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Teaching sharpening
- Thread starter jpvjr71
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Hurrul
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My wife likes sharp kitchen knives, but doesn't care how it gets done, nor does she watch.
My brother-in-law (my wife's brother) has me sharpen his kitchen knives, but has to mail them to me since I don't live near him. I think he'd watch and learn, and I've tried to help him learn in the past. He bought Spyderco sharp maker and is game to try, but does not have much practice yet.
My brother-in-law (my wife's brother) has me sharpen his kitchen knives, but has to mail them to me since I don't live near him. I think he'd watch and learn, and I've tried to help him learn in the past. He bought Spyderco sharp maker and is game to try, but does not have much practice yet.
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I’ve tried to teach my fiancé to sharpen over the years. But I learn by doing so I’m not good at teaching things like sharpening when I can’t make someone feel what I feel my fingers doing. Took me a long time to learn to sharpen free hand.
I’m able to teach her the concept and the basics of how to do it but it’s the “feel” kinda stuff I can’t teach her. Especially since her brain is more literal than mine. What she struggles either most is what angle to hold the blade at. Takes some time to learn that. As for sharpening her own knives she just asks me to do it and watches. Maybe if I make a few wooden angles it would help her learn the feel.
When I have friends ask me for advice I just recommend or gift them a Spyderco sharp maker as well. All the ones that have gotten one use it a lot and love it. I think that’s the best option for most people
I’m able to teach her the concept and the basics of how to do it but it’s the “feel” kinda stuff I can’t teach her. Especially since her brain is more literal than mine. What she struggles either most is what angle to hold the blade at. Takes some time to learn that. As for sharpening her own knives she just asks me to do it and watches. Maybe if I make a few wooden angles it would help her learn the feel.
When I have friends ask me for advice I just recommend or gift them a Spyderco sharp maker as well. All the ones that have gotten one use it a lot and love it. I think that’s the best option for most people
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I’m a self taught guy as I would suspect most on here are. I learned how to sharpen because I fish. Filet knives were never sharp enough. They are now!
I imagine you could teach someone to sharpen. However, there are so many videos out there… If someone is really interested, I m guessing they would buy some supplies and give it a go. You could teach them the basics, but there’s so much you need to learn by experience.
I imagine you could teach someone to sharpen. However, there are so many videos out there… If someone is really interested, I m guessing they would buy some supplies and give it a go. You could teach them the basics, but there’s so much you need to learn by experience.
When folks know I'm about to do someones knife they come over to watch, they bring cookies, etc.
I learned in HS wood shop.
Tell your wife to listen to the blade on the stone.
And get a stack of paper to show her in reverse on a sharpened blade, that way she'll "feel" the right angle & if she's off a bit, the only impact will be she polishes the blade.
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+1
Years ago, when I was first trying to figure sharpening out, I spent a lot of relaxation time just stropping a knife on a strop block while I sat & watched TV in the evening. At the time, I didn't fully realize the eventual benefit I'd get out of doing that. Just half-mindedly stropping a blade like that trained my fingers for the 'feel' of flush contact on the bevels. My muscle memory picked it up and it became intuitive, without my conscious mind realizing what was occurring. I'd done all of my sharpening on a guided system up to that point. When I got brave enough to attempt freehand sharpening on stones, that intuitive feel developed through repetitive stropping was there to help me out, and I realized I could feel it edge-leading on the stone. That was sort of an epiphany for me and a big jump forward in my learning curve.
It's terrific that your girlfriend is interested in something that you're interested in! That's awesome!
I recently had a customer (someone that I have known casually for a while) ask if it was OK to watch the process that I use when sharpening his knives. I thought it was enough of an unusual request that I chatted with him about it. He shared that he and a buddy get together every so often (as in, every other year) to discuss knife sharpening and their methods for getting their own knives into shape. This is a guy that has purchased whetstones and started practicing. I don't believe he's gotten super far with the practice, which is one of the reasons he reached out to me.
