What Did You Sharpen Today?

Last night I freehand sharpened 6 steak knives for my mom.
After that I pulled out the KME and re-profiled a Winkler Skinner. Started with the beast 50 grit and made my way through to the 1500 grit stone. Stropped with a kangaroo strop. Pretty pleased with how it turned out.
 
Sharpened my Benchmade Shoki 480 in s30v. Used KME 100 grit ~163Micron to establish my edge, then old formula Venev 60 grit ~225micron and stopped. Both stones rode in Gritomatic KME stone holder. Technique was trailing edge low stroke pressure, diamonds rock for s30v. Never left Benchmade's s30v this course before, and I'm liking it as an experiment. The Shoki mics ~0.013 to .015 behind the edge on 0.09 inch stock.
shoki, 2x154cm next
 
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Wellll, best info grit and micron estimates flipped as you pay attention to micron from grit. So which was it? As a hobbyist I think the Venev is smoother as new, but worn a little, less difference.

Learning about changing stone grit by varying the grit of SIC when leveling, reminds me so much of the time I discovered various body functions are not linear, eg. immune, autonomic, endocrine, etc. Be nice, I was a pup. Yup, we can alter stone effectively by technique and leveling. And this is further dependent on stone materials. Using the KME and Venev allows me to move from a plate to bonded diamond stone.
 
Since I have nothing better to do being on lock down or whatever you want to call it. I have been trying to sharpen my SK5 TM with 0 luck. Seems to be heavily convexed and I have used it a bit over the years so I figured I'd give it ago cause it needs it. So far it isn't happening. I don't have any power driven sharpeners as this is doing it the old fashioned way, flat stones and a diamond 4 sided hone. Anyways there is always tomorrow as long as I don't loose interest! stay safe.
 
Passed my pm2 on the lansky turnbox fine rods today. The edge is still pretty good so it didn't warrant busting out the KME diamond stones. Couple of passes on the fine rods and it was shaving and push cutting paper again.
 
Freehand sharpened a Spyderco Native LW Maxamet: Atoma 600 > Atoma 1200 > DMT Extra Extra Fine > Strop with Diamond from 1mic to 0.1... whittles hair

Stropped Spyderco Manix M390: Diamond 3.0mic to 0.25... whittles hair
 
I finished up on my TM this a.m. Took a good couple of hours of on and off sharpening. I found a 4 sided diamond sharpener I purchased several years ago at Harbor Freight and truth be told after I went with the 200 grit for a good bit and the 400 and then 600 it is hair shaving sharp. Thinned the back bevel a some and then just cut along the edge of it a bit and back to the back bevel alternating edge and bevel. Pretty soon I could feel the bite of the steel into the sharpener when on 200. Then just did light strokes on 400 and then again on 600. Didn't cob up the edge and the bevel looks the same as it did when I started. Anyways cheap thrills for a Fri. under the lockdown for the state. stay safe and keepem sharp
 
Today four cheap valueless knives from my neighbor's kitchen. Done:

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2-3 yrs ago I had sharpened the two Santoku-styled ones on the tiring Ruixin Pro III; i had spent much energy and efforts on that batch (of also ~4 knives). Not again please! So this time i knew i would do freehanding only :thumbsup:. Fortunately all four blades were undamaged, had no nicks/chips. Their bluntness originated mostly from rolled edges; funny, they felt like macro burr o_O . In chronological order from left to right, for the first three knives i got away with raising burr and deburring on 204M only (204-freehanding, +clean up on wood strop); knife #3 is developing a recurve at you-know-where, which made it harder to raise a consistent burr. For the fourth knife i had to start with ADAEE1000 (ruixin-freehanding) to raise a macro burr before finishing with 204M. Total session time 2.5h incl. cleaning the blades with oil (to dissolve/wipe off stropping paste residues) and then with rubbing alcohol (to wipe off residual oil). Now i am calling the neighbor to let him know that i am done. It's a given that i doht charge or expect anything in return when i sharpen one or two knives for a friend or friendly neighbor. I was asking in the first place, so they're doing me a favor by letting me have an enjoyable time with their knives ;).
If more and more people came and asked me, then i would still not charge a dime but simply respond with a 'no thanks bye' :poop: :p
 
Spyderco Manix 2 that I recently stonewashed. Went from butterknife sharp to shaving and cutting receipts through the entire edge, so I'm happy with that.
 
