sharpining wheel?

H

holdanedge

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Sep 16, 2002
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hi.
today i went to one of the most established cutlery stores in my city. i asked to have some knifes sharpened. the man sharpened them on a very large slow moving belt driven wheel. the result isn't great. but, then my knifes have seen much better days. so i asked him, if someone brings in a really expensive knife do you sharpen it with a rod or on that wheel? he said all knifes are sharpened on that weel! he further stated all the top chefs in the city bring their knifes to be sharpened on that wheel! my question is, i thought sharping wheels damage knifes and are not precise? am i wrong? just figured this, because benchade manuals all say not to sharpen on a wheel. maybe they meant not to sharpen on a high speed grinder? should i continue to have these people sharpen kinves with that wheel?




thank you,
holdanedge
 
I sharpen many customers knives on my wheel. I use a card board wheel 8 inches by 3/4 inchs with some buffing compound on my grinder motor that turns at 3450 rpm. It puts on a super sharp edge that looks like a mirror! I would never usr a "stone" wheel on a grinder as that would heat up and could damage the steel! Card board works great!
 
well, he had two wheels. first he put it on what looked like a slow moving(probably less than 1000 rpm) very large belt driven wheel(maybe 5 feet in circumference by several inches wide). it came up from under the floor. this wheel looked like stone. it was speckled white. then he buffed it with a small very slow moving wheel that was a large piece of felt. this is a very well recognized shop, for chefs knives at least. maybe this is some fancy thing only a few places have? he did also have lots of different rods around and a number of sharpmakers. he said this is the best. still to me it seems like it is too agressive of a grind. it took a lot of metal off my knives. but then again, they were trashed and duller than butter knives. so maybe if i bring him a good knife this works great. i would like some input from you guys before i risk damaging good knives this way.



thank you,
holdanedge.
 
Whatever the store is using it sounds bad. I'd have to see it to really know though. It took me several years of practice to get sharpening down pat. If you are using any power equipment to sharpen you really need to know what you are doing or you will ruin the knife. Every grinder I've seen spins fast because it "polishes" and removes material much cleaner than something spining slow. I only use the grinder(cardboard wheel) on blades that are very dull and chipped up to clean them up fast to save time and to remove the burr on a stone sharpened knife. I never use a stone on my grinder as I feel they remove to much metal as what happened to your knife. The card board I have been using removes metal faster than a regular bench stone or ceramic stone but is still slow enough to controll material removal easy. After you get a good edge on the knife just maintain it with a ceramic stone as they work great and remove very little metal.
 
was when I was 15 years old. I had this little illegal dagger made in Pakistan and I could not for the life of me get it sharp. I took it to some guy in NYC's Chinatown that made keys, sold knives and counterfeited watches. He took the blade and put it to a grinder and when I got it back, the edge was as rough as a wood file, but that wasn't the worse of it... approximately 1/3 of the knife was gone. Furthermore, he wanted 10 bucks for the sharpening. After that, I never used a machine for sharpening... Until... many years later, I assisted managed a supermarket that was going out of business. The boss said that he was going to be a few dollars short in paying management, so we were allowed to take a few things that approximated the shortage... Other guys grabbed for groceries, steaks, deli stuff... I ran straight for the Tru-Hone. I got a 800 dollar system for a $180 debt. I still only rarely use it, as it has its faults, but overall, that's the only motorized system I would use.

If you can't sharpen a knife, learn. If you can't learn, you shouldn't have a knife...LOL
 
alright, i am sure you guys are right. that is probably why my knife looks worse than it did. and it isnt even sharp! i figured right off the bat that a wheel was bad news. that is weird, this guy sells sebenzas and much more expensive knifes than that even. he says all his customers have them sharpened on that wheel. i feal sorry for all those poor guys having their knives destroyed by this guy. i am not being sarcastic. i will never bring an expensive knife there.
anyways, now that i am aquiring some nice knives i need a cermaic rod. what should i look for? can i get one for less than $50? i don't really care for the sharpmaker. looks too complicated to me.
on a side note, i am gonna really sound like an idiot..... i got a $5 medium rectangle stone and oil at kmart. this thing did not take any metal off whatsoever, so i got really agressive with it. then all i acomplished was to completely scratch up a blade. still was not sharp. did i do it wrong or was that stone a pos?


thank you,
holdanedge.
 
Sharpmaker. Cheap, effective, not hard to use. Granted, there are little quirks if you're as picky as I am, but for basic sharpening, the Sharpmaker is going to be recommended by many BF members.

If you don't yet have the patience to learn how to freehand on a hone, you should really get the Sharpmaker. That's what I did. I tried using stones at first, got pretty much nowhere. I'll start again sometime, since a true knifenut should really know how to freehand.

