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Practice Blade for Sharpening

JWheel

JWheel

Joined
Jun 18, 2015
Messages
518
Can anyone recommend a cheap practice blade for learning sharpening? Or alternatively, are there cheap steels that are easier to learn on?

Thanks in advance!
 
something like an old hickory paring knife, or a mora. Something that is a carbon steel, but a thick enough blade that you can see what angles do. A lot of the thinner stuff is going to make it hard to see that bevel forming, and really cheap kitchen sets won't let you actually get a good edge. But knives like what I mentioned (and there are some others around) will get really sharp if your skills are up to it. if your are hitting up thrift stores, look for carbon steel blades, they will likely have at least some dark patina, and easy to spot.
 
What I did was I buy a cheaper knife but good quality and use it as my beater so I'm not afraid of making mistakes on it.
I try putting on different bevel profile and what not with it. The money I put into the sharpening system is a different story because once you try it you can't return it. You can also buy a Walmart kitchen bone cleaver that has thicker blade stock to practice
 
Victorinox makes some very good & inexpensive paring knives, in the same steel used for their Swiss Army Knives. They sell a 3-knife set of these for ~$20-$25 or so, with two plain-edged knives (one slightly larger than the other) and a serrated blade. These are perfect for tinkering and 'honing' one's own sharpening skills, as the Victorinox steel very richly rewards all the attributes of proper sharpening, such as maintaining a very light touch and learning how to minimize and remove burrs. If you can fine-tune your technique with these, they'll quickly take screaming-sharp edges. I've had some breakthroughs of my own, in constantly tinkering with the set I picked up, and it's paid off with every other knife I've sharpened since. The bonus is, you'll always find great uses for these knives in the kitchen as well; they're a pleasure to use.

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David
 
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I'd second a kitchen knife or a Mora. I feel it's important to practice on a user so you can see how different angles hold up under use. Taking an edge you spent a lot of time on and abusing it can help you decide what works best for your good knives.
 
Go down to the local Goodwill or comparable and buy a whole armload. I do that every so often - last time the young lady behind the counter handed it across "here's your big bag...of knives".

You'll get a bunch with genuine abuse and lots of patterns and steels to test your technique.
 
great choices from the group. I started on a couple of really cheap frost cutlery pocket knives.
 
For someone new to sharpening, I'm with David/OWE suggestion. Using knives that has mystery steel might provide challenges that are too random, either too soft, getting tough hanging burrs, or other problems. Using the known Victorinox steel, you can ask many people who has experience with it & learn from.

Or get some Sanrenmu or Enlan. Their steel is ok, though not many has experience with them.

For experts like Martin, getting unknown steel is an adventure & challenge to further his already rich repertoire. :thumbup: :D
I have learnt much from him & OWE & many others.
 
Chris "Anagarika";14925405 said:
For someone new to sharpening, I'm with David/OWE suggestion. Using knives that has mystery steel might provide challenges that are too random, either too soft, getting tough hanging burrs, or other problems. Using the known Victorinox steel, you can ask many people who has experience with it & learn from.

Or get some Sanrenmu or Enlan. Their steel is ok, though not many has experience with them.

For experts like Martin, getting unknown steel is an adventure & challenge to further his already rich repertoire. :thumbup: :D
I have learnt much from him & OWE & many others.
Click to expand...

That's a great point I hadn't considered. I'll probably do best to track down steels similar to what are on my knives already. 1095 carbon and S30v.
 
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