Production Knife Sharpening

HistoricalMan

HistoricalMan

Joined
Jan 29, 2010
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I have a question regarding the factory knife sharpening process at the production level that I hope some of you can answer.

What kind of equipment do production knife companies like Spyderco, Benchmade, Kershaw, etc. use to put the final edge on their knives? Is it autonomous, or do some companies have human hands put the final edge on?

Obviously the sharpening process will differ from company to company, but I'm assuming there are a standard set of procedures and equipment that each company utilizes to put the final edge on their knives.

I know it's a geeky question, but I'm curious because I'm trying to figure out how sometimes there's that one knife out of a hundred that has a less than satisfactory edge. I'm assuming it's simply par for the course at the production level, but perhaps if I know a little more about how the sharpening process is conducted then I can satisfy my curiosity!
 
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Belt sander. The end result ultimately depends on the skill of the person doing it. That's why sometimes you get a knife with different angles from one side of the blade to the other.
 
Most use a belt sander of sorts and a deburr or polish step that could be a number of things like felt or paper wheels. Belts are around the 300 grit range most of the time.

Its all done by hand AFAIK except one knife I've encountered, a kershaw spec bump seems to be ground by a CNC type machine.
 
Hmm, interesting! Thank you for the answers.

I'm assuming all the steps prior to putting the edge on are done by a CNC machine?
 
Depends, for example the spyderco military appears to be hand ground. I have seen in mine and many others differences in blade thicknesses and what appear to be "touch-up" marks that are typical of a hand grinding. I don't know if its a 100% hand ground but looks to be finished by hand.
 
It really depends. More and more production knives are now produced by CNC and robots so they can make a consistent, quality product and keep the cost down. Watching a robot manouver a blade over a grinder is almost hypnotic.

I believe that Case knives are still hand sharpened, but as to the others you mentioned - I suspect it will vary depending on model and where it is made
 
Someone's got to be using this.... :)

[youtube]WVvXjn86v_s[/youtube]

cbw
 
In the Dec. 2010 issue of Knives magazine there is an article on a trip to Spyderco. The author mentions the use of some CNC etc. in the construction of the knives. He mentions that the knives are assembled and inspected by hand. He also refers to the "hand-ground edge". Likely a belt sander.

tipoc
 
cbwx34 said:
Someone's got to be using this.... :)

[youtube]WVvXjn86v_s[/youtube]

cbw
Click to expand...

Sure! ...I've got two of them working in my garage right now! Just don't get in their way or they'll take your head off! :eek:

haha ..kidding. :) Sreiously that thing looks pretty dang cool, but I bet most knife companies are still doing the sharpening by hand.
 
As uneven as most factory edge bevels are (though they are getting better all the time, it seems) I would surely hope that they are hand ground.

If I was a manufacturer using CNC and the bevels are off that much, I would be pissed at the enormous amount of money I wasted investing in the machine.
 
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