New Sharpening biz taking over the 'hood...

S

stitchawl

Joined
Jul 26, 2008
Messages
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In previous years, an old fellow with a bicycle used to pedal around the neighborhoods with a plastic water tub on the back, and a couple of stones, park in front of the buildings and holler up so the housewives could bring down their kitchen knives to be sharpened. They'd stand around gossiping while the old man did this thing, for about a dollar a knife. (Well, ¥100 per knife...) I hadn't seen him in the past two years, but today there was a new fellow. Younger, and riding a motorcycle with his stones on the back rack. (And charging ¥200 yen per knife...) The women all brought their knives down, but this guy actually wrote their names on them, and gave receipts when he took their knives. He proceeded to sharpen, using one or two water stones, frequently dripping on more water, and checking the edge after every 5-10 strokes. Most knives only needed the one stone service, and I have to admit, the finished knives were sharp enough to satisfy me... despite the dished-out
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water stone he was using. Each knife sliced thin ribbons of thin newsprint with no drag at all!

Stitchawl
 
From 100 yen to 200 yen. Guess inflation and modernization (bicycle to motorcycle) has affected small entrepreneurs everywhere! :grumpy: Probably more of a social thing for the housewives than actually needing their knives sharpened. Good for him!

Omar
:rolleyes:
 
That is very cool, stitch. :thumbup:

Reminds me of this guy, who really seems to enjoy the 'art':
[video=youtube;jM8U3AHvLa4]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jM8U3AHvLa4[/video]
 
Wonder which stones those are in the video... Interesting way to sharpen!
 
OHALLUM said:
Probably more of a social thing for the housewives than actually needing their knives sharpened. Good for him!
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Very social, but those knives were as dull as butter knives when they brought them down. He really did a nice job on them, and quite quickly too!

Magnaminous_G said:
Is there water in that little brown jar?
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Yes. Either that or Sake... I didn't have a chance to taste. :)
He maintained quite a slurry while he worked, adding a few drops of water (but just a few drops...) after every 10 or 20 strokes.

razor-edge-knives said:
Wonder which stones those are in the video... Interesting way to sharpen!
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I asked him, but he just said he bought them at the home center... He had no idea of the brand.

Brisket said:
Holy sideburns that stone is dished!
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Most of the knife sharpeners that I've watched in Japan over the last 25 years have used very dished stones. Even when I go to Sakai for the knife festival, it seems most don't seem to worry too much about that. We here in BF pay much more attention to flattening than any of them. There are a couple of guys who are considered 'National Treasures' by the government, and even their stones weren't all that flat!

Stitchawl
 
Very interesting post :) I'm minded of the itinerant tinkers of my father's day, who used to sharpen knives on the causeway edge, or the Italian fellers with their bicycle-powered grinding wheels :)
 
stitchawl said:
Most of the knife sharpeners that I've watched in Japan over the last 25 years have used very dished stones. Even when I go to Sakai for the knife festival, it seems most don't seem to worry too much about that. We here in BF pay much more attention to flattening than any of them. There are a couple of guys who are considered 'National Treasures' by the government, and even their stones weren't all that flat!

Stitchawl
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I've often wondered but never looked into it further, if working a dished stone might produce flatter bevels. Reason being perhaps the mechanics of our arms / hands are better suited to holding a steady angle through an arc rather than on a perfectly flat surface - takes a lot of the smaller wrist flexion/extension movements out of the picture and relies more on larger arm movement instead. If in the hands of some of these professionals a new stone only dishes so far and then settles down to wear away at a consistent arc, we might have an answer. Would also be interesting to hear their opinion of working with a brand new or flat-lapped stone.
 
