Lifetime Of A Blade and Over Sharpening?

Pinnar, you have no dept to me :). I started to explain this way to get perfect convex edges for 10 years ago on knifeforum and Bladeforum - and no one belive it. Here i Scandinavia it is in use dor many years back and fully accepted. It works perfect. I worked long time to solve the peoblem tonsharpen convex edges, then one evening when I was on my way ro go ro bed it hits me,mif a straight guide rod guiden the sharpener to go straight - a bended guide rid must guide the sharpaner ro go in a controled curve across the edge. I dress upp again, go to my workshop, bended a guiderod and laugh. I had work more then a year to solve the problem - ans it was as simple as this :)
All my sharpening tools have this function as standard thins more then 10 years back.

Some people love knifes. They go out in the Forest just dor the plesure to use knifes. I think we must accept that. I lived in the mountains for 20 years, and now i the Forest sins soon 30 years - and knifes help me to survive the day.
Today people lives in citys. The law forbid hem to carry knifes. Knifes becomes special things, not just tools.

I se two develop ways today. The traditional way - and city people way (or Urban way). I have no peoblem with that. Knifes have allways been designed out of the need of them. Traditionalsits use knifes as they allways have been used- city people develop knifes for city people use. They use, slice and cut other materials and what traditionals do.

Both ways follows the tradtion that knifes designs out of the need of them.

A shoemaker has his special knife, a surgent has his scalpel, both works perfect for their needs - if they swop knifes - no one of them can keep on working in their proffesion.

Thomas
 
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Alnamvet68 said:
Aggressive and frequent sharpening, along with improper technique will get you from this...


...to this...


....in very short order.
Click to expand...

Ending up with ruined blade is not inevitable, as alluded to by Alnamvet68, if you sharpen correctly. Note, these two knives in the first shot of this youtube clip, are the same brand and model, one old, one new. He just knows what he's doin' :
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1-ZRVQdnAO4
 
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I'm noticing that almost all the knives in the pictures being posted are either, very old knives, Victorinox SAK's, or traditionals. Do you guys think, that due to the advancements in metallurgy, the lifetime of a blade has been extended from what it used to be 50 years ago? Also, with the advancement of sharpening methods, do you think that we are able to more efficiently sharpen our blades?

I'm also wondering, has anyone ever over-sharpened a modern folder to the extent that it looks like the other knives in the pictures. For example, I've seen videos of 15-20 year old Sebenza's that have been used quite hard, yet their blade shape doesn't appear all that altered.
 
oXObsidianXo said:
I'm noticing that almost all the knives in the pictures being posted are either, very old knives, Victorinox SAK's, or traditionals. Do you guys think, that due to the advancements in metallurgy, the lifetime of a blade has been extended from what it used to be 50 years ago? Also, with the advancement of sharpening methods, do you think that we are able to more efficiently sharpen our blades?

I'm also wondering, has anyone ever over-sharpened a modern folder to the extent that it looks like the other knives in the pictures. For example, I've seen videos of 15-20 year old Sebenza's that have been used quite hard, yet their blade shape doesn't appear all that altered.
Click to expand...

A sak will need sharpened or at least honed 3-4x a week with moderate daily use. My grandma has some older kitchen knives, one of them is an old ss knife that needs sharpened multiple times a week (though she never does it, I offer when I have time) even though the Hampton forge knives I have now are softer compared to most modern steel they have a usable edge for about a week. Knives made out of s30v or any other modern cutlery steel built to have high wear resistance can go weeks between sharpening . So more then likely. Another thing to take into consideration is 90% of the older people I've seen only sharpen their knives with old rougher stones, this removes alot of metal and rough edges don't last very long.
 
ichor said:
Ending up with ruined blade is not inevitable, as alluded to by Alnamvet68, if you sharpen correctly. Note, these two knives in the first shot of this youtube clip, are the same brand and model, one old, one new. He just knows what he's doin' :
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1-ZRVQdnAO4
Click to expand...

A number of years ago a good friend's father helped me out replacing my furnace. The man has been a plumber his entire adult life and expanded to include HVAC in the 80's. He was using a small case knife to strip some wire and I asked how long he'd owned the knife (he was in his early-mid 70s). "Since I was a kid, almost as long as this old octopus (gravity furnace) has been in your basement, this was modified from a coal furnace" - the gaskets on the valve were leather...
As he put it - "If you found the guys that assembled this and told them it worked up until last week they wouldn't believe it - assuming they were still alive".

This was about the time I realized I had, not just a lot to learn about cutting tools, but entire volumes.
 
My grandpa gave me some Old Timer pocket knives that he had used for castrating hogs. I'm guessing that's why he sharpened them so much. The clip-blade on a Dogleg Jack he gave me was more like a hawkbill.