Got to hang some doors today so sharpened some chisels and a plane blade

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Not the most aesthetic looking tools but the important bits are sharp enough for my DIY purposes. Progression: 220, 800, 2000, 6000.

All now whittling free hanging hair...

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I may even get round to taking the rust of the main body of the tools!
 
neighbor inherited homemade botched knife job from grandpa. was in poor original(?) condition. on 3.5days i threw everything at it to fix the botched job, went back and forth many times figuring things out (3 Adaee and Ruixin stones, 3 ruby stones, 8 wetordry sandpapers, 4 polishing compounds on wood and rags) and trying to get where i wanted. was a bit frustrating, for various technical reasons also inherent in the blade make, apart from the micro-pitting dilemma at the later polishing stages.

BEFORE:
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first time that i used sandpaper for a blade face mirror-polishing task; it helped me to progress for a stretch, noice. and also the first time that i am calling it a day. my previous blade face mirror-polishing projects were all fails in the end imo. this polishing project was completed (yay!) and successful, even though the result is not very good tbh (highschool grade "B+"). IT IS EASY TO SHOOT THE RESULT LOOK PERFECT ON CAMERA, so here we go, pseudo full flat grind with 0.5mm bevel width.

AFTER:
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For the unambitious:poop: sharpening i quickly went thru 204-freehanding plus my usual deburring tricks. I wouldn't mind resharpening this knife again in future (and putting more efforts:poop: into it and a sharpening notch :oops:) but i am not going to refinish the blade faces again once they're scratched up. So he'd better keep this unit in "mint" condition as handed over by me :rolleyes: :p
 
quickly freehanded my Berndes (geman trading company) kitchen test chef knife 8Cr13MoV (made in RPC). created burr on 204UF, deburred on 204UF (not easy!) and on geman ruby, "1 pass"-cleanup on wood strop. Can cut tomato skin at vertical/perpendicular angle under knife's weight no problem (it is easier/easy to cut tomato skin at an attacking angle other than 90°, did u know?).
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I had bought this cheap knife for test sharpening puporses 3yrs ago. Immediately after i got it, i gave it a full Ruixin treatment incl PTS method, less:eek: than 15dps. From that first sharpening session alone back then, the edge at the heel area already started to develop a recurve! Of course, a narrow stone with rounded edges like the 204-seriez can still sharpen every millimeter of the edge and i intend to use 204-freehanding for the knife in future (instead of a 8"-benchstone or any guided system) but the ricasso/heel/plunge line of the bolster are annoying, if i wanted to test sharpen every millimeter on a dead flat benchstone. I doht accept 'developing recurves' on my knives, so very soon:mad: i am gonna dremel-cut off the marked ricasso corner, freeing the start of the edge from any boundaries; i did the same mod on my Zwilling chef knife and never looked back. Modding an Unused New Berndes chef knife??:confused: H*ll yeah! :p
Note that adding a sharpening notch (or even a choil:D) on a chef knife is out of the question because the 'growing heel' would become a physical hindrance during cutting tasks. To me, kitchen knives are just tools, so modding them are a no-brainer. In any case, i take receding edge lines into consideration when shopping for a new EDC knife.

EDIT: i did the mod in the afternoon. cut off a 2.5g chunk of metal hehe. highly recommended:
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Finished the cut faces with my exduct diamond rods, some ruby and wood strop:
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There are three grinding strategies to get rid of the recurve (
yellow vs dark vs pink), and usually we doht think about the topic, neither do i. The blue point is the inflection point of the recurve, one needs to grind off material at least thus far:
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Went to 15dps on the Bow River. Took forever on the sharpmaker using coarse diamond rods. Never expected 8cr13mov to take so long but it sure is sharp. Just hoping the edge doesn’t roll at this angle.


