it. My motion is a bit exaggerated. :o
Click to expand...

All in all very good, backhoning has to be one of the toughest freehand skills to nail, go slow.

Question the reasons and intent for all the little mechanics that make up what you do - eliminate or correct anything that isn't working solidly. Keep experimenting - its a work in progress and always will be.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top