Obsessive compulsive trait: am I sharpening my knife too often?

[Jason B.]

All right.

Sharpening knives and having nicer knives are a new thing to me, so I think I might be obsessively compulsively sharpening my knife(ves).

So my current setup is a norton India combo oil stone followed by a 1000/6000 grit king Waterstone, followed by stropping on jeans dry. I think I like it when my blades can push cut through paper, which I can get after the 1000 grit stone, but feels smoother after the 6000 grit.

My question is : how do you guys know when it's time to sharpen your knife???

For example, my Mora high Q robust blade... Two weeks ago, I did a little bit of wood carving. This past week, it got about an hours worth of cutting underground roots while I was fixing a lawn sprinkler system. And today, I put another hour of wood carving on it. In between, it's cut a few cardboard boxes here and there. I was able to steel the knife and get it back to fine push cutting of paper prior to foxay, but after today's wood carving - even after steeling - it only crumpled paper. I also noticed that near the end of my wood carving, the finer wood shavings became a little bit jagged and with rough breakouts here and there. I also saw that the bevel of the knife had a few little chips in it.

So I sharpened my blade again - with only the 1000/6000 stone.

Is this what I should expect? Do you guys sharpen your blades after jush 2-3 hours of wood whittling? Should I not worry about needing to push cut paper?

I'm trying not to be "that guy" that sits around sharpening knives all the time because of an obsession.

Or is this just inevitable, where resistance is futile, because Ive now joined blade forums?

I would say you are not maintaining enough and letting your blade dull too much which forces you to sharpen. I use a 1k and 2k-6k waterstones for most sharpening but I often maintain on the last stone used such as my Naniwa 2k. This allows the edge to stay at peak sharpness all the time instead of a gradual decline to butter knife status.

 

[Novaculite]

Literally you spend maybe fifteen minutes painting(time varys depending on what you're painting), and days of prep work.

Germ1, even though you write this from a standpoint of nightmarish memories, it contains wisdom that I often wish could be transferred to generation after generation. Preparation is one of those things. I work with young people who very, very often have the impression that they too should be able to handle a soccer ball like Christiano Ronaldo or smack base hits like Ty Cobb once did. What they don't see is the preparation, the years of training that allow these athletes (or musicians or painters or cabinet makers or experienced knife sharpeners...) to do the amazing things they do. We unfortunately never get to see how many hours a day Michael Jordan spent in solitary training in order to do what he used to do back then, or how many years we needed to calibrate sharpening angles in our wrists.

That said, I also say: sharpen your knives whenever you feel the urge, but steer away from the more abrasive stones unless your edge is really dull, or unless it is your intention to wear down a blade in record time, although even then you will usually need a couple decades. Use a steel or a ceramic rod lightly, or a strop less lightly to touch things up, and enjoy the results of all the preparation work you have done.

Sam

 

[sirupatespecial]

You used your knife to cut roots!!!!!

No you're not OCD. But I am.........

Really, I would never use my pocket knife or skinning knife or even camp knife to cut roots. Just the thought makes me nervous. Time to take a Xanex.....

 

[other memory]

All I have to add is... If you enjoy sharpening, you're a perfectionist, and you love using a sharp knife... Then no, you're not sharpening too often.

Practice makes perfect.

 

[T. Erdelyi]

If you have to ask, you probably are sharpening too much.

Instead of sharpening, try stropping it. Unless you're aiming to push cut toilet paper, it doesn't really have to be sharp enough to push cut toilet paper.

If you keep up a heavy sharpening routine, you won't get the intended lifespan out of your knives.

You should have a dedicated wood carving knife and a dedicated root carving knife. Use your Robust for the root cutting and keep a 'Norton' edge on it. Buy a 2/0 or laminated blade for the wood carving and put your very fine edge on it.

These are the two best answers.