What Did You Sharpen Today?

I did ten kitchen knives for a restaurant down the street. Most were chef's knifes but there was a paring knife and a santoku. Another guy left a box of kitchen knives including santoku that was almost ruler straight. He requested I grind some belly into it which I did. I had to keep it mild because it has already been previously sharpened up into the grantons. Then the butcher next door dropped off another batch of chef knives, he has them done every six weeks or so (mostly he uses boning and breaking knives). Overall it was a busy day! I have some carving knives I didn't get to, those will be done in the morning. And after I left the shop a guy dropped off a special edition Buck, the way it was described to me it's damascus of some kind. I'll do it first thing in the morning.
 
I'm kicking myself that I didn't remember to get a picture but today I did a cool limited edition Buck with a damascus blade. The grind was a bit wonky so it took a fair amount of grinding work (both electroplated diamond plate as well as some work on my Shapton Pro 320). But once I fixed the grind I polished it up on some resin bonded diamond stones and it came out great. But I did need to hit youtube to figure out how to open the blade!:oops: 😂 🤡
 
No pics but I did a couple of Shuns, some Cutcos and a variety of other budget knives. My shop is closed on Mondays but there's a local restaurant nearby that's closed on Mondays and it's the only day they can be without their knives. So I went in for an hour to sharpen for them.
 
Well, it was yesterday, but, I had my first encounter sharpening gardening implements! Got to sharpen a couple hand pruners!

Bruce
 
Tojiro 210

These are the before pics. Forgot to get after pics. Was able to remove the rust stain, clean up the edges to remove the chips. Left the larger dents since I didn't want to remove much metal. This is getting fun!



 
Post man delivered a new-to-me, pre-owned Stretch2 with V-Toku2/SUS410 blade that I picked up here on the exchange. Thanks Zach & BF! Don’t know much about this blade yet but, grateful to Spyderco for bringing this kind of exotic product to market. Took edge down to 17.5 degrees, 8000 grit, 1 micron. Threw on a LynchNW clip. Pleased with the result…
1755296322474.jpeg
 
Last edited:
Started as "can you sharpen this" to "major repairs needed". The knife was left in a leather sheath and also broken when the handle was engraved. They epoxied the broken tang and nut that holds the whole knife together. So, after about an hour of digging with a hot poker i was able to get it free. Going to a welder tomorrow to get the tang filled so i can reshape it. Bit of an extreme fix for a cheap knife but it holds sentimental value to the owner.

1000022451.jpg1000022454.jpg1000022448.jpg1000022453.jpg1000022459.jpg1000022460.jpg1000022461.jpg
 
I busted out my Wicked Edge this morning. I had a few knives with factory edges that were due, and my everyday AUS-8 santoku was slowing down just a hair.

I started with a few Architect Knives, a 3.5 in Magnacut and a 4.5 in S35VN. Both knives came out of the box with curiously even 25 dps bevels. Nice work, and the factory edges were a cut above most knives like this. I cleaned things up and apexed with a 400 grit WE diamond stone, and finished with a 600 and increasingly lighter pressure. Three strokes per side on a 10 micron diamond-on-balsa strop and these knives are just about perfect cutting tools!

8bV0DUF.jpg


I moved on to a LionSteel M4 in M390 and the santoku in AUS-8. The santoku is well known to me and got a few strokes on the 800 stone, followed by 5-6 strokes per side on 5 micron diamonds-on-balsa. A kitchen demon. Sharpening past 800-1,000 doesn't make it cut food any better, including fish. Polished bevels have no place in my kitchen.

The M4 came out of the factory ground at about 25 dps, and I wanted to get this slim little drop point down to 20. I went from 200/400/600/800 before finishing with the 5 micron diamond strop.

