Opinions on Murray Carter?

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Bugout Bill

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Jan 2, 2013
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The man is a very good knife maker, as well as having a great deal of knowledge on sharpening. Some of his opinions on sharpening do seem somewhat out there. What is y'alls opinion of his views on sharpening?
 
Bugout Bill said:
The man is a very good knife maker, as well as having a great deal of knowledge on sharpening. Some of his opinions on sharpening do seem somewhat out there. What is y'alls opinion of his views on sharpening?
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IMHO his method is very sound, as are most of his views on edges and cutting in general. He teaches from waterstones specifically, in my opinion some of his technique do not work on hard vitreous stones, but within the context of waterstones he's a fantastic resource. Have gotten many a splendid edge using his methodology, and apply bits of his philosophy to all my sharpening regardless of what tools I'm using.
 
Murray is good but I would like to see Murray sharpens soft stainless and super high alloy steels ;)
 
Razorsharp-Travis said:
Apart from him thinking that the primary grind of every knife should be sharpened, I think he is very good
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Lol, this is one of his points that I find extremely useful whether waterstones or not. Most (not all) knives are impossibly overbuilt for good cutting performance. Thinning the back bevel makes a noticeable difference. Similar to the performance boost one gets on thicker blades by modifying to a full convex.

The one potentially valid criticism would be his views on shaving razors (which seem not to differ much from his views on EDU edges). That said I've never shaved with a razor he honed...

FWIW, he's stated on more than one occasion that he's not making the "excalibur" of edges, just a very good return on time and $. It IS a darn fast method he preaches as long as the edge isn't completely hosed - beyond the range of a 1k waterstone to repair in a reasonable amount of time.
 
bluntcut said:
Murray is good but I would like to see Murray sharpens soft stainless and super high alloy steels ;)
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In his videos he sharpens a Buck 110 which is 420hc then shaves his beard. For the high alloy stuff he would probably use his glass stones ;)


To the OP,
It was MC's waterstone technique that led me to a better usage of my own waterstones. In his videos he also explains that he does not get technical, he keeps it simple and simple usually works.
 
The foundation of my sharpening is based on what I learned from his DVD.

every bit of information he gives is true and honest experience.


That being said, I supplement all of what I learned from him with everything I can learn from other masters or enthusiastic sharpening gurus.

I highly encourage learning his system and growing more of your own technique from practice and the knowledge from others.
 
2nd all positives mentioned above and would like to add that he also seems to be an excellent knife maker. Considering how simple his technique is (no digital controlled kiln etc.), it is quite amazing what he produces with his white steel and how fast he can do it!
 
Both he and Juranitch advocate thinning the primary grind, and it's something that I've gotten in the habit of doing, and it really works well. Of course, you have to not mind scratches, which I don't. If you do, then you might want to try something else.
 
sodak said:
Both he and Juranitch advocate thinning the primary grind, and it's something that I've gotten in the habit of doing, and it really works well. Of course, you have to not mind scratches, which I don't. If you do, then you might want to try something else.
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:thumbup:
Nothing is nearly as beautiful as an edge that slices like a demon, scratches or not. I'll take sharp over pretty & cosmetically perfect any day. And with some experience, even the 'unnecessary' scratches can be minimized or cleaned up over time. :)


David
 
sodak said:
Both he and Juranitch advocate thinning the primary grind, and it's something that I've gotten in the habit of doing, and it really works well. Of course, you have to not mind scratches, which I don't. If you do, then you might want to try something else.
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Yeah, but I think Juranitch had a habit of over-doing it a little bit... I seem to remember a portion of his book saying the edge width 1/4" an inch above the cutting edge should be no thicker than .020"... Grab a pair of calibers and see how thin that would be for yourself. It makes sense considering that most of his work was in the meat packing/cutting business, but yeah... I think there's a difference between a knife that needs to slice through a side of beef a couple hundred times a day with little effort, and one that's going to be used for utility purposes.
 
Not so sure about that though. I remember a a camp knife by Nick Wheeler 1084/15N20 damascus full flat grind down to 0.01-0.02 before sharpening, then slight convexed and hand sharpened. He was able to cut/chop dried antler with this edge. I don't think we need to cut something more resilient than that with a knife? I believe it is all about heat treatment process anyway.
 
it is totally possible to thin and not have your knife look like crap... i do it all of the time.
 
He does all the time.


Send him one of yours with $20 and see what he can do.


I see people challenge him all the time who never step up. he's constantly being gracious to all the people who have something to say about his technique, especially the straight razor guys. funny how no one who has something to say about him is neither a 17th generation Japanese master bladesmith, but also an ABS master bladesmith.


have you guys seen what your knife has to be able to do to be an ABS master smith? I think the guy knows how to sharpen.
 
the guys knows what he is doing, and is honest about that.

a looong time ago there was a kind of contest on kf/in the kitchen, where some sharpening gurus, pro chefs, and average forumite had to sharpen some identical knives, the edges were judged by a trusty neutral expert (who?). murray's edge were the sharpest or among the sharpest, not the most durable because of some residual wire edge iirc but from what i remember again, he used no more time and care than his usual video, so thats good enough for me ....
 
Razorsharp-Travis said:
Apart from him thinking that the primary grind of every knife should be sharpened, I think he is very good
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lol, same here.
But... if I'm honest, the reason I won't grind the primary is because of aesthetics. I'm sure Murray is correct that a thinner edge thickness gained by grinding the primary will improve cutting performance, but I like my stone-washed finish. :)

Murray's simple method is a major influence to my freehand sharpening. I don't enjoy being obsessive and trying to achieve perfection.
 
I spent a lot more money on sharpening gadgets than I ever needed to. If someone really wants to learn how sharpen their knives once and for all they'll have everything they need -- and nothing they don't -- if they buy a 1000/6000 stone and his intro dvd.

He taught me everything I know about using waterstones -- but I don't exclusively use waterstones for sharpening, and at my skill level (pretty good) -- I think the Sharpmaker is a fantastic tool for creating an amazingly sharp microbevel, and I think the Wicked Edge is a faster way to thin down a knife before final sharpening.

I've also found that...
- stropping on newspaper works much slower for me than stropping on diamond-charged leather
- and his antipathy toward ceramic bench stones is a little too broad for my tastes. there's nothing that works better for lapping the back-bevel of my blue steel deba than an UF Spyderco bench stone.
 
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