HeavyHanded said:
I've often wondered but never looked into it further, if working a dished stone might produce flatter bevels. Reason being perhaps the mechanics of our arms / hands are better suited to holding a steady angle through an arc rather than on a perfectly flat surface - takes a lot of the smaller wrist flexion/extension movements out of the picture and relies more on larger arm movement instead. If in the hands of some of these professionals a new stone only dishes so far and then settles down to wear away at a consistent arc, we might have an answer. Would also be interesting to hear their opinion of working with a brand new or flat-lapped stone.
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That's also what seems more 'natural' to me. With a bench hone oriented with one end close to me, and the other end away, my natural tendency is for my hand/wrist to rotate 'up' on the 'away' stroke, and to rotate down on the 'return' stroke. Seems like a dished stone with an arc that matches would be an ideal fit. In a slightly different way, I've often considered making strop blocks on an arc-shaped base. Not 'dished' per se; still 'flat', but curved laterally, like a 'flat' boomerang or an arced segment taken from a circle, which more closely matches the natural sweeping arc of my stropping stroke.

I tend to believe the (perceived) need for a 'dead flat' bench hone probably came about more for the needs of woodworkers sharpening plane blades and chisels, where flat bevels and crisp, true corners on the blade are critical, rather than for knives and other cutlery with some curvature in the blades.
 
I like the theory of the dish being more effective due to natural arm movement, but who knows. This guy moved very quickly over the stone, about as fast as he could go, never stopping to look at the angle he was holding.

I DO know that when I read here in BF that folks are flattening their stones after every few strokes, or using a micrometer to measure the difference between the middle and the ends of stones and flattening when it reaches 0.5mm, etc. that it seemed pretty unusual to me. Others using a straight edge to see if there is any light coming through at the middle... I've always flattened when my stones 'looked' dished... not as severely as this guys, but with a definite curve to the stone. I guess I've been fortunate living here and seeing what the Big Boys use, and not getting bogged down with minutia. Perhaps that accounts for why it takes me 10-15 minutes with an EdgePro rather than 1-2 hours.

But we all have different motivators. Mine is that the edge cuts as well as I need it to... for most of my 'working' knives. For my 'fun' knives, the motivation is the most beautiful edge I can achieve, taken to a perfectly (as much as possible) beveled mirror edge at 20,000 grit or better, then stropped on horsehide. I have one knife that I'm satisfied to sharpen outside on the curbstone...


Stitchawl
 
stitchawl said:
I like the theory of the dish being more effective due to natural arm movement, but who knows. This guy moved very quickly over the stone, about as fast as he could go, never stopping to look at the angle he was holding.
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Probably mostly locked-wrist single angle, natural convexing at work. As long as the dish curvature at the bottom wider than the blade, otherwise need more lateral movement for blade/stone. My blurry eyes are seeing scratches near spine of wide tip knives in 3rd image - bottomed out, maybe?

I've a few beater $3 8x2 AlOx for hand-file into tough corners. One particular stone is dish/curve for rough convex/round shaping edge/spine. I am guilty of over flatten - kill 'em early, good excuses for buying new variety stones.
 
Thanks for sharing stitchawl. I look for your posts because I find them interesting and educational and this one is a good example of that.
 
stitchawl said:
I like the theory of the dish being more effective due to natural arm movement, but who knows. This guy moved very quickly over the stone, about as fast as he could go, never stopping to look at the angle he was holding.

I DO know that when I read here in BF that folks are flattening their stones after every few strokes, or using a micrometer to measure the difference between the middle and the ends of stones and flattening when it reaches 0.5mm, etc. that it seemed pretty unusual to me. Others using a straight edge to see if there is any light coming through at the middle... I've always flattened when my stones 'looked' dished... not as severely as this guys, but with a definite curve to the stone. I guess I've been fortunate living here and seeing what the Big Boys use, and not getting bogged down with minutia. Perhaps that accounts for why it takes me 10-15 minutes with an EdgePro rather than 1-2 hours.

But we all have different motivators. Mine is that the edge cuts as well as I need it to... for most of my 'working' knives. For my 'fun' knives, the motivation is the most beautiful edge I can achieve, taken to a perfectly (as much as possible) beveled mirror edge at 20,000 grit or better, then stropped on horsehide. I have one knife that I'm satisfied to sharpen outside on the curbstone...


Stitchawl
Click to expand...

I just work the entire stone as I go. My stones aren't flat, but they're not dished either...
 
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