What Did You Sharpen Today?

I am going to be working in the yard this week, so I pulled out an ESEE-4 that I call "The Shovel" (1095) and a Ka-Bar/Becker BK-16 short drop point (1095 CroVan). I have been sharpening these knives freehand at around 17 degrees per side, which might be a little optimistic for this steel and the hard use these blades get. They have both been getting pretty dull pretty fast! (The Shovel has been used to dig tough roots out of rocky soil, so that is not the fault of the steel or the manufacturer! It had some chips, which I blame on the operator using too acute an angle for the steel and the intended tasks!)

The bevels were looking pretty convex and wobbly due to several cycles of my freehand sharpening, so I decided to sharpen them at a more reasonable 20 degrees per side using a Wicked Edge (WE) guided system. Wicked Edge doesn't seem to be popular on this site, but I have always been very satisfied with the crisp, precise bevels and apexes they produce. I have been using the same stones for years, and they are holding up and producing even scratch patterns. The angle block device seems to be the key to getting everything set up very accurately and even on both sides. The scale on the device is not accurate enough for me.

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I had thinned the surfaces behind the edges with 220 grit sandpaper early on. The paint (or epoxy, or whatever they coat the blades with) does a great job of curbing corrosion, but it was really thick and rough and it interfered with the smooth cutting I wanted so I put a few layers of scotch tape on the spines and laid the blades flat on self-adhesive 220 grit sandpaper on a flat purpleheart block. You can kind of see the results on this crappy photo.

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I started using the WE 600 grit diamond stone, which re-profiled the edges fairly quickly. This steel doesn't resist corrosion or hold an edge very well, but it is easy to sharpen. I got them fully apexed and moved on to 1K and 1.5K stones. I resisted the urge to proceed to finer grits, as these blades need some teeth for the tough tasks ahead. I stropped them with jewelers rouge on leather, followed by plain rough side leather to clean up any residue or burrs left behind by the rouge.

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The Shovel came in at 134 grams on the BESS machine, which is good enough (for me) for a fairly thick blade at 20 degrees per side intended for very hard use.

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The Becker short drop point with somewhat enhanced steel coughed up a 103 gram score. I love this knife, I find it beautiful and sexy, and very useful. It fits my hand.

I think these 1095 knives are a little overpriced, but changing the edge geometry might change that, as it's not their fault I was probably sharpening them at too acute an angle. I need to be more careful about choosing the angle for different blades moving forward.

Both these blades will shave arm and leg hair very smoothly with one pass, although neither will cut cigarette paper as cleanly as a thinner blade sharpened to a finer angle with less tooth. I'm slowly learning not to have unreasonable expectations!
 
I finally decided to try TSPROF's single, center clamp in place of the standard, milled clamps that came with my K03. With the center clamp,I think I can better position the blade in the sharpener and still have the blade firmly clamped. With the two milled clamps, I always felt that at least one needed to be on a flat area on the blade.
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bdaabat said:
My first "real" knife! Broke down and got a Hatsukokoro AS Migaki bunka as a birthday present to me. Beautiful knife! Handles like a dream.

Arrived sharp. Touched it up a bit.

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That is an excellent knife! I recently got my first Blue steel knives, and I am having a ball sharpening them. Nothing is easier (for me) to sharpen than this steel. I am finding a very fine natural stone leaves an outstanding edge on Blue #2 and Super Blue.

Another Hatsukokoro, the longer one in front. Blue Paper #2 clad with stainless, 219 mm., 144 grams(!!!), balances at your index finger tip when using the pinch grip. Wow does this knife take a screaming edge!

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Khromo said:
That is an excellent knife! I recently got my first Blue steel knives, and I am having a ball sharpening them. Nothing is easier (for me) to sharpen than this steel. I am finding a very fine natural stone leaves an outstanding edge on Blue #2 and Super Blue.
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Thanks! I LOVE the way this knife performs. Super sharp, nicely thin, food doesn't want to stick to it, great and very functional shape for general purpose prep work. And, it's incredibly comfortable for me.

Unfortunately, I love the beauty of it so much that I HATE seeing it get any sort of "patina".

After decades of never having to worry about caring for a carbon steel knife, I left this fella sitting in the drying rack for 30 minutes while I finished dinner. When I got back, it had already started to discolor. Bah!

For sharpening, I used a WS KO Mk2: P120->600->felt belt with 3 micron diamond-> leather belt with 1 micron diamond->wool wheel with blue compound.

Am waiting for a delivery of white compound to see if that will help lower the score a bit. ;)

Bruce
 
bdaabat said:
...After decades of never having to worry about caring for a carbon steel knife, I left this fella sitting in the drying rack for 30 minutes while I finished dinner. When I got back, it had already started to discolor. Bah!...
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Thirty minutes is all it takes for some tomatoes or similiar to start the staining process. That's the problem I have with non-stainless steel in a home kitchen. Home cooks don't cook the food then wash the tools then sit down to eat lukewarm food. The cutlery goes overnight sometimes!

Pros are constantly wiping off their blades to prevent cross-contaminating different dishes, and there is time built in at the end of their shift to clean and store the tools. That's why they take that laser-like performance of the White and Blue steels at the expense of corrosion resistance.

They tell us that the patina helps resist corrosion, so it is not all bad. It's like I tell people about any new knife, or gun, or guitar; "If you are going to use it, it will show."
 
Just did sharpened a pizza cutter for the first time.

Had a local pizza place reach out to ask me about the service. They specifically mentioned needing pizza cutters done. I shared that this wasn't something I'd done before, but that I'd practice on my own cutter. Turns out, it's not a big deal!

Bruce
 
Today a local restaurant dropped off their house knives, a mixture of Cutco and Shuns. Also I had some kitchen knives that a woman brought in, no brand that I recognized, kind of middle of the road German-style knives from some big box. Another guy dropped off some loppers and lawn mower blades but it was almost closing time so I'll get to them tomorrow.
 
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Blue Paper #2 steel, sharpened on Naniwa Chosera waterstones to 5K and then stropped with Herold-Solingen paste on smooth leather. This steel is definitely something different. This is a $99 knife, an ugly little ko-bunka obviously aimed at the low end of the market. But the steel is magical to sharpen, it cuts like a dream, and it has an ebony handle that balances right at the blade entry point.

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Another Blue Paper #2 blade, with stainless cladding. Same routine as above. These blades glide through tomatos and brown onion skins, meat, anything I ask of them.

I use a little blue plastic 11 degree angle guide to get started, and then fly freehand. I measured the flat ground blade of the long one, and the law of cosines told me that the whole blade was about 2.6 degrees, so I figured half of that plus the 11 degree guide should get the edge at a little over 12 degrees per side. Once I get started using the guide for the first few passes, I just use the feel of the bevel on the stone and proceed freehand.

I was interested in a convo about using AO or SC for stropping, and these Herold-Solingen strops seemed like a good choice for this steel. The Herold Solingen red and black "crayons" on leather are really easy to use, and they leave a beautiful finish on this sort of steel. The bevels gleam like mirrors, although they are very narrow on these knives and I can't photograph them. The red stropping compound made a big difference in the BESS scores, the black made none. I will scrape and re-charge the black one and try again.
 
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A guy dropped of a box with a dozen folders and fixed blade hunting/outdoors knives and I fixed 'em up this morning. About 1/3 of them had broken tips, etc but they all left the shop in nice shape.
 
I did the new box today. One was an MKC, one an old carbon hunting knife I didn't recognize and the other two were budget kitchen knives.
 
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