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Last night i was at a friend's and sharpened two of his inexpensive 440C Japanese kitchen knives. I had brought some main equipment items (302UF, 204MF, Ruixin Pro III w/ stones set, 1 blank wood staff, oil, polishing compound flakes, masking tape, Sharpie marker). He was interested in learning, so on the fly i talked about some key aspects like sharpness testing, apexing, burr creation, burr detection (with flashlight, with thumb), burr removal, stropping, knife handling. We started with grinding on the Ruixin but time was flying so we agreed that i should just go ahead with my preferred method and finish the two sharpening jobs quickly. Which i did. Done. Fortunately both edges were in good condition (i.e. no chips, no recurves), so i was able to follow through without hiccups and within a reasonable time total (incl. our chatting and my teaching). I chose the 204-freehanding method with 204M (for sharpening and deburring), then stropping on the compound-loaded wood staff. I explained that my quick method was unconventional, not to be found in any textbook or on other people's youtube channels. He was impressed by the sharpness (we sliced receipt paper and grapes lol) and by how fast-cutting the wood strop was, and i was glad/proud that i delivered with 1 stone only plus that wood strop: what an effective sharpening session, with no waste of time/energy/efforts/steps! Clearly, with kitchen knives i woht go higher/finer than 204M ymmv. Could masters:cool: get those kitchen knives even sharper by using more steps, maybe even within the same timing total? No doubt, for masters are masters.

But if you manage to demo your sharpening skills/result on a single stone, the more impressive it is. The simpler, the shorter/faster, the more efficient you perform a job, the more effective and impressive it is. First time spectators aren't really patient anyway!
I could have gone through 10 Ruixin stones plus 3 Ruixin balsa strops, thus spending 45min on a 13-steps-total Ruixin Pro III procedure but that would have been the worst promotion of the craft. :poop: :rolleyes: And actually, when i am to perform/show, i am not patient with myself either!:confused:Rightly so, because i doht want my spectators to become bored or nervous or regretful. As soon as they interject/utter/think an "auweia", it means that they're about to turn their backs and that you should rather stop (with an apology to have tested their patience) and pack your things for now (and continue alone on Sunday), game over, in their mind/eyes you've lost/failed in the demo show, no matter the end sharpness (because that's a given).:oops:

The way i see it: If your pal (or a relative) hands you a kitchen knife in decent condition and asks you to "quickly" resharpen it in favor of him (because that's what they'd expect, namely that it's quick and effortless, thus confirming that they were asking a small favor) and also asks if he could observe you at it, then you imho simply cannot setup your full-fledged guided set of Edge Pro, Lansky, Wicked Edge, TSProf, or Hapstone, because that'd be way too uncool and counter-impressive. No offense but that would be ridiculous and just wrong in the moment. If a big knife could be sharpened within "5min" with a single stone to crazy sharpness in front of an audience, like i did, then that's the only acceptable way to go. You'd ridicule/embarrass yourself, if you took longer than 10min/knife in front of them and had to use a massive guided set and go through several steps; you'd set a poor example of the craft. Well, you are free to do so, when you're alone by yourself on a long boring Sunday afternoon, but you simply cannot do so, when you must perform and deliver in front of impatient newbie eyes and want to show that you were the right man to ask in the first place. They'd instantly feel bad if they saw that the favor cost you apparent efforts (with handling all the parts of your guided system), and they'd be not likely to ask you again in future. If they see that you can sharpen quickly and effortlessly (like freehanding with full command and mastery), they'll be happy to ask you again. That's just my strong/clear opinion and attitude, how i see the situation. So i commend all youtubers who prove that they can sharpen fast, without wasting steps and time; they're masters after all like @NORTHWEST_KNIFE_GUY and others on this forum.

My pal asked me what the 204MF costs, and i told him 100EUR because it's imported goods. He wasn't impressed ("Why pay so much for so little?"). Then i told him that, as he just witnessed, he'd only need 1×204M. And that that would cost only 15EUR. Now he was impressed. :D

And from now on, thx to my exemplary performance/show (sorry for tooting my own horn but i nowhere said that i am a master, yet i still wanted and managed to show that i was the right man to ask, so i am glad/proud of that), when he thinks about resharpening, he will think that, basically, he will need 1 stone only, e.g. 1×204M, to get the job done. And in theory, he's right, it's the minimum requirement. Masters doht need more than 1 stone to get the job done. He was actually willing to spend 500EUR on a Wicked Edge (because he thought that that would guarantee him newbie to get the desired sharpness as a beginner). Now he is seriously impressed that all he'd need, in theory, is 1 stone.
 
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