In the meantime, I have had an Izula for about 3 or 4 years now and it's been through several reprofilings and such and I definitely noticed some difference in shape when I bought a brand new one recently.

It's kind of hard to see, but there's a bit of a secondary bevel on the Izula on top, you can see the diagonal/horizontal grind marks. Then behind that you can see the brand new Izula. I've ground so much away from it even the tip is a good .100" further back than before.

2014-12-16_23-49-58_322.jpg

2014-12-16_23-49-00_475.jpg
 
Many years ago a dull knife would be sharpened. Some better than others...
 
It is simple. Shoes wars out, cars wars out, cloth wars out, tothbrushes worns our - and knifes worns out. If you dont walk in your shoes, they dont wars out. If you dont drive your car, it dont warns out, if you dont brush your teath, the bruch stays as new. If you dont use your knife, the bladeshape stays as it is. It works as that.

I also notice that most write about other peoples knifes, not their own knifes...

And yes, todays sharpeners works better then old ones did, the old ones take away more material - if they was not use with care. The steel was softer before, today the steel is to hard - in my opinion. I like the old steel better - but that is me.

I think the problem is more like the earlyer question, was is "a lot" and perhaps also what is "hard use"...

A lot of hard use warns out everything fast. A lot of normal use warns also out everything - but it takes longer time. A lot of soft use warns also out everything, but it takes very long time. If tings is not warn at all - they are never used.

Thomas
 
While it is wise to prolong the life of your blade with careful stropping and sharpening, you have to accept that the blade will eventually wear out. How long it wears out depends on the type of use, sharpening technique and steel of the knife

Also remember that a lot of knives that are worn out were maybe not over-sharpened, but were simply used so much that they wore out, even with careful sharpening

A knife's blade will last forever if it isn't sharpened, but it sure won't cut anything very well and thus will not serve the intended function very well. Don't be scared to break out the stone when a strop can't bring the sharpness back anymore, but don't overdo it with the stone either. Careful balance, but again, it will eventually wear out, accept it and enjoy your knife
 
I don't have any photos of them, but I remember Dad carving the turkey with a carving knife that came from his father (and maybe a generation more behind that). The blade was about an inch wide, but very thin and made of carbon steel, though what type of steel I have no idea. It got sharpened somehow, but what I chiefly remember is Dad "sharpening" it (straightening the working edge, most likely) with a big knife-steel.

And that carving knife blade's edge was quite noticeably narrower in the middle of the blade. You can see this also with the second, thrid, and fifth knives from the top in this image posted by Pondoro2310:

IMG_4056_zps4b2ae243.jpg


I doubt the wear was from cutting or sharpening; more likely the frequent steeling, which would operate more on the middle of the blade than either the tip or handle ends -- or along the edge equally.
 
AreBeeBee said:
I don't have any photos of them, but I remember Dad carving the turkey with a carving knife that came from his father (and maybe a generation more behind that). The blade was about an inch wide, but very thin and made of carbon steel, though what type of steel I have no idea. It got sharpened somehow, but what I chiefly remember is Dad "sharpening" it (straightening the working edge, most likely) with a big knife-steel.

And that carving knife blade's edge was quite noticeably narrower in the middle of the blade. You can see this also with the second, thrid, and fifth knives from the top in this image posted by Pondoro2310:

IMG_4056_zps4b2ae243.jpg


I doubt the wear was from cutting or sharpening; more likely the frequent steeling, which would operate more on the middle of the blade than either the tip or handle ends -- or along the edge equally.
Click to expand...

Man, those look just the knives I grew up with in my home. Mom and dad didn't invest a lot of money in kitchen knives, and had whatever old carbon steel knife was sold for cheap. Every evening, mom would go out back and hone the knife on the stone back steps a few swipes, then dad would use a an old butcher steel to strop it up. After, the knife would slide right through raw beef or veggies, and dice up potatoes like nothing. I don't remember mom and dad every having anything other than old beat up carbon steel blades with worn wood handles. But they were always sharp enough to seriously cut you if you got careless.

I guess they never understood how under knifed they were!:D
 
Seems like they did just fine. They raised you on their old knives and maybe some others. That's the knives my folks had and Grand parents had. I still have them. They kept them sharp enough to cut what was needed for supper. They were easy to sharpen too. My Grand father wouldn't care for these modern stainless steels. DM
 
I can recall while in college I got a Buck 107 knife with 440C blade. With that knife the 1st year I field dressed and processed 3 deer, atleast 2 chickens a week (105), 2-3 dozen catfish, quail, rabbits, squirrels, ducks, skinned a coyote or two and all the other general cutting tasks required each day. And I didn't even think I was giving it hard use. Which is what most here would call that. I still have the knife and it doesn't look worn down. DM
 
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