I am a retired professor. I love teaching! It was a treat for me to show him the process and try to get him to understand some of the "why" in addition to showing him the "how".
Bruce
I recently had a customer (someone that I have known casually for a while) ask if it was OK to watch the process that I use when sharpening his knives. I thought it was enough of an unusual request that I chatted with him about it. He shared that he and a buddy get together every so often (as in, every other year) to discuss knife sharpening and their methods for getting their own knives into shape. This is a guy that has purchased whetstones and started practicing. I don't believe he's gotten super far with the practice, which is one of the reasons he reached out to me.
I am a retired professor. I love teaching! It was a treat for me to show him the process and try to get him to understand some of the "why" in addition to showing him the "how".
Bruce
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That's a good idea teaching your gf how to sharpen her knife.
Depends a bit on how often she use them and thus how often they need sharpening. If it's a few knives and they stay sharp for a year or more taking them to a pro might be the easiest method.
Carbon knives (Japanese or not) are pretty easy to sharpen on stones but it takes a little learning. It's not hard though. There are specialized sharpening things - Wicked Edge, Ken Onion, etc. I use stones
Depends a bit on how often she use them and thus how often they need sharpening. If it's a few knives and they stay sharp for a year or more taking them to a pro might be the easiest method.
Carbon knives (Japanese or not) are pretty easy to sharpen on stones but it takes a little learning. It's not hard though. There are specialized sharpening things - Wicked Edge, Ken Onion, etc. I use stones
Funny but by audience I mean the Amish come over to watch.
They know the cliche "zen" & said it's very zen to watch me.
My gf has a PD in mathematics but can't wrap her head around angles.
Funny but she flunked 2nd grade for not knowing fractions, & got her PhD in Algebraic Topology.
They know the cliche "zen" & said it's very zen to watch me.
My gf has a PD in mathematics but can't wrap her head around angles.
Funny but she flunked 2nd grade for not knowing fractions, & got her PhD in Algebraic Topology.
Spats McGee
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My wife watched for the first few times when i did our kitchen knives, and humors me when i request it. Otherwise … not so much. I also enjoyed teaching our nephews to sharpen a knife.
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I happened to be reading through some old sharpening threads last night, and ran across this one a month late.
But I think I should warn you not to try to show your girl friend how to sharpen on the bottom of a coffee mug. Algebraic topologists are notorious for not being able to tell the difference between a coffee mug and a donut (and a Spyderco knife blade with a thumb hole, for that matter) because they're "topologically equivalent". She'd probably end up trying to touch up the edge of her knife on a donut.
(I'm betting that topologists see ALL angles as topologically equivalent, too, which might explain her difficulty wrapping her head around angles.)
- GT
I once made the mistake of asking her what Algebraic Topology was.
Two hours later & what what left of my brain melted.
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Finally got my folks a electric knife sharpener. Separated their knives into "kitchen" to use the device on, and good that I would sharpen by hand when visiting. Worked well enough, and though they got ugly, the kitchen batch were sharp enough.
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Maybe you should ask her sometime about the Mathematics Genealogy Project. https://mathgenealogy.org/index.php
Looking into her "mathematical ancestors" might be kind of interesting. Maybe she can trace herself back to some "big name" mathematicians of the 17th century. And it's not nearly as brain-melting as hearing a 2-hour intro to Algebraic Topology.
- GT
Her Dad is an Electrical Engineer, he 2 sisters are lawyers, her brother does cyber security coding.
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That's an impressive list of careers for her blood relatives!
But The Mathematics Genealogy Project traces "ancestry in academic mathematics" for math PhDs. For a specific person with a doctorate in math, it records who their thesis adviser was, and then you could find the advisor of that adviser, and keep tracing back hundreds of years to see who a person's "math ancestors" are. The project also goes the opposite direction, recording all the doctoral students that a given math PhD has advised, and then all the students of those students, etc to find math descendants of a person.
- GT
I will tell her tonight.