61DbW6n.jpg


A satisfying sharpening session. I find it therapuetic. These knives are freaky sharp now, measuring in the low triple digits on the BESS tester while ripping through tough material aggressively. That 800 stone is a great tool! A magnifier, and angle block, and a few DIY strops are all it took along with the basic WE rig. Wicked Edge systems really work well without a degree in engineering, and I am still using the original stones that came with my first rig, they have delivered great service and held up extremely well.

Xt7PVj1.jpg
 
Last edited:
My shop is closed on Mondays but I had to run over today to do some stuff I didn't have time to finish on Friday. First was three Shuns, all in very good condition but extremely dull. I quickly brought them up to hair popping and set them aside to prepare for "the main event."😢🫣😂I had six hedge trimmers to sharpen for a local landscaper, five of them electric and one gas. I really don't like doing them but my goal is to make money so I suck it up and do them. Each time I get a batch I raise the price by $5/each but I'm still cheap according to the landscapers, I guess no one else in town will do them. First ones I did with a file, really earned my money on those! When they kept coming in I got some 4.5" flap wheels for my angle grinder and those are much faster and actually do a better job.
 
This Deba came in recently. Had some light rust some chips and a rounded tip. Repaired the edge on my belt grinder and started with a SG120 before switching to some softer stones. Final finish from the Kohetsu 2000 grit stone. Edge was finished with the same stone but with a strong microbevel.
1000022620.jpg1000022619.jpg1000022616.jpg
1000022622.jpg
1000022627.jpg1000022631.jpg1000022630.jpg
 
Had this big clever come in too. Looked like someone tried thinning it with a bench grinder 😲

So, I took it to a proper grinder and gave it an almost full hight convex with polished micro. Forgot pictures of the handle before, it was in rough shape with the brass pins protruding above the wood and was so dry it looked like driftwood. Some minor shaping of the handle and pins made it all smooth again then it was on to treating the wood. Picked up a new product called Wicked Wax and after a couple coats it brought some life back to the handle. Overall, much better outcome than I expected.

1000022643.jpg1000022644.jpg1000022646.jpg1000022648.jpg1000022650.jpg1000022649.jpg1000022654.jpg
 
Very nice! 👆 I suspect that chopper could lop off your finger without you even noticing...

New 15 dps bevel for the Spyderco Temperance Cruwear. Tormek diamond wheels (coarse, fine, extra fine), black composite honing wheel (30 micron), leather wheel (1 micron diamond).

The "small knife" jig was useful to clamp the handle instead of the spine. Clamping the blade was not secure because of the distal taper. It's a good jig to have around for pocket knives or tapered blades. 👍



I get similar BESS scores with the Edge Pro. 80g is about my average for a 1000 grit burr-free edge.



It glides through cigarette paper as if it's not there, so satisfying!

 
Ftt2lC6.jpg


These two little Bokers have very thin VG10 blades. I greatly enjoy the feel of natural stones, so a hard Arkansas and a a black Arkansas stone were the only ones used.

These little pocketknives were being sharpened for the first time, and they needed a little reprofiling, but the hard Ark handled it easily. I kept to my stripped-down grit-and-gear schedule: no more than two grits (unless there is major reprofiling or repair to do) and maybe one strop but rarely two. In this case, I laid the same piece of notepad paper that I used to test the edges flat on a stone. Instant strop, good for a couple or three passes and that's more than enough when using edge-leading strokes. The only reason I used the microscope was because the bevel was so narrow on the thin blade that I couldn't see the scratch pattern with the 10X loupe.

I lube with soapy water, and clean the stones up with another small hard Ark and a bristle brush.

They are starting to carve hairs, which should be good enough for opening the mail and cutting a delicious bacon-lettuce-and-tomato sandwich in half! I can read the mail while I eat the sandwich! What a country!
 
Last edited:
Touched up an Ontario sk4 on my late grandpa's wet stone that I found year ago and finally cleaned it up and worked great. He was a big knife guy he always told me to never be caught without your wallet,watch, handkerchief and knife I follow that advise everybody. RIP grandpa Bill.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top