I never watched the Sharpmaker video, so I really wonder why everyone wants the video passaround. I figure that it's not that hard to read a simple instruction manual. Maybe some people are visual learners. :)
 
it takes a steady hand and lots of practice and in a very short while, you will be figuring out the latest Diamond and Ceramic hones to buy... Which leather strops. Then linen Strops...

I myself have all three grades of DMT diamond benchstones in three different sizes...that makes 9...

Then, Three grades of Spyderco 8" Ceramic stones...

Then about two dozen DMT and Spyderco Ceramic pocket stones in assorted sizes, grades and incarnations just sitting in little "here's and there's" all over the house.

and, in the Basement, my beloved Tru-Hone.
 
It's not a ceramic rod, and it's not less than $50, but I'd recommend an Edgepro. I got one of the Apex systems, and I'm amazed at how sharp my knife got, and it was only my third try. I've always sucked at sharpening, but this makes it pretty easy. I've still got some learning to do with it, which just scares me. :) It's worth checking out.

http://business.gorge.net/edgepro/products.html
 
thank you for all the replies! i guess that explaines why i trashed a knife with a stone! not for beginers.




holdanedge.
 
i don't really care for the sharpmaker. looks too complicated to me.
Click to expand...
It only looks complicated. It is really very simple and easy to use. The Sharpmaker 204 comes with a video that shows you how to use it. The Sharpmaker manual looks thick because it covers every possible thing you could sharpen with it and has a lot of pictures. But the part about sharpening knives is only a few sentences long. Anyway, when I got my Sharpmaker I watched the video and followed along and got a knife hair-shaving sharp on my first try.
 
I sometimes use a SLOW moving wheel w/ water on it. My grandfather has it in his basement. It was foot powered, but he broke down and put a motor on it. I would say it turns less than 500 rpm. Its about 12" in diameter. It was my grandmother's father's sharpening stone, so its going on its 4th generation. I have never seen one anywhere except at my grandparents. He appears to have put a washing machine motor on it, then stepped the speed down using v belt pulleys. The pulley on the motor is about 2.5 - 3 inches. The next wheel is about 16" or so, maybe smaller. It hasn't heated a knife I've sharpened, but I use plenty of water. Makes short work of a 10" chef's knife, or a 28" sword or 18" machete. The chef's knife was finished on a Sharpmaker using the white stone corners. The sword and machete are left as is.
 
elwin, this shop has the same type of thing. but the wheel is much bigger. it turns real slow. it has water coming out of a tube running onto it constantly. maybe this is from days past? this store is over 120 years old. i wonder if this method is any good by todays standards. it certainly is NOT a small high speed grinding wheel.



holdanedge.
 
The chef's knife I finished on the white sharpmaker stones was razor sharp. If the edge isnt finished on a fine stone or buffer, it has a course wire edge. It works fine for a machete, but a fine knife requires a little more work. Also, unless you practice, the angle is often steeper than you think while sharpening. The edge also looks convex when I finish. I think that is just my inability to hold the knife in the same position the entire time. I dont rest my hands on anything, so the edge moves around relative to the stone.
 
I was like you and thought the bunny ear deal looked way to complicated and wanted an a good system, Well after everyones raves here and the fact that it comes with a video, I finally ordered one. This was 3 weeks ago. I LOVE IT. Its SO easy to use and the best part is It gets my knives sharper than they came from the factory.(SCARY SHARP) and you can't even tell they have been sharpened. I too, scratched up allot of blades with the stones, SO this perfect edge I get is awesome. My wife must be tired to hearing how amazed I am. I am to the point now where if I use my knife to open a box, I throw it on the Sharpmaker for a few strokes, Manly b/c I am still amazed at how well it works. ORDER ONE TODAY, you will not be disappointed, If you are, I will buy it from you as a back-up. ;)
 
Wheel grinders are at the heart of many of the high end sharpening systems out there such as the Tormek and will not damage a knife if used properly and don't overheat the blade. Of course just because you have proper equipment doesn't mean you can do a decent sharpening job. If your knife isn't as sharp as you would want it then don't have him sharpen any of your knives anymore.

-Cliff
 
well, the knife i had him sharpen was pretty much destroyed to begin with. so i don't think that one counts. anyways, i think i'll get a sharpmaker.




thank you,
holdanedge.
 
And you called up a 5-year-old thread to tell us this? The thread isn't even about which knives are sharpest, it's about how to sharpen knives.

Ceramic knives may be sharp but they are fragile and I don't recommend them for ordinary use or the average user.

This looks suspiciously like advertising.
 
I recently was in down in southern texas for business when I saw a foot powered sharpener. Are these better for knives or larger blades "axes, machetes and such". Just curious.
 
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