Should I hesitate sharpening a knife the first time?

NotSoSharpBob

NotSoSharpBob

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Mar 26, 2009
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I've started doing a little sharpening for others and hope to rebuild my dad's small sharpening business since his passing.

Ran into a customer today that was extremely concerned about the factory edge on his knife. Almost to the point that I turned away his business. He didn't want me to ruin the factory edge even though I have sharpened knives for him before. His claim was if you start wrong on the first sharpening you can never get back to an edge as good as the factory.

I didn't disagree verbally but my experience says most of the knives I buy new can stand a little touch up sharpening.

I politely told him I would give the same attention to detail to this knife as I do all the others and he finally turned it over.

He was happy with the outcome but I'm just wondering. Is this an old knife myth?

Bob
 
Unless it was a convexed edge, I've never met a factory edge that I didn't alter after. As with any sharpening, you're always going to remove metal from the blade. Might not be a lot, but by that definition, you're always going to "alter the factory edge".

Having said that, though, keep in mind that when you send a knife back to the factory they too are going to remove metal to get it sharp again, so the point of "maintaining a factory edge" is kind of moot.

However, having owned a lot of knives from a lot of different manufacturers, I can honestly say that I have yet to meet a factory edge that makes me stop and take a bow. I end up reprofiling and resharpening everything I own because I frankly feel like I can do a better job than the factory did. This isn't to say that the knives weren't sharp when I got them. They most certainly were, but the manner by which they were made sharp isn't always how I would keep them there.

Sometimes I think that sharpening is the last thing that knife maufacturers want to worry about since they know that the end user can do it on their own. Rather, they would focus on grinding, polishing, assembly, etc; stuff that the consumer can't readily do on their own. And it makes sense. I can't mill titanium or G-10. I can't grind steel or heat treat it. I don't have the equipment to tap threads or make indexed pins. I can't laser cut sheet metal, and the list goes on. BUT I CAN put a pretty sharp edge on a blade. So, I think that the knife mfrs get an 80-90% solution on the factory edge and put the rest of their resources into actually making the knife.

Moral of the story: Factory edges are not the end-all-be-all pinnacle of sharpening perfection. Far from it. Learn to sharpen well with good equipment, and you'll be amazed at how quickly you'll turn up your nose at some factory edges.

-nate
 
NotSoSharpBob said:
His claim was if you start wrong on the first sharpening you can never get back to an edge as good as the factory.
Click to expand...

So, do you think this guy was eluding to some sort of "memory" the knife has? Mess up on it once and it is scared for life? Possible, I suppose, but I can not imagine a pro could make a mistake that bad on a blade (if he is any good at all), and it would not be limited to only the first sharpening.

If we are talking about a homogeneous steel blade on a mass produced knife that this guy is carrying and using, I am utterly dumbfounded by this statement/claim. I would enjoy learning from the experiences behind this belief.

There has got to be something there...you ought to find out what this claim is based on from this guy. I am interested.
 
i have been sharpening knives for many years and never heard that before. someone who didnt know what they were talking about probably told him that or that might have been his way of thinking. the best thing to do is have a knife that you sharpened to show a customer. that way they can see what you can do.
 
Thanks for keeping me straight. It sounded odd to me. I have sharpened stuff for him before so he knew the quality of my work but I guess this was his first virgin that he brought me.

Kind of a crotchety old man but next time I see him and I will open up with how that edge is doing and probe him a little deeper for his source of that belief.

Thanks again

Bob
 
The knife had to be sharpened by the factory the first time as well...

Most people, many on this forum excluded, can't sharpen a knife to where it is better than from the factory, so it wouldn't be surprising if many people had personal experience to bear out the idea.

I like using factory edges to see how they perform out of the box, but am not afraid to sharpen them as they dull. Back in the day, though, I used to worry about the factory edge, because it seemed like you could never get it back.
 
Yeah, be careful with it. You sure do not want to agitate a paying customer, but over time perhaps you can figure out where it comes from.

Old myths can be fun to examine. I have a friend that I sharpen for that believes a knife can be sharpened well enough to cut a glass bottle in half without shattering it...I think he "learned" that from kung-fu theater?...technically, I guess I could cut a bottle if we get it hot enough first;)
 
Don't know where your friend was coming from, but I've had several people ask me to sharpen a new knife so that it doesn't LOOK sharpened. I suspect this is in case they want to sell it later, with a "factory" edge. I have to turn them down, since the only way I could replicate most factory edges is with a belt sander, which I don't have.
 
Maybe that's part of it. Is it a common belief that a re-sharpened knife is less valuable than the exact model that has a factory edge?

Assuming both knives would be about the same overall condition
 
Maybe what he's refering to is that by sharpening, you'll need to re-profile it because the blade is getting thicker:
sharpen.png
 
John E Woven said:
Maybe what he's refering to is that by sharpening, you'll need to re-profile it because the blade is getting thicker:
sharpen.png
Click to expand...

That's what I'm thinking, since a lot of people don't realize their blades just get thicker and thicker, and it does kind of make the factory edge seem sharper after a point because the edge gets thicker and harder to sharpen.
 
This myth is actually a common one here in the Philippines. A know a few guys who refuse to even cut paper with their Emersons because they say that the factory edge has something that no amount of sharpening can get back(magic dust?) And what's more galling is the lead guy who says this is a part owner of one of the biggest knife stores here and is more credible to noobies because of that. Of course, it may have something to do with his carrying and bragging that he carries an Emerson for two years after which he sells it as unused to a new convert. :D
 
KennyB said:
That's what I'm thinking, since a lot of people don't realize their blades just get thicker and thicker, and it does kind of make the factory edge seem sharper after a point because the edge gets thicker and harder to sharpen.
Click to expand...

Doesn't that only happen if you increase the angle each time you sharpen?
 
Its another wrongly informed person that for his whole life was never told the truth of a factory edge or of sharpening in general. For some very strange reason people think the factory edge is the best, you'll even see that thought floating around here too.

The common question I hear is "will the sharpening scratch the side of my blade?"

Most of these questions come from bad experience with unskilled and poorly informed sharpeners.
 
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