Problems with an edge

[natecham]

Okay guys so I just got a new knife, it's an Anza if anybody has ever heard of him, and I have been trying to keep it razor sharp. For the most part I have been quite successful, however, the other day I used it and chipped the blade a good 1/8" long. I have ran it through my progression of whetstones two or three times and the steel twice, but I cannot seem to get the portion of the blade that was chipped back to its former sharpness. The rest of the blade is super sharp, probably the sharpest knife that I have, it is just where I chipped it that I keep rolling over and over and over.

 

[bgentry]

Without seeing it, it's hard to be sure, but I've found two things to be true.

1. Most people simply won't sharpen a blade enough to get the entire edge sharp. With a chip, this means you have to sharpen way beyond when the rest of the blade is sharp, as you have to grind to the *bottom* of the chip in order to make the entire length of the blade sharp.
2. Chips tend to deepen themselves with a normal sharpening method. You will eventually get to the bottom of the chip, but it seems to take far longer than it should and I think that just sharpening as normal causes the abrasive to dig into the bottom of the chip making it take far longer than it should to completely remove the chip. This is a *THEORY* of mine and I could be wrong.

What I've found that combats #2 above is to cut the entire edge off of the blade by angling the blade at 60 to 75 degrees to the abrasive and grinding until the chips are all gone. It's important to grind both sides equally, so I do a handful of strokes on one side and the the other until I get the results I want. With a belt sander (WSKO in my case) this doesn't take very long and makes it easy to control the shape of the blade. I haven't tried this with bench stones. YMMV.

After cutting the edge off, you'll need to go back to your regular sharpening angle and grind in new flat bevels on both sides as usual.

Good luck to you.

Brian.

 

[buckman110]

If it's a deep chip, I won't grind away the entire edge to the bottom of the chip just to fix it. I'd rather extend the life of it and wait several sharpening sessions to decrease the chip. I always use stones. No machines.

 

[natecham]

Thanks guys I appreciate the help. I think I got it finally after a few more passes on the medium and fine stones.

 

[ncraigtrn]

I run into this restoring straight razors. A lot of times where the steel tears out it can develop a micro crack that peels back as your sharpening. Only fix that I've come up with is to bread knife the edge. Take a fairly course stone and try to saw a chunk off with your knife. I know it makes you cringe but its the only way I know of to remove a chip evenly. Then set your bevel and go through your progression and it should be back